In the early days of SEO, buying backlinks was so common that it was considered good business – even though it clearly went against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines (now known as Google Search Essentials). 

There were plenty of directories that offered paid reviews and services that sold backlink packages in the early 2000s, and nearly every website used them. 

As time went on, Google began to crack down on paid link schemes by improving its algorithms. 

The result?

Many of the websites that thrived on paid backlinks were penalized and disappeared from the SERPs (search engine results pages). 

As recently as December 2022, Google released its most recent update to fight link spam, and its primary target was paid backlinks. In particular, the update negated the impact that paid backlinks had on website SERP rankings – and it used Google’s powerful SpamBrain AI to detect them. 

The Link Spam Update’s effects were drastic on websites that paid for links, as they saw huge drops in their SERP rankings literally overnight. 

Having said all that, why would anyone still want to pay for backlinks in 2023? Doesn’t the risk outweigh the potential reward?

Yes and no. 

While you definitely don’t want to receive a manual penalty or see your links discredited, plenty of websites still pay for backlinks, and plenty of them still get away with it. 

There are still ways that you can pay for backlinks in a way that appears natural and provides value to the website linking to your content – so read on to learn how. 

Why Do SEOs Still Buy Backlinks?

Since the risks are so steep (nobody wants to see their content get removed from the SERPs), why would SEO experts still choose to buy backlinks in today’s age?

There are a few reasons why, but let’s start with the fact that nearly every link-building tactic goes against Google’s guidelines in one form or another. 

To Google, there’s only one way to acquire backlinks without taking part in a ‘link scheme,’ and that’s when other websites choose to link to your content because they enjoy it and find it valuable for their target audience to consume. 

With excellent content and SEO, you’ll start to generate backlinks based on the merit of your content alone. 

The problem?

You likely won’t generate enough high-authority backlinks that way, as you’ll need a rock-solid backlink profile to compete for top-ranking spots on Google’s SERPs. 

Also, link-building is undeniably time-consuming, as it can take months or years to develop an impressive link profile completely organically. 

That’s why SEO experts take part in link-building strategies where they conduct outreach to other website owners to request guest posts, link placements, and to replace broken links. 

Even these ‘white-hat’ strategies tend to move at a snail’s pace, which is why some SEOs choose to speed up the process by offering money for links. 

Buying links saves lots of time 

Arguably the #1 reason SEO gurus choose to buy backlinks is to speed up the link-building process. 

Both white-hat and black-hat link-building techniques can take eons to yield results, and buying dofollow backlinks from a service speeds things up drastically.

Not only that, but a lot of site owners will ask for money in exchange for a link insertion, even if your outreach email doesn’t offer any. 

Since buying links has been commonplace for so long (and the fact that links are undoubtedly valuable), many site owners are still accustomed to getting money for backlinks. 

That means even if you’re attempting honest ‘white-hat’ outreach, you’ll probably still run into opportunities to buy backlinks. 

If you buy natural-looking link placements from a reputable service, you’re sparing yourself all the time it takes to do the following:

• Uncover viable backlink opportunities in your niche
• Find related websites that accept guest posts
• Conduct outreach where you ask for link placements or guest posts
• Creating original pieces of content that add value to other websites 

Instead of going through all that time and hassle, you can simply buy links and enjoy the boost to your online visibility almost immediately. 

Increase keyword position rankings 

Without high-quality backlinks pointing to your most important pages, it’ll be incredibly difficult to outrank your competitors. 

For example, let’s say that one of your best landing pages is perfectly optimized for your target keyword, but you just can’t seem to crack the top 5 Google results. 

Upon further investigation, you discover that the websites ranked ahead of you all have stronger link profiles. Not only do they have links from more reputable websites, but they have more of them than you do. 

These situations pop up all the time, and traditional link-building techniques will take too long to yield results (unless your client doesn’t mind waiting upwards of a year to reach the top of the SERPs). 

If you buy high-quality backlinks, you’ll be able to close the gap between you and your competitors a whole lot quicker. 

Before you know it, your position rankings will improve for all sorts of keywords and phrases. 

Less effort, yet more conversions

With a strengthened backlink profile, you’ll see a considerable influx of organic visitors, leads, and conversions from your landing pages, product pages, blogs, and other types of content. 

As a result, you’ll see vast improvements to your domain rating, lead generation, and revenue. 

Not only that, but you’ll enjoy all these benefits without having to spend months working on traditional link-building techniques. 

What to Avoid When Buying Backlinks 

All these perks aren’t to say that there are no downsides to buying backlinks. 

After all, one manual penalty from Google can cause massive losses to your business due to not appearing in the SERPs. 

That’s why you need to err on the side of caution when buying backlinks as if you overstep your bounds – the house of links you built can come crashing down in an instant. 

Bearing that in mind, here’s what you should avoid at all costs when looking for backlinks to purchase. 

Unnatural link-building (PBNs)

If you want to get away with buying a backlink, then it has to appear as if you earned it naturally.

Google has no way to distinguish a paid link from an earned one, which can work in your favor. They only tend to penalize websites that take part in unnatural link-building, such as acquiring links from a Private Blog Network (PBN). 

These are networks of blogs that only exist to sell backlinks, as the content of each blog is only skin-deep and provides no real value to readers. 

Whenever a website gets links from a PBN, they tend to get them in bulk – which raises a red flag to Google. 

For instance, if you suddenly receive 10,000 backlinks in one day from questionable sources, don’t be shocked when Google penalizes you. 

It’s a lot easier to fly under the radar if you only acquire a few backlinks a month, which looks a lot more natural. 

Sitewide links 

Sitewide links that appear in your sidebar, footer, or navigation bar are easy for Google to identify as spam. 

So if you’re buying backlinks, double-check that they aren’t sitewide links, as you’ll be better off buying links that appear within your content. 

Backlink ‘packages’ from untrusted sources 

You can head to a freelancer marketplace and buy hundreds of backlinks for discount prices, but should you?

The answer is a definite no. 

Not only will buying links in bulk scream spam to Google, but these are often low-quality, spammy links that won’t boost your online visibility at all. 

If a backlink package seems too good to be true (especially for a super low price), it’s best to avoid it. 

Unnatural anchor text ratios 

In addition to the quality of the website linking to your content, the anchor text you choose (or the site owner chooses) also impacts your SEO profile. 

Particularly, you need to utilize a proper anchor text ratio for your links that uses a combination of the following anchors:

• Branded anchors
• Natural anchors (no keywords) 
• Exact match anchors (the anchor text is your target keyword) 
• Partial match anchors (keywords mixed in with other phrases) 

A mistake many SEOs make is to overdo it with exact match anchors, especially for their ‘money’ keywords. 

However, if every backlink uses exact match anchors, Google will quickly take notice and penalize you. 

That’s why anchor text ratios are necessary, where you mix exact match anchors with natural, branded, and partial match anchors. This will make your link profile appear more natural, which is what you want. 

Buying Backlinks That Appear Natural and Boost Online Visibility 

Okay, now that you know what not to look for, how can you buy backlinks that actually benefit your SEO?

We’ve already gone over how you need to avoid PBNs, backlink packages, and unnatural anchor text ratios, but where can you find high-quality backlinks for sale?

Generally, most SEOs stick to two types of backlinks that they purchase, which are:

• Link insertions (niche edits)
• Guest posts 

These two are your safest bets for buying backlinks without drawing any ire from Google. 

You should also go through a reputable, trusted dofollow link service (more on this in a bit). 

Here’s an overview of the steps involved in buying backlinks the smart way. 

Conduct a link gap analysis 

Before you start buying backlinks, you need to know where you stand in relation to your competitors. 

That’ll let you know how many high-quality links you’ll need to buy to outrank the competition. 

Conducting a link gap analysis involves analyzing the domain ratings and backlink profiles of the websites currently ranked above you on Google’s SERPs. 

You can use our free Backlink Checker and SEO Audit tools to help out with the process. 

Take a look at not only the links they have but also their domain authority score. This will help you determine how many high-authority backlinks you’ll need to buy in order to outrank them. 

Plan your anchor text ratio 

Before you start buying and placing backlinks, you need to determine your anchor text ratio first. 

That way, you can avoid unnatural anchor text ratios that could wind up penalizing you. 

Making your links appear natural is the name of the game, so you shouldn’t repeat the same anchor text over and over. 

Instead, cycle through the types of anchor texts that we mentioned earlier. 

On your homepage, you should opt for branded anchors more than others, but don’t forget to pepper in some exact match, natural, and partial match anchors. 

For your inner pages, you should use partial match anchors the most, followed by branded and natural anchors. 

Exact match anchors tend to draw the most negative attention from Google, so you should use them the least. 

That doesn’t mean that you should completely ignore exact match anchors, as they can work well for your keywords that convert the most. 

Strategically roll out your paid backlinks 

As mentioned previously, the last thing you want to do is unleash a large batch of backlinks at once because that makes it easy for Google to penalize you. 

That’s the reason why you shouldn’t buy large backlink packages or use PBNs. 

Even if you’re buying backlinks from reputable sources, you need to be strategic about when you release them. 

You must assign specific dates for buying backlinks to keep your profile looking natural. 

For this reason, it’s better to buy links frequently than all at once. 

Also, don’t buy links at the same time each month, as that can also raise suspicion. 

The best way to keep a natural-looking backlink profile is to buy backlinks at random dates. 

So instead of visualizing buying backlinks as a bulk purchase, think of them as a slow IV drip. 

The beauty of buying backlinks one at a time is that you can avoid overspending. For instance, you may discover that you overcalculated how many links you need to buy. If you’re buying links one at a time, you will discover this before you overspend, which will save you money. 

Wrapping Up: Buying Backlinks in 2023 

To summarize, buying backlinks goes against Google’s guidelines, but it can be worth it when done right. 

As long as you keep your link profile and anchor text ratios looking natural, you shouldn’t run into too many issues. 

Do you need help building a robust link profile for your website?

Then don’t wait to check out our Link Insertion and Link Outreach Services from The HOTH. The backlinks that we offer follow the cleanest practices, so you’ll be in great hands with us. 

The post Things to Know Before Buying Backlinks appeared first on The HOTH.

How do we know?

Research has found that the number of backlinks a web page has is directly correlated with the amount of organic traffic it’s able to generate. 

There have also been countless other studies and experiments proving the connection between high-quality backlinks and top search engine rankings. 

However, link building is also difficult and time-consuming, especially guest posting. That’s led to the recent surge in the popularity of link insertions. 

What are link insertions?

Also called niche edits & link placements, a link insertion refers to placing one of your backlinks in an existing piece of content on a topically relevant website. 

By conducting outreach to website owners, you can request that they insert one of your links into an existing article. 

Link insertions are so popular because the outreach is quick, you don’t have to create any original content for them (as opposed to guest posts), and you can obtain high-quality links to boost your search engine rankings. 

The challenge comes in how you convince site owners to insert one of your backlinks into an older piece (more on this in a bit). 

As long as you follow white-hat link-building tactics, link insertions won’t land you in any hot water with Google. 

Read on to learn more about link placements, including how to create a link insertion campaign for your website. 

How Do Link Insertions Fit Into Link Building? 

Link-building tactics have been a part of the search engine optimization process ever since the inception of Google, way back in the late 90s. 

Backlinks, which are links pointing to your site from an external site, serve as ‘credibility votes’ toward the quality, authority, and trustworthiness of your content. 

To a search engine like Google, if relevant domains with high authority and top-tier content are linking to your blogs, homepage, and service pages – it’s seen as a sign that your website is of the same caliber. 

Notice that we said relevant domains, as you’ll want to acquire backlinks from related websites that publish similar content to yours. 

If you obtain backlinks in different niches or industries, they won’t add much power (also called link juice) to your link profile. 

The authority of the websites you target for backlinks also matters. 

What’s that?

Domain authority score refers to an SEO metric developed by Moz (not Google) that predicts how likely a website is to rank on the SERPs (search engine results pages). It’s a score ranging from 1 – 100, with scores above 50 considered ‘good.’ 

While domain authority score isn’t an official Google ranking factor, it’s a fairly accurate way to assess the ranking power of a domain – especially if you’re considering targeting them for a backlink. 

How important are backlinks for SEO on Google?

Next to on-page SEO, most experts agree the strength of your backlink profile is the second-most important ranking factor. 

How link insertions gained popularity 

For years, tactics like guest posting, creating infographics, and outdoing competitor content dominated most link-building services as their go-to methods for obtaining backlinks. 

Link insertions were a thing, but they were largely seen as inferior to other methods like guest posting. 

In fact, they went by the not-so-graceful name of link begging. 

However, that’s changed in recent years, when SEOs realized that adding backlinks to existing pieces of content is actually a viable tactic that involves simple outreach and provides impressive results.

As long as the linking domain has topical relevance to your content and has decent authority, backlinks acquired through link insertions can boost your SERP rankings and online visibility. 

Link insertions are now equally as popular (and effective) as other tried-and-true link-building tactics like guest posting or the skyscraper technique. 

What are the Advantages of Using Link Insertions?

Now that you know more about the history of link insertions, why should you bother using them? 

After all, if you’re already writing guest posts and targeting HARO placements, is it really worth adding link insertions into your repertoire?

It’s definitely worth adding link insertions into the mix, especially since they involve simple outreach, no content creation, and you can target a wide variety of websites – among other perks. 

Here’s a look at all the reasons why you should start targeting link insertions for your SEO. 

Quicker indexing 

A significant benefit of using link insertions is that you don’t have to wait for Google to index a brand-new post. 

Depending on the popularity of the website you’re writing for, it can take anywhere from several hours to several weeks for Google to index a new guest post. 

Unless you’re writing a guest post on a behemoth site like Wikipedia (which usually receives same-day indexing for new content), you’ll have to wait quite a while for your new guest post to appear in the SERPs. 

That means you’ll face a long wait between publishing the post and seeing its impact on your SEO profile. 

Link insertions are different because you’re adding a backlink to an existing page within Google’s index. 

The result?

You won’t have to wait for your link profile to receive the sweet link juice from your newly acquired backlink. That means link insertions can provide near-instantaneous boosts to your SERP rankings, which is a big reason why they’re so powerful. 

You can target virtually any website in your niche 

Guest posts are pretty limited in that not every website accepts guest posts. 

That seriously limits your options when looking for websites to target for guest blogging. 

This problem gets exacerbated for smaller niches that already don’t have many websites posting regular blogs. 

Link insertions don’t have this limitation, as you can target any website that has relevant content related to yours. 

For instance, let’s say you’re in the gardening niche, and you find a gardening site that briefly mentions biodynamic gardening in one of their articles – which you happen to have an in-depth guide for on your website. 

This is a perfect situation for targeting a link insertion. 

Since the article only mentioned biodynamic gardening in passing, your ultimate guide provides a meaty resource for further reading. 

That will improve their user experience, and it will update the content and make it fresh again. This is beneficial for the webmaster, as it gives an aging piece of content a chance to generate some more organic traffic (and maybe even a few leads and sales).  

The best part?

You don’t have to worry if the website in question accepts guest posts or not, so you won’t have to waste such a golden opportunity. 

It’s a white-hat practice when done right 

As long as you don’t offer money for link insertions, it’s largely considered a white-hat SEO technique that won’t lead to any penalties. 

That’s because paying for link insertions would be considered a link scheme and could potentially land you in hot water with Google – which will negatively affect your SERP rankings. 

As long as you offer value to the website in the form of updated content or exchanging link insertions/guest posts – you’re in the clear. 

The example listed above, where you add a link to an ultimate guide that enhances the existing content, is one of the best ways to target link insertions without attracting negative attention.

Google recently released a Link Spam Update in late 2022 that cracked down on paid backlinks, so it’s best to avoid offering money for links outright. 

Instead, do what you can to update and add value to older posts on relevant websites. 

How to Target Link Insertions in 3 Easy Steps

Randomly selecting websites for link insertions won’t cut it, so you’ll need to develop a game plan if you want to find success. 

The typical link insertion strategy goes as follows:

• Finding relevant websites with desirable SEO metrics to target 
• Conducting an outreach campaign 
• Placing the links with optimized anchor text 

Let’s take a closer look at each step. 

Step #1: Finding the right websites to target 

Relevant links matter to Google, so you don’t want to link to your website in inappropriate places. 

Even when you find an appropriate website, you can’t just add a link to any page you find. 

Rather, you need to uncover the best opportunities for link insertions within their content. 

Remember the gardening website example that linked an ultimate guide to a relevant article?

Those are the types of opportunities you need to keep an eye out for when browsing websites within your niche. 

Do they mention any products or services you sell? Do you have any in-depth pieces that provide more detail for something they only mention in passing?

Also, you need to target websites that have high authority and quality content. 

Otherwise, you may end up acquiring a backlink from a website with less-than-favorable SEO metrics, which won’t do you any favor on the SERP rankings. 

You can use our free SEO audit tool to quickly uncover crucial SEO metrics for any website, including the following:

• Link profile 
• On-page SEO 
• Performance 
• Usability 
• Social presence 
• Many more

Once you’ve uncovered a handful of high-quality websites to target, you can move on to the next step. 

Step #2: Conduct outreach to website owners 

Now it’s time to work some email magic and reach out to each site admin to request a link insertion. 

Doing things the white-hat way, you’ll need to include how you plan to add value to their existing post here. 

That, or offer value in another way, such as trading link insertions or allowing them to write a guest post on your site. 

Whichever method you choose, remember to keep your outreach emails short, simple, and to the point (there’s no need to beat around the bush).

Remember, if your website has pristine SEO metrics (lightning-fast loading speed, good domain authority, quality content, etc.), it’ll be easier to convince site owners to add your links to their content. 

Bearing that in mind, you can consult our extensive on-page SEO and technical SEO guides to make your website a lean, mean SERP ranking machine. 

Step #3: Optimize the anchor text for the link placement 

Anchor text, or the text you use to mask the naked URL, is another important ranking factor to Google. 

In particular, anchor text needs to be informative, relevant, and keyword-rich. 

No matter what you do, avoid generic anchor text at all costs. 

Phrases like ‘buy now’ and ‘click here’ are considered far too generic. 

That’s because they don’t give the reader a sense of what to expect when clicking the link. Anchor text is the most helpful when it describes the page it links to. 

You should also do your best to include the target keyword for the page in its anchor text, as Google’s crawler bots will pick up on it. 

Concluding Thoughts: What are Link Insertions?

Link insertions are a great link-building tactic you can use today with the right approach. 

Placing links in existing articles speeds up the indexing process, simplifies outreach, and saves you from having to create new content for backlinks. 

Do you need help developing a winning link-building strategy for your website?

Then you need to check out our link insertion services from The HOTH. Our link-building gurus know what it takes to build outstanding link profiles, so don’t wait to get in touch.     

The post What are Link Insertions, and How Do They Affect SEO? appeared first on The HOTH.

If so, you may run into a snag. 

While search engine optimization is a popular topic amongst digital marketers, it’s less understood by C-suite executives and stakeholders. 

SEO tactics are undoubtedly effective, with 61% of B2B marketers reporting that SEO (and the organic traffic it generates) drive more leads than any other marketing channel. 

Then there’s the fact that 70% of digital marketers claim SEO is more effective than PPC (pay-per-click) ads for generating sales. 

While these types of stats are common knowledge for marketers, the chances are high that your executives have never heard of them. Not only that, but they may need to learn what SEO work looks like. 

As such, you’ll need to do a lot of educating and convincing to obtain SEO buy-in from your leaders. 

That means sharing SEO success stories, case studies, statistics, and SEO-related KPIs to get your executives on board. 

Not only that, but you’ll want to lay out a detailed timeline for your SEO strategy, including when your stakeholders can expect to see an ROI. 

Since you’ve got such a daunting task on your hands, we’ve put together this guide to getting SEO buy-in from your C-suite executives. Read on to learn how to compile a rock-solid case for implementing SEO at your company. 

Top Challenges Surrounding SEO Buy-In 

Many C-level executives don’t understand SEO, which leads many digital marketers to have to fight for every cent they get to allocate toward it. 

Most executives are concerned with what will affect their bottom line above all else. As a result, they tend to favor paid search ads, as they’re the fastest way to climb to the top of the search engine rankings. 

While that is certainly true, PPC ads are more of a short-term game. After all, you lose all your rankings and momentum when you stop paying for them. 

SEO efforts boast long-term benefits, as you’ll retain any rankings you acquire without having to pay for them. As a result, SEO has a compounding effect, where your past efforts continue to generate traffic, leads, and conversions. 

The problem?

SEO takes a notoriously long time to start showing returns. 

In fact, it can take up to 4 – 12 months to start showing a profit from your efforts, which presents a serious challenge for obtaining buy-in. 

Most executives won’t want to hear that it will take that long before you see an ROI, so you’ll need to focus on obtaining quick wins and the exponential benefits of being patient. 

Also, a lack of education surrounding SEO is part of the problem for some executives, so you’ll want to do what you can to change that during your pitch. 

What’s Most Important to Your Leaders?

To gain SEO buy-in, it’s a good idea to hone in on what matters most to each executive in the C-suite. 

In other words, what makes your leaders tick? What type of metrics or SEO initiatives would get them the most excited?

To give you an idea of what we’re talking about, here’s a quick summary of what most C-level executives find appealing in marketing pitches. 

CEOs 

Most CEOs are results-driven, so you’ll want to hammer home the benefits they’ll see as a result of your SEO campaign. Above all else, they’ll want to know why they should invest in SEO and how long it will take to see an ROI. 

It’s best to be completely honest here, but don’t forget to mention quick wins. 

While most of your SEO tactics will take at least six months to gain traction, SEO quick wins can provide traffic boosts within as little as a week. 

What are quick wins?

There are a few types of quick wins, but the term most commonly refers to ‘striking distance’ keywords. These are keywords that you’re already ranking for, just not on page one or in the top 10. 

Well, with some much-needed optimization (technical SEO tweaks, proper keyword usage, backlinks, etc.), you can move up to a top spot in a few weeks instead of months, enjoying a boost in traffic as a result. 

CEOs will also want to know the main KPIs you’ll use during the SEO campaign, so don’t forget to include them (more on KPIs in a bit). 

Let your CEO know how SEO will positively impact your conversion rate, website traffic, reputation, and brand awareness. At the same time, point out how the company will miss out on all these perks if you either ignore SEO or don’t allocate enough money toward it. 

CFOs

Your CFO will primarily be concerned with the marketing costs associated with an SEO campaign. As a result, winning them over will take a well-thought-out budget. 

At the same time, be upfront with how much it will take to achieve your goals, including how long it will take to start seeing an ROI. 

It’s best not to sugarcoat things here, as the last thing you want is to run out of funding in the middle of a content marketing campaign. As such, let your CFO know how much it will take to maximize your SEO success. 

While they may cringe at how much it will take to see results, remind them of the compounding effect of SEO content. 

Once you start to rise through the rankings, it’ll become far easier to maintain a top spot once you acquire it. That means you can let your foot off the gas after around 12 months, and your spending will drastically decrease as well. 

It’s also wise to bring up SEO quick wins with CFOs to let them know that it’s possible to recoup some marketing costs before you start gaining serious traction. 

Your CFO will appreciate it if you come prepared, so it’s a good idea to compare prices from SEO agencies beforehand. That way, you’ll already know which agency will provide you with the best deal. 

Or, if you plan on handling your SEO in-house, you can include a comparison table illustrating how much money you’ll save by doing so. 

CMOs 

CMOs are all about operational tactics, so they’ll want to know everything about your SEO strategy. In particular, they’ll want to know who will be involved and what processes will go into it. 

Not only that, but they’ll want to know how many qualified leads you can generate through SEO. Don’t be shy about the fact that lead generation is one of SEOs strongest selling points. 

You can mention this study from 2020, which discovered that leads generated through organic SEO efforts show greater loyalty and engagement than those generated through paid ads. 

CMOs will likely want to know what your competitors are up to as well. 

Take a peek at your top competitors’ websites, and see how well they rank on Google search for keywords related to your niche. 

Why is this important?

It is because if there’s anything C-level suite executives love, it’s outdoing the competition. As a result, competitors performing well and generating leads from SEO will serve as a fantastic motivator to gain SEO buy-in from your leaders – as they’ll be eager to compete. 

CMOs and brand exposure 

Last but not least, your CMO will want to know how SEO will impact brand exposure. 

You should be rubbing your hands together in anticipation of this one, as SEO is fantastic for widening your reach and influence. 

Through content marketing combined with clever keyword research, you can establish your brand as a thought leader in your field, which will build customer loyalty like crazy. 

A common tactic is to research some problems and pain points plaguing your target audience and then create content that teaches how to solve them. 

For example, if you provide home renovations for your customers, you can create a blog or video content centered around topics like:

• How to spot mold and mildew in your home 
• The best ways to maximize space in your living room 
• How to find the best general contractors in your area
• Undermount vs. drop-in sinks

These are all content topics that your audience will find helpful, and they’ll appreciate that you educated them. 

As such, the next time they have a question about home renovations, your website will be the first one they visit. CMOs will eat that kind of stuff up, so don’t forget to mention it. 

Tips for Getting SEO Buy-in From the Entire Company 

Now that you know more about what your C-suite wants to hear about implementing SEO services, it’s time to learn some candid tips for getting everyone at your company on board with your SEO projects. 

After all, you’ll find more success if everyone on your team is aligned and has faith in your SEO strategy. 

Otherwise, you may run into resistance from key players beyond the C-suite, such as your in-house writers, graphic designers, and digital marketers. If you’re handling SEO yourself, these employees will form your SEO team, so it’s imperative that they’re bought in as well. 

Tip #1: Educate the company on the importance of SEO 

A significant problem facing SEO buy-in is the lack of knowledge surrounding it outside of digital marketing circles. 

In fact, many executives and associates won’t even know what the acronym SEO stands for, so it’s up to you to do some educating. 

There’s also the common misconception that SEO and organic traffic are entirely free, which couldn’t be further from the truth. While you don’t have to pay whenever someone clicks on one of your links, SEO takes time, money, and effort, no matter how you slice it. 

Rising to the top of Google and other search engines takes:

• A consistent content release schedule 
• Link-building tactics such as acquiring backlinks 
• Regular SEO audits 
• Technical SEO tweaks 
• In-depth keyword research 
• Lots of monitoring and analyzing data 

As you can see, an SEO strategy involves lots of work that takes a team of people working around the clock to achieve. 

It’s crucial that your company is aware of this fact to acquire enough of a budget for your SEO campaign. 

Your goal should be that everyone at your company knows the answer to the following questions:

What is SEO? How can it help our business? What role do I play in our SEO strategy?

If your team can answer these three questions with ease, you’re doing it right. 

Tips for educating your team 

Here are some quick tips for educating your staff on the basics of SEO and why it matters:

• Be vocal at meetings. Don’t be afraid to speak up about SEO during marketing meetings, as they’re one of the only times that the entire team is together in the same room. Educate everyone on the importance of SEO and what it takes to see results. 
• SEO training sessions. This is an imperative step for your SEO team. Bring all your writers, designers, and editors together for dedicated training sessions where they learn SEO best practices. 
• Lunch and learn. You can also educate your staff while they eat with lunch and learn meetings. You can introduce concepts like link-building and keyword research while also sharing SEO quick wins and other updates. 
• SEO onboarding. It’s also a good idea to include SEO education as part of the onboarding process for new employees, especially those directly impacting your SEO campaign. 

These are all reliable ways to educate your team on not only the importance of SEO but also the techniques involved with it. Before you know it, your team will consist of tried and true SEO experts, which is what you want. 

Tip #2: Share a clear action plan 

Once everyone is educated on SEO and why it’s worth the investment, you’ll need to lay out a clear action plan to put your strategy into place. 

How do you do that?

The best way to do so is to lay out a 12-month action plan for your campaign. Your action plan should include a budget, all the required personnel, and a detailed content calendar. 

To find success with SEO, you’ll need to release content for your target audience steadily. 

Posting blogs one to four times a week will help you gain traction online, and it’s all about consistency. 

Blogs shouldn’t comprise the entirety of your content strategy, though. While they should be the cornerstone of your content releases, you should also pepper in the following:

• Videos 
• Podcasts 
• Infographics 
• eBooks 

Video content is a must in today’s age, and you don’t have to go broke to produce it. Instead, it’s possible to create high-quality, viral videos only using a smartphone and basic editing software. 

Why bother with video content?

You should because the average internet user devotes 33% of their time online watching videos, and 54% of consumers state they want to see more video content from the brands they support. 

It’s also easier for consumers to sit and watch a brief video instead of reading a lengthy blog post. That’s especially true if the goal of your content is to teach users how to do something. 

With a detailed roadmap for how you plan on achieving your goals, it’ll become far easier to gain SEO buy-in from your leaders and employees. 

Tip #3: Share Essential SEO KPIs 

Your CEO and employees will want to know how you plan on measuring the success of your SEO efforts. 

Enter SEO key performance indicators, which will serve as the way you measure your effectiveness going forward. 

Here’s a quick list of the most critical SEO KPIs. 

Conversion rate 

Your C-suite will definitely want to know how your SEO efforts are affecting your conversion rate. Google Analytics will provide the metrics you need here, but you’ll need a benchmark. 

After all, how will you know that your conversion rates are increasing if you don’t have a benchmark to compare it to?

To gain this benchmark, calculate the average amount of conversions you saw within a three-month period BEFORE starting your SEO strategy. That will let you know how much your efforts have improved conversion rates. 

Organic visibility 

A significant benefit of SEO is getting your brand’s name in front of the masses, which is also known as organic visibility. 

To measure this KPI, take a look at your total number of impressions in Google Search Console. If your impressions are on the rise, it’s a sign that you’re increasing your organic visibility, which is a great sign. 

Return on investment 

Lastly, SEO’s ROI tends to be the most valuable KPI, as it lets you know how much money your SEO efforts are generating compared to how much you spent on it. 

As such, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your ROI, especially as you approach 6 – 12 months. 

To calculate your ROI, measure how much you spent on SEO against how much revenue is generated via leads and conversions. If you aren’t seeing a return after six months or so, it’s a sign you need to go back to the drawing board and tweak your strategy. 

Final Thoughts: SEO Buy-In 

While SEO is an incredibly effective marketing channel, convincing your higher-ups to invest in it is an uphill battle. 

That’s because there’s a lot of confusion surrounding SEO outside of the digital marketing space. Not only that, but the amount of time it takes for SEO to start working also raises the eyebrows of C-suite executives. 

Yet, with proper education and strategizing, you can successfully convey the benefits of SEO to your leaders while obtaining the budget you need to make your goals a reality. 

Do you not have in-house staff to focus on an SEO strategy?

Then you need to drop everything and check out our renowned managed SEO services at HOTH X. Our team of SEO gurus will work tirelessly to implement a winning SEO strategy at your company, so don’t wait to reach out today.    

The post How to Get SEO Buy-In From Your Leadership appeared first on The HOTH.

For those that don’t know, Google Search Quality Guidelines is a 150-page document for Google’s search quality evaluators.  

These Google search quality raters are the people contracted by Google who are tasked to evaluate the quality of Google’s search results.  

Now that these guidelines have been updated, how do these changes affect the search engine results for your particular website? 

You may be wondering if this means a complete overhaul of your digital marketing strategy. 

Are you ready to find out?

Keep scrolling for our point of view on the most important takeaways:

Determining Page Quality 

Page Quality Rating or PQ is the grade determined by Google’s ratings.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Raters will determine whether pages have low or high PQ based on the quality of the website, the purpose of the page, whether it fulfills that purpose, and whether that purpose correctly meets the needs of the searchers.

Google’s overall PQ rating scale is composed of five levels: Lowest, Low, Medium, High, and Highest.

These guidelines basically outline the core conditions, performance, and web page elements that best determine the quality of a page. 

Let’s go into more detail about how this is done: 

Identifying Page Type and Purpose

Before assigning a PQ rating, raters must first determine the purpose of the page they are evaluating.

Raters then decide and determine PQ by what a page was created to:

• Share information about a topic
• Entertain
• Allow users to exchange or download files
• Express opinions
• Share multimedia
• Share personal or social information
• Sell products or services
• Etc?

Once they’ve determined what purpose the page is trying to serve, they should then be able to evaluate how well the page fulfills this purpose relative to the query that was made. Quality websites, those with a high PQ, will meet user needs when it comes to the purpose of the page.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Rating Your Money Your Life Pages (YMYL) 

Google classifies any pages that “could potentially impact the future happiness, health, or financial stability of users” as “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) pages.

YMYL is a vital part of the latest Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, and its importance only increased from the July 2019 update. YMYL compared to E-A-T has become a priority for Google. 

Because of the nature of the impact that the content on these pages could have on users’ lives, these types of pages have the highest quality requirements. 

YMYL pages are identifiable by how often verifiable facts are written on a piece of content or website. These verifiable facts, also measured for authority and reputation, must be capable of impacting someone’s actions after they read a piece of content.   

Some examples of YMYL pages include:

• Financial transaction pages: pages for paying bills, shopping online, transferring money, etc.
• Financial information pages: pages that prescribe advice for investments, taxes, retirement, mortgages, buying insurance, etc.
• Medical information pages: pages that provide any medical, nutrition, or health advice
• Legal information pages: pages that provide any legal advice on topics such as divorce, adoption, migration, etc.
• Public/official information pages: pages that provide any information about Government programs, laws, events, etc.
• News articles or current affairs
• Other pages that touch on YMYL content 

The decision Google makes regarding YMYL is based upon the commonness of these important resources. YMYL isn’t always an objective identifier to be decided by Google’s raters. It is, however, a large part of Google’s measurement of verifiable, authoritative information. 

Evaluating for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-­A­-T)

As I briefly mentioned above, all aspects of a page are evaluated for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). 

From a general perspective, this isn’t anything new from Google. Google has always expressed that they want you to make sure that you create high-quality content but that your content highlights any expertise that the author or website might have. This helps Google determine trustworthiness and authority.   

Under the July 2018 Google Search Quality Guideline changes, raters are to review the E-A-T of not only the Main Content (MC) and website overall but also the E-A-T of the creator of the MC.  

As you may already know, PQ plays a huge role in where a page ranks in Google’s organic search results. That’s why understanding E-A-T is vital to SEO success.  

This is not just for YMYL pages but for all web pages containing any type of content.

Reviewers will look for formal expertise, factual knowledge, and whether high-quality information is presented that matches the topic searched. Highly technical topics such as photography or learning musical instruments may require some evidence of formal expertise.

There are, of course, some topics that don’t require formal expertise, and Google recognizes these as well. 

For example, restaurant reviews, home remodeling, parenting, and other personal life experiences can be attributed to anyone with practical experience, so long as their content is detailed, comprehensive, and entirely factual. 

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Assessing Main Content Quality and Optimization

Main Content or MC is any part of a web page that directly helps the page achieve its goal. For example, helping an audience or solving a problem. 

Page 10 of Google’s Search Quality Guidelines states that webmasters directly control the MC of the page besides any user-generated content. MC can be images, text, videos, or even page features. It can be user-generated content such as videos, reviews, or articles that users have uploaded to a page. An example of that would be a forum. 

Raters are instructed to break down and identify the content of each page and assign it a rating:

High-Quality Content

To be considered high quality, your content should be:

• Clear and easy to determine
• Detailed and comprehensive
• Created with “a significant amount of at least one of the following: time, effort, expertise, and talent/skill.”

For example:

• Information pages should be “factually accurate, clearly written, and comprehensive.”
• Shopping pages should be quick and easy to navigate, therefore allowing users to “find the products they want and to purchase the products easily.”

Low-Quality Content

Pages receiving the lowest quality MC rating will have Main Content that falls into the following categories:

• Misleading
• Exaggerated or shocking
• Distracting MC with excessive ads
• Negative reputation
• Unsatisfying level of facts or clarity

Finding Website Owner Information

For raters trying to assess the E-A-T of the content creator, they are tasked with finding out the website owners, as well as who is responsible for the MC on the page If this section of your website isn’t clear, it could hurt your chances of ranking. Being open and honest with who writes your content and who owns your website can indirectly affect your Google ranking in SERPs.     

This information should be clear and can usually be found in the following sections:

• Home Page
• About Us Page
• Contact Us Page
• Customer Service Page

However, raters are not limited to official page labels. 

In such cases, the home page candidate that offers the most relevant information about the target URL takes precedence. 

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Reviewing Website Reputation

The connection between customer reviews and SEO is important to your brand’s online reputation. Reviews don’t just provide the social proof needed for potential customers to trust your products or service, it’s also a necessary factor for boosting your digital exposure. 

A website’s reputation is considered one of the top criteria for assigning a Page Quality rating. It’s one of the best demonstrations of a page’s effectiveness. 

As such, raters are instructed to find reputation information about the website, such as:

• Customer reviews
• News articles
• Wikipedia articles
• Blog posts
• Magazine articles
• Forum discussions
• Ratings from independent organizations

Google does not consider reviews or ratings written by the website or company being investigated.

Some of Google’s recommended review sites are:

• Yelp
• Better Business Bureau
• Google Shopping
• Amazon

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Page Quality Rating Guidelines for Mobile

Page Quality rating guidelines for mobile are one of the newest additions to Google’s updated Search Quality Guidelines.

The first step for rating PQ on mobile is to understand the needs of mobile users: which is to complete a task quickly and conveniently from their mobile devices.

In that sense, raters are instructed to rate PQ for mobile according to how well a query is answered, given a mobile user’s limitations.

When evaluating PQ ratings for desktops, raters look at the most detailed and comprehensive results.

But when evaluating a page for mobile, the rater must choose the page with content that Google can fit into what it calls a Results Block.

What is a Results Block?

A Results Block is another version of a Google Snippet, so to speak. It shows results from graded or rated activities. 

There are two types:

• Web Search Results Blocks are the most common and contain the title of the page, the URL, and a relevant text “snippet” of information about the page.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Special Content Result Blocks display relevant, non-text content directly on the search results page for demonstration purposes, such as an online calculator or translator.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

These Results Blocks are then evaluated for how succinctly they can answer a user’s query or question.

Classifying and Understanding Queries

Google’s guidelines go at length about the multiple types of queries and the details and examples related to these queries.          

To understand queries, raters should first:

• Determine locale
• Understand user intent
• Establish correct query interpretations
• Take note of query interpretations that can change over time

Determining Locale

Google uses the term “Locale” to refer to the user’s language and location. Actually. Google states, “Googlebot crawls IP Googlebot crawls with IP addresses based outside the USA, in addition to the US-based IP addresses.” 

Determining locale is crucial to making a more appropriate interpretation of a user’s query.  

For example, a user based in the UK may expect a different result for the term “football” than a user based in the US.

Additionally, a user based in the Philippines may expect a different result for “peso to dollar” than a person based in Mexico.

Classifying and Understanding User Intent

Google subdivides queries into the following possible user intents:

Know Query

A know query is a broad search to find information on a topic where the answer is typically longer, controversial, or more complex.

Example Know queries: [Serena Williams], [World Trade Center], [Kong Skull Island], etc.

Know Simple Queries

A know simple query is a search seeking a precise result where the answer is typically simpler or shorter. Such as, “what is this [insert word here].” In fact, Not only are Google searches being done by search engines, voice assistants, and manually, but Google launched an app in 2017 called Google Lens.  

This app is powered by AI and machine learning. It helps people identify objects through their smartphone cameras. This app also conducts searches for users. 

Example queries: [Serena Williams Age], [World Trade Center Height], [Kong Skull Island release date], etc.

Do Query

A do query is made to accomplish a goal or activity, which may either be to buy, download, interact with an app, etc.

Example Do Queries from Google:

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2022

Device Action Queries

Device action queries are commands meant for the device, such as calling someone, locating a file, opening a website, or listening to music on that device.

Google assumes that Device Action queries are made by users in hands-free mode, so these sorts of queries also have a high standard.

Example Device Action queries from Google:

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2022

Website Queries

These queries are made by a user looking to find a specific website or webpage.

These can be direct queries with a complete URL, such as:

• [http://www.ibm.com]
• [www.ibm.com]
• [ibm.com]

These can also be incomplete URL queries such as

• [Youtube]
• [Facebook login]
• [New York Times health section]

Visit­-in-­Person Query

Visit-in-Person Queries are queries made by a user looking for a specific business or organization.

For example:

• [McDonald’s Branches in Ohio]
• [Gas Stations close by] (given that the user has allowed geolocation)
• [Hospitals near me] (given that the user has allowed geolocation)

Establishing Correct Query Interpretations

A query can have different interpretations, which Google categorizes as dominant, common, or minor interpretations. 

Query interpretation is automatically enabled for all Google Cloud Search customers with no extra work for you. However, it would be best to structure your schema per Google’s instructions for optimal query interpretation.

Dominant interpretations are what most users would mean when typing a query. Common ones are what many users would expect to find from a query, while Minor ones are sought by a few users.

For example, a dominant interpretation of the query [apple] would be the company Apple. A common interpretation would be the fruit, apple, and a minor interpretation could be the name of a place in the US: Apple, Oklahoma.

There are also query interpretations that can change over time, such as a query for [iphone] which could have more than a few candidates, spanning the first model to the iPhone 4, 4s, up all the way to the most recent one.

Needs Met Rating Guideline

Raters assign a Needs Met rating depending on how well a page result has helped mobile users.

The Needs Met rating is composed of five levels: Fully Meets, Highly Meets, Moderately Meets, Slightly Meets, and Fails to Meet.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2022

The Relationship between E­-A-­T and Needs Met

There is an important distinction between E-A-T and Needs Met ratings.

First, a Needs Met rating is based on how well the resulting landing page meets the query. On the other hand, the E-A-T rating is based only on the content of the landing page, regardless of whether or not it matches the query.

For example, the query [top Cancer cures] could lead to a high E-A-T page about Cancer from a reputable scientific journal, but the result that would get the highest Needs Met rating could be any article from a medical organization or professional that focuses on providing the answer to the user’s query: listing the top Cancer cures.

Overall Page Quality Rating Guide

Overall, Google identifies the top 4 most important factors for overall PQ rating:

• Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
• Main Content Quality and Amount
• Website Information (who is responsible for the website and authors its content)
• Website Reputation

The highest PQ rating will be given to pages that meet the top 4 criteria. On the other hand, the lowest PQ rating will be assigned to websites that don’t—such as those that harm, deceive, or make money with no attempt to provide any help to users.

Below is a breakdown.

Characteristics of Highest Quality Pages

• Very high-quality Main Content (MC)
• Very positive reputation
• Very high level of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)

Characteristics of High-Quality Pages

• A satisfying amount of high-quality MC
• Clear and satisfying amount of website information (who is responsible for website, content, and customer service)
• Positive reputation
• A high level of E-A-T

Characteristics of Medium Quality Pages

• Pages that have nothing wrong with them but do not exhibit any exceptional content. In other words, it’s “Just OK.”

Characteristics of Low-Quality Pages

• Low quality or unsatisfying amount of Main Content
• Distracting and misleading content (such as disruptive ads or Supplementary Content, misleading titles, etc.)
• Negative reputation
• Not enough website information and E-A-T

Characteristics of Lowest Rating Quality Pages

• Harmful, or malicious pages
• Lack of “purpose pages” or no Main Content
• Deceptive page purpose or design
• Keyword-stuffed, copied, or automatically generated Main Content
• Misleading, inaccurate, or unauthoritative YMYL information
• No website information
• Highly untrustworthy, unreliable content
• Hacked or defaced websites with spam content
• Extremely negative or malicious reputation
• Content that promotes hate or violence

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Your Key Takeaways and Action Items

With all that background information and terminology, how does this affect you and your website’s results on search engine results pages (SERPs)? Below, we translated this information into actionable tips you can add to your own content marketing and SEO strategy.

1. Make sure your overall website passes Google’s quality standards.

Some characteristics of a good quality Google website are that it:

• has adequate website background information (webmaster, contact info, etc.)
• is optimized for mobile
• is https secure
• has good page loading speed
• has no spammy ads
• is updated
• has consistently high-quality content
• Etc.

2. Optimize your metadata and user-facing navigation to clearly demonstrate which page is your About page, which is your Contact page, geolocation, and so on. That way,  both crawlers, and human raters understand how to navigate your page and website.
3. As with your website, make your page content easy to navigate.

Write a title and meta description that clearly presents the page’s purpose, and make sure your Main Content fulfills this purpose.

Do not make Supplementary Content that could distract users from the main purpose.

Optimize your content for Google snippets. Write at least a snippet of text that you can use for a Results Block.

Your goal is to provide an adequate answer in the most concise manner possible—convenient enough for the mobile user to get the answer they need without having to scroll further or click more links.

For example, you can display a short phrase like “Google Search Quality Guidelines is the set of instructions that guide how Google’s Search Quality Evaluators should rate the quality of page results” and code it as a snippet for your comprehensive, 3k-word article about the topic.

Code all these page data properly in your schema markup so both crawlers and humans can easily tell which is which.

4. When you think about content topics, think about queries first. Plan your content outline and words around these queries you want to rank for.
5. Make doubly sure all your YMYL pages are written by E-A-T authors.

In the author byline, include relevant background information that will let users, crawlers, and raters know that the author of a YMYL content has the right expertise and experience to talk about their topic.

6. Optimize your pages and apps for voice commands.
7. Do not use any disruptive ads.

Having ads on your site is not by itself a reason to get a low PQ rating. However, the content on your page should adequately provide the answers to the query you are aiming to solve.

For example, in the query [how to delouse my dog], if all your page does is focus on promoting your canine delousing products without sharing any general steps to actually solve the user’s problem (delousing a dog), then you’ll get a low PQ.

On the other hand, if you give a detailed and comprehensive walkthrough of the steps, complete with backup info such as pictures or video clips, then you’ll most probably get a higher PQ rating. You can still insert an ad or a plug for your product, but the solution, not the product, should be the focus of your content.

Finally

And that’s it! There is a ton of information here, so we hope that’s not a lot to digest. If you’re a little unsure, book a call with one of our experts today for advice!

The above revisions don’t largely change most of the guidelines that tell you how quality raters evaluate websites. 

However, they are important enough for Google to update the document to let business owners, content creators, marketers, and advertisers that there are changes that they should be made aware of. 

Don’t forget to sign up for free, leave a comment, and check out our SEO tools and resources! 

The post Google Search Quality Guidelines: What You Need to Know appeared first on The HOTH.

It solves problems. It’s unique and intuitive. It makes life better for people.

But when people search for products, your solution remains buried in the results beneath inferior imposters. 

It’s demoralizing. It feels completely unfair. But in today’s article – I’m going to show you exactly how to fix it!

What to Expect From Our Guide to Boosting your Amazon Ranking 

Amazon has become a cornerstone for eCommerce, boasting over 9.7 million sellers worldwide that range from household names to family up-starts. We’ve even seen a huge amount of eCommerce success stories from people who went from humble beginnings to becoming million-dollar entrepreneurs thanks to Amazon.

And while it is still very much possible to have your own Amazon success story, there’s no doubt that the level of competition in the marketplace is sky-high.

In this crowded market, it will take some serious dedication to cut through the noise and get your product in front of your target customer. This means that not only do you need a great product, you also need a comprehensive understanding of Amazon’s SEO.

Since the marketplace’s conception in 2000, its search algorithm has flourished to become one of the most advanced, fully-fledged search engines on the web. 

Amazon’s search engine is incredibly popular with shoppers, and for many, it is their first port of call when searching for what they need. So, it’s crucial that your product is optimized for Amazon’s search algorithm and ready to be matched with hot, wallet-out, ready-to-buy customers.

In this guide, we’ll be covering:

• The Basics: What is Amazon SEO?

• What is Amazon’s A10 algorithm?

• How to master the algorithm: 6 tips

• 8 Strategies for a successful product listing

• 4 FREE keyword research strategies to rank your Amazon product

• Summary: Ranking factors to own Amazon search results

The Basics: What is Amazon SEO?

For a newcomer to eCommerce, “Amazon SEO’ might be a completely alien concept. Hell, “SEO” itself might just sound like total tech jargon to you. But, if you want to sell on Amazon an understanding of SEO is going to be important. And we promise – once we break it down for you, it’s really easy to understand!

So, what is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it refers to the process of getting your website or product to rank higher on a search engine.

What is Amazon SEO?

Amazon SEO refers to the optimization of your product listing to get your product to appear at the top of customer searches.

When it comes to selling your products on Amazon, you want your products to be as visible as possible, to as many people as possible – and Amazon SEO is what makes this possible.

The SEO process involves improving the format, wording, and media included in your Amazon web page or product listing in order for it to fit the preferences of Amazon’s search algorithm.

Amazon’s A10 algorithm can be used strategically to allow your products to appear at the top of relevant searches – allowing you to make more sales.

Therefore, the first step to understanding Amazon SEO is to understand Amazon’s A10 algorithm.

What is Amazon’s A10 algorithm?

As we know, if a browser sees your product at the top of their search results, they will be more likely to buy it. Most buyers simply don’t have the time or attention span to trawl through page after page of search results. Furthermore, they are more likely to assume the products at the top of their search are more popular amongst other buyers.

For your products to soar to their prime place at the top of search results, you will need to make sure you are up-to-date on the algorithms.

Amazon A10 is the backbone of the Amazon marketplace’s search engine technology. In fact, Amazon A10 is a subsidiary company of Amazon that works from Palo Alto in California. Their algorithm was developed to match customer search queries to the most relevant products.

The A10 algorithm focuses on “revenue-per-click”. This means that Amazon is prioritizing making sales and revenue, and thinks that the best way to do this is to match customers with the right product for their search. This makes sense – a sale is more likely to be made if a customer is quickly and clearly presented with exactly the product they are looking for.

If you have been selling on Amazon for a while, you might be more familiar with the Amazon A9 algorithm of the past. A10 works in a similar way, but with some core differences.

How A10 differs from Amazon’s A9 algorithm

Amazon’s A10 algorithm offers some notable differences from the A9 algorithm of the past. Let’s take a look:

• Where the A9 algorithm prioritized products that would produce a higher profit, the current A10 algorithm prioritizes the most relevant products for the search query. For the Amazon seller, this means paying attention to the most relevant keywords for your products and incorporating the right keywords in your product listings.
• A10 gives less priority to Amazon PPC (pay-per-click), so you will need to be more calculating and strategic if you intend to do a PPC campaign via Amazon advertising. A sponsored product will still appear at the top of searches, but you shouldn’t rely too heavily on them.
• A10 prioritizes Amazon sellers that have authority and can be trusted. The more positive reviews a seller has, the higher they are likely to appear in the algorithm. So it is highly important for sellers to encourage their customers to leave a review.
• The algorithm also takes into account how big your shop is. The more items you have in your shop, the higher Amazon will place you in search rankings.
• Continuing from the previous point, the more product categories your inventory fits into, the more Amazon will prioritize you too.
• Another insightful characteristic of the A10 algorithm is the emphasis on customers learning about your products from elsewhere on the internet. This is because you are bringing new customers to the Amazon marketplace. So Amazon sellers should maintain a presence across other platforms on the web, and use their Amazon link to direct people to their products or shop.
• You will need a strong sales history. The higher your sales velocity, the higher Amazon will place you on the search results page. This means you need to stay active on top of your inventory, get rid of slow-moving stock, and not settle for anything less than quick-moving sales.
• Clicks, clicks, clicks! The more people that are clicking on your listings, the higher Amazon will rank you. You can increase your click-through rate by paying extra attention to your product images, product names, and sales copy!
  

6 Tips for Mastering Amazon’s Algorithm

1. Use eye-catching images

If you don’t already know that Amazon has a whole list of product image requirements, now would be a great time to get to know. These guidelines include everything from technical specifications like pixel dimensions to background colors and lighting.

Generally, your product images should include a clear, in-focus, professional-looking image of your item in front of a white background. No other objects should be included in the photo, and the product should fill 85% of the photo frame. 

The photo is usually the first part of your listing that catches the browser’s eye in search results, so it’s important that it makes your product stand out from the rest. An attractive photo will also ensure as many users are clicking on your listing as possible, boosting your click-through rate and enhancing your position in the A10 algorithm.

2. Write enticing sales copy

You want your sales copy to tell Amazon customers exactly what your product is, and include every detail of why it’s useful and will fulfill their needs. If you are selling a product you truly believe in, it probably won’t be too hard to write a glowing description of why it’s so good. However, there are a couple of things to be aware of here…

The first is to write clearly and concisely. Don’t go overboard with the salesmanship, instead focus on the facts of what your product is, product features, and how it works. The A10 algorithm should be working in your favor to draw the exact right people to your listing, so you know potential buyers are already looking for an item like yours. 

Secondly, your sales copy is where you need to include your keywords. Your keyword research (stay tuned, we tell you how to do this later in the article!) should’ve provided you with a list of important keywords and long-tail keywords. 

You should try and scatter a mixture of these throughout your product page while avoiding keyword stuffing. You want your sales copy to read naturally to the reader while still helping your position in the Amazon search engine.

3. Use keywords wisely

So we’ve explained that you should be using keywords in your sales copy, but you might still have a few questions about how best to do it.

When writing your product sales copy, ensure you have your list of keywords on hand. Simply place these keywords where they might naturally appear in a description of your product. 

For instance, if you’re selling iPhone charging cables, your keywords may already relate to the product specification – e.g. USB-C, 2M, Fast, iPhone 13, MFi certified. In which case, you can easily write these words into your copy naturally.

4. More off-site traffic

The A9 algorithm led to a lot of Amazon sellers using discounts and deals to rise to the top of search results, however, this is less of a priority for the A10 algorithm. Instead, focus on bringing traffic from other websites outside of Amazon to your product. 

Creating a portfolio of varied off-site traffic directing to your products will not only help you rank higher on Amazon, but it’ll also help you rank higher on a Google search. A great way of doing this is getting bloggers to review and recommend your product. ]

Browse the internet to find bloggers and micro-influencers in your niche and reach out to ask if they’d like to review your product. Make sure that they include your Amazon link in their review, and you’re sure to receive some valuable off-site traffic that will push you to the top of the rankings. 

5. Strategic pricing

Strategic pricing means that you are pricing your products competitively, but not with such unrealistic deals that it begins to look too good to be true. 

A smart way of doing this is to have a look at your competitors. If they are pricing a similar item to yours at $20, price yours at $19.99. You don’t have to lose out on profit in order to make sales, you just have to be visibly cheaper than your competitors in order to get clicks. 

6. Hustle for reviews

With the A10, positive reviews have never been so important to your position in the algorithm. The algorithm works by weighing up each seller’s metrics, how much they fulfill the needs of Amazon customers, and how highly their customers rate them after their purchase.

Be relentless in your chase to get customers to leave a review after their purchase, as the more reviews (especially 4-5 star ones) you receive, the more likely you are to be hitting the first page of search results. 

8 Strategies For a Successful Product Listing

Now that we are all clued up on how Amazon’s A10 algorithm works, and know the tips to rank higher in searches – it’s time we took a more in-depth look at how to create a successful product listing from the ground up.

You can even treat this list of 8 strategies as a step-by-step guide for making the most of Amazon search engine optimization in your listing and creating a best seller.

Strategy 1: Consider FBA

FBA stands for “Fulfillment By Amazon”, and it means that your items will be stocked in an Amazon warehouse, and Amazon will deliver your items for you.

FBA products appear at the top of customer searches, as Amazon is responsible for the delivery. FBA may also mean that your item is available for prime priority shipping, which will make it more attractive to potential customers.

If you want a quick and effective way to jump to a higher position in search results, using FBA is it.

Strategy 2: Use search terms in your Amazon SEO strategy (AKA back-end keywords)

So you’ve got your product ready to go, you’ve got your Amazon seller account set up, you’ve uploaded your product to your shop, and you’re ready to start making sales. But, before you start naming your product, writing your sales copy, or even writing the information for your store – you should get to grips with your search terms. 

Search terms are the queries that customers might use to find your products. In fact, Amazon Seller Central offers a list of guidelines for how to use search terms effectively in your listings. These guidelines emphasize that no search term should exceed 250 bytes, which is a limit that applies to a newly-registered or pre-existing ASIN.

Those who have a bit more SEO experience could think of these terms as “back-end keywords”. If you are an SEO professional who has cut your teeth in Google optimization, you will probably laugh when you see that Amazon allows backend keyword tagging for products.

Welcome back to SEO 1999-style, friends!

You can add these terms for your products by going to your “Inventory”, clicking “Manage Inventory”, then click “Edit” on the product you’d like to add search terms to, then click “Keywords”. Now you can write your search terms in the “Search Terms” box.

Now, when creating your Amazon search terms you will want to tick as many boxes on this checklist as possible:

• Keep search term length under 250 bytes.
• Use various synonyms for your product.
• Use several spelling variations.
• Use abbreviations.

These tips account for all of the different ways that a potential customer may search for your product. For instance, if you are selling USBs, you will also want to include the search terms “thumb drive”, “flash drive”, “jump drive”, and “memory stick”.

In addition to covering everything on the checklist above, you should also be cautious of the following checklist of what NOT to include:

• Don’t include punctuation.
• Don’t forget spaces between words.
• Don’t repeat words in the same search query.
• Don’t use stop words like :”a”,”an”, “the”, “by”, “and”, “with”.
• Don’t include your brand name or any brand name in your search terms.
• Don’t include any ASIN in search terms.
• Don’t use profanity or offensive words.
• Don’t use temporary words such as “sale”, “new”, or “fresh”.
• Don’t use words that have subjective connotations, such as “best”, “great”, or “cheapest”.

As an example, if you were selling an eco-friendly bamboo and plastic chopping board, good search terms would look like this:

chopping board butcher block cutting board wood bamboo eco-friendly food grade plastic polypropylene non-slip antimicrobial BPA free natural stain resistant

Strategy 3: Optimize your Amazon product listings

What is listing optimization and why is it important?

At the heart of it, Amazon SEO is not all that different than SEO on Google, Bing, or any other search engine.

• You have a select number of fields in your product listing that you need to add your keyword phrases.
• There are character count limits you cannot go over.
• Your title and descriptions need to inspire the searcher to take action on your listing.

But the strategies change a bit when you are doing SEO on Amazon because it is a product finder, not a webpage finder.

How to optimize your product listing

As we’ve established in this article, to master the A10 algorithm your product will need to have the perfect combination of quality and relevance. Furthermore, the algorithm pushes products that have a high click-through rate. So, your product listing will need to be put together in such a way that it’s:

• Clickable
• Looks high quality
• Meets the browser’s search criteria
• Converts browsers into buyers

This involves optimizing your photos, product titles, and product descriptions, and using the right keywords. Strategies 4, 5, and 6 all cover how to optimize your title, description, and images. While you can find out how to use a keyword research tool later in the article. 

Lastly, when it comes to optimizing your product listing, you should make sure that you have filled out every possible field on your product page. Many of these fields have been shown to influence your position in searches. 

Strategy 4: Get your product title right

Similar to search engine optimization, the product title is an incredibly relevant ranking signal for Amazon SEO. The length of your title tag will vary based on your product category, but here is a rundown of the prioritized order of items you will want to include in your title.

• Brand Name
• Feature
• Material
• Key Ingredient
• Product Type
• Model Number
• Size
• Package Count
• Color
• Flavor

Hat tip to the Amazon Product Page Style Guides for reference.

Here’s an example of a pretty effective product title.

As previously mentioned, Amazon is a product-finding search engine. Because of that, your brand name is much more important to your success on Amazon than it is in traditional search engines.

For every product you optimize for success on Amazon, make sure your brand name is correctly spelled. In general, this is just good practice. But doing this will also help Amazon associate the products you want to sell with other products produced by the same company and increase your exposure in brand filtered results.

Strategy 5: Optimizing your product description

Amazon offers two types of product descriptions: Enhanced Brand Content and regular product descriptions. Traditional search engines will index both of these content types, but for your Amazon SEO efforts, it’s best to focus on the regular description.

In short: let your copywriter tackle the enhanced brand while you optimize the regular description. Keyword optimization should be done on both, with priority for visibility in Amazon being placed on the regular description.

Use Bullet Points

For those of you who have done traditional SEO for years, think of your bullet points as having the same potential benefit as your H-tags. Word on the web is that Amazon indexes the content in your bullet points, so optimizing them can help improve relevance and drive up clicks from the results.

As a best practice, try to use 1 keyword phrase per bullet point. Don’t be spammy, it’ll turn off your potential customers.

Strategy 6: Why product images matter

For many customers, a product’s images are the first thing they’ll see when browsing the results of their search query. Therefore, you will want your product images to be as clickable and enticing as possible. 

As we mentioned previously, Amazon also has a set of guidelines for product images, and we’d advise sticking to these if you want Amazon to rank you on the first page of a relevant search. 

Now, you should also pay attention to any specific image requirements for the relevant product category. For example, some items may require an image of nutritional labels or safety warnings. Amazon likes to change these requirements from time to time, so make sure you continue to check on Seller Central.

Another factor to bear in mind is prioritizing your images. You may have uploaded 5 images that perfectly illustrate every aspect of your product – and that’s fantastic! However, you will need to ensure you have selected the right one to be the front page image that advertises your product. This image should show the entire product clearly in front of a white background.

Outside of your prioritized image, your other photos don’t need to have a boring white background. It’s a great idea to show your product in its realistic setting, especially if you’re selling something like clothes, accessories, or homeware. 

Along these lines, you are also allowed to include some images that serve as graphics that illustrate key information about your product. Is your product easy to put together? Illustrate that with an explanatory graphic! Maybe your product is small and portable, unlike other similar products in your niche? Show that with a comparison graphic!

Lastly, you are allowed to edit your photos to make them more eye-catching and vibrant. However, Amazon’s rules say that your images should always be truthful to how the product looks in real life. Therefore, do not edit your photos so that the colors look completely different and risk being dishonest to a customer. 

Strategy 7: Use brand names tactically

You may be able to help your ranking position on Amazon by using brand names tactically. If you are selling branded products on Amazon and your main keywords include that brand name, make sure you use it in your product title and product description. 

Therefore, those customers that are searching for a product specifically from that brand will be more likely to find your product.

Strategy 8: Optimize your seller name

Many Amazon business wizards theorize that you may be able to boost your organic rank and ultimately your Amazon sales by including main product keywords in your seller name. However, please note that this will only work if you are selling one specific genre of product that falls under the same main keywords. 

4 FREE Keyword Research Tools to Rank your Amazon Product(s)

For any SEO campaign, keyword research and selection is a critical first step. There are a ton of premium tools out there on the marketplace that charge a hefty fee to help you find the right keywords, however, we’re here to show you how to do it for free!

There are as many as 5 alternative strategies to doing Amazon keyword research without using paid SaaS solutions. Below are three of our favorites.

Amazon Search Autocomplete

Leveraging the autocomplete function of Amazon’s search box is easy and obvious but is often overlooked or misused.

In digital marketing, we all tend to complicate strategy because easy solutions feel “too good to be true.” But in the case of autocomplete, that’s hardly the case. The Amazon search box is the best place to begin your keyword research.

Amazon Autocomplete, by function, helps consumers find what they want. But it also helps marketers discover dynamic keywords.

Install Keywords Everywhere on your browser to increase the impact of your autocomplete research efforts.

Keywords Everywhere displays CPC stats and competitive data on keywords. It peppers your research with potent stats. You’ll be able to view CPC and search volume stats on suggested Amazon search terms.

Soovle – The Amazon Keyword Tool You’ve Missed

Whenever I bring up Soovle, people think I’m pushing a new cooking method. While many old-school keyword researchers know Soovle, it’s still a drastically overlooked tool.

Soovle offers a search engine autocomplete experience from over 15 search engines. It displays autocomplete search suggestions from platforms such as Amazon, Google, Bing, Overstock, Walmart, and Yahoo!.

You can combine Soovle with Keywords Everywhere to enhance the fruits of your labors with keyword volumes, too.

Hover To Uncover With Amazon Quick View

It may sound like I’m referencing an episode title from the hit Fox show, Bones, but I’m really talking about the benefits of installing Amazon Quick View in your browser.

Amazon Quick View works as a Chrome extension. AMZScout performs Amazon product research. You can nab their tool here.

AQV gives immediate access to imperative search data. To activate AQV display, you need only hover over the product. A small window will open up that displays a slew of related keywords.

The HOTH’s Keyword Extraction Tool

Shameless Plug: Try using our keyword tool to find even more keywords. This free tool is powered by SEMrush and helps you to easily locate the high-volume words and phrases you need.

To use our tool, simply enter a keyword related to your product in the search bar and hit the button that says “view keyword research”. You’ll then be given a whole host of related keywords, each one paired with data on search volume, competition, results for each keyword, the cost-per-click (CPC), and whether it’s trending up or down. 

It’s pretty genius – but we would say that, right?!

Paid Amazon SEO tools

Of course, if you don’t think those free keyword research tools offer what you need, you may want to explore paid options.

In which case, we’d recommend:

Keywordtool.io

Keywordtool.io is available for around $89-199 per month. For that price, it will provide you with data on keyword search volumes, cost-per-click, competition, and search volume trends. 

You can also filter out negative keywords so that you don’t see results that aren’t relevant to your product.

Sellics

Sellics will cost you between $198 to $599 dollars. Yep! That makes it one of the most expensive keyword research tools on the market. For that price, you will not only get all of the keyword research insights you need but also information to optimize your ad spend and manage reviews.

Jungle Scout

Jungle Scout is a service available for $49 to $129 per month. For that price, you will receive an Amazon SEO toolkit that includes a keyword research tool, a keyword performance tracker, an SEO product listing builder, a tool for requesting Amazon reviews, a promotion manager, and many more handy tools to boost your search rankings and bottom line.

Avoid These Common Mistakes

3 of the most common Amazon SEO mistakes are:

Writing inaccurate information

Amazon’s A10 algorithm values the trustworthiness of each seller and will blacklist those who appear as scammers. For this reason, make sure you are writing honestly in your product title and product description.

Overstocking and understocking

The algorithm takes into account your sales velocity, which means you will need to keep a close eye on your inventory. 

Not doing competitor research

Amazon is a highly competitive arena for sellers, as the best value products will appear higher in search rankings. Always watch what your competitors are doing, and make your business decisions accordingly.

The Amazon Sellers’ Checklist

Lastly, before you run away and turn all of your products into bestsellers, you might want to be sure you’ve done everything on our Amazon seller’s SEO checklist…

• You have a seller name that incorporates relevant keywords where possible.
• You have used FBA where possible.
• You have completed every applicable field in your product listing.
• You’ve written a product title that includes brand name, the main feature, material, key ingredient, product type, model number, size, package count, color, or flavor.
• You’ve written a product description that includes the relevant key terms and long-tail keywords.
• You have used bullet points in your product description.
• You’ve used search terms for each product in accordance with Amazon’s guidelines.
• You’ve uploaded product images in accordance with Amazon’s guidelines.
• You have prioritized the best image to appear in search results.
• You’ve made your sales copy honest yet enticing.
• You’ve established sources for off-site traffic.
• You have priced your products strategically against your competitors without detracting from their value.
• You’ve chased up all past customers for reviews, and have an active process in place to encourage reviews after each purchase.

We know, we know… It’s a lot! But if you manage to tick all of those boxes in the checklist above then you will be giving yourself and your product the highest chances possible of achieving success on Amazon. 

If you’re new to the life of an Amazon seller then certain aspects of the checklist will take time – such as getting positive reviews. But with all of the other factors in place and a product you believe in, once you make that precious first sale it should all fall into place.

Summary: Ranking factors to own Amazon search results

Don’t worry if you feel like that was a lot to take in. The thing about “ultimate guides” is that they really do cover everything! And that’s what the summary at the end of an article is for, right? If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you achieve success on Amazon, why not give us a call? We’re here to help.

The post Amazon SEO: The Ultimate Guide To Amazon Optimization appeared first on The HOTH.

So there’s no wonder that local business owners are going to great lengths to optimize their sites for Google and other search engines.

Especially when you take into account that 28% of all local searches result in a purchase!

Getting your local SEO right can result in a huge payoff for your business, and our local SEO checklist offers every step, tip, and trick you need to start ranking no.1 on Google.

Ready to get started? Let’s get into it!

Why Is Local SEO Important?

Before we get stuck into our checklist, let’s remind ourselves of why local search strategy is so important. 

A local SEO strategy makes sure that you are in prime place at the top of their search. This is incredibly important considering that 24.4% of all clicks go to the first local result on the page.

If you want your business to become more visible to a local audience, you will need to enhance your website with local search engine optimization.

Not only will good local SEO boost the number of people that visit your business (50% of “near me” searches result in an offline store visit), it will also boost your online brand presence and authority.

Don’t miss out when someone in your area searches for a business like yours, get ahead of your competitors with our ultimate local SEO checklist!

13 Steps To Optimize Your Local Business

1. Claim your Google Business profile

This is the first (and easiest) step every business should take to perform better in local Google search results. 

Google Business, previously known as Google My Business, is a tool that allows you to create a profile for your business on Google. Have you ever searched for a local business and seen a little profile pop up featuring information, opening hours, and reviews? Yep, that’s a Google Business listing. 

As Google explains, “Google Business Profile is an easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google. To help customers find your business, you can verify your business and edit your business information”.

Not only do you need to make sure your business has one, you also need to make sure it’s accurate and optimized.

Here we’ll explain how to create and optimize your listing, as well as introduce some other Google tools that will boost your local SEO efforts too.

How to create a Google Business listing

Luckily, you can get set up and optimized in several simple steps:

• Log in or set up Google Business Profile Manager

If you have a Google account, you will already have access to Google Business and its Profile Manager. 

• Add your business

Start typing your business name into the search bar and see if it appears in the drop-down menu. If it does not, simply select the option to “add your business to Google”. Select the most relevant business category for you and click next.

• Add your business location

Add the address for your business’s location and position the marker on the map so that you can feature on Google Maps. If you offer services, Google also provides an option to list your service areas. 

• Add contact information

This is where you add your business’s website and contact phone number (if you have one). 

• Verify your business

Google will ask you to provide your mailing address so that they can verify your business. This address will not feature on your public profile. 

If you have a physical business, Google will send a postcard to the relevant address. If you do not have a physical location, Google will allow you to verify via email instead. Either way, Google will provide you with a five-digit code for verification. 

Do not skip this step, it will negatively impact your local SEO.

• Optimize your profile

Once you’ve confirmed and verified your business listing, you can begin to optimize your profile to attract local customers. You will be able to add business information about what you do or sell, your opening hours, your contact preferences, and photo and video.

Make sure that your profile is as complete as possible. Google itself has said, “businesses with complete and accurate information are easier to match with the right searches”. Furthermore, keep your opening hours updated for seasonal changes.

When adding images to your profile, make sure you use a high-quality logo and cover photo that accurately represents your business. Consider adding videos that show your business, location, and friendly team. Also, include images that show off your products and make them look great!

Later in this article, we’ll be explaining how to find local keywords, you’re going to want to include these in your business listing. Include them naturally in your business description without keyword stuffing. 

Lastly, ask your customers to leave positive reviews or ask a question on your Google Business profile, then make sure you reply to them. You can manage these testimonials through your Google Business Profile Manager dashboard.

• You’re up and running!

Once your profile is optimized and ready to go, click ‘continue’ to reveal your Business Profile Manager dashboard. This is where you will be able to see insights about your business listing, manage messages, respond to reviews, and even run Google Ads.

Google offers two other tools that will help boost your SEO efforts: Google Search Console and Google Analytics. 

2. Set up Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool designed to help you optimize your site and rank better on SERPs (search engine results pages).

Submitting your business’s website to Google Search Console will make sure that Google is aware of your site, and is actively crawling it for relevant keywords and information so that it can rank you accordingly.

You will also gain access to the Google Search Console dashboard where you can see daily reports for your site, revealing bugs and errors you need to fix in order to rank better.

Here’s how to get set up:

• Log into your Google account

Head to Google Search Console and click ‘start now’. 

Log into your Google account, and note: this should be the same Google account that you used to set up your Google Business listing.

• Enter your website address

Once you’re in, click the right-hand corner option to enter your web address.

• Verify your web address

Google now needs you to verify that the website you entered is yours. You can do this by signing into your domain name provider or uploading an HTML file.

• Upload your XML sitemap

This step isn’t essential for setting up your account, but it is essential if you want to improve your site’s SEO. You might want to use an XML sitemap generator here. This helps Google’s crawlers index your site quicker and get you ranking for relevant search queries.

Once you’re verified, you can check your Search Console dashboard to learn more about your search engine performance. You’ll be able to see the keywords you currently rank for and find out about any site errors that need to be fixed.

3. Set up Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to track your website’s traffic and other relevant SEO data. This information will help shape your local SEO strategy moving forward.

Here’s how to get set up:

• Log into your Google account

This should be the same Google account you used to set up Google Business and Google Search Console.

• Click ‘Start using Google Analytics’

Click the option to start using Google Analytics, and select ‘Google Analytics for websites’.

• Add account name and website

Add your account name followed by your website name in the appropriate fields. Fill in your website address, using http or https depending on whether you are in possession of an SSL certificate.

• Select industry category

Find the category that best suits your business. This then helps Google provide benchmark data for other similar businesses.

• Select ‘get tracking ID’

While ticking the data sharing options and terms and conditions, make sure you select ‘get tracking ID’. You can then install this ID code on your website to allow Google to track your traffic data. If your site is based on WordPress, you can use this free plugin to install the code. 

With all of those steps complete, your Analytics profile is ready to go!

3. Find local keywords

A key factor in driving targeted local searchers to your business is using the right keywords. In this section, we’ll explain how to do thorough local keyword research. 

This process allows you to understand exactly what your potential customers are typing into search engines. And therefore, when you implement these keywords into your website and Google Business listing you’ll be able to appear in these local search results.

Here’s our method for the best local keyword research:

Use a keyword research tool

The first step to finding local keywords is to use a free keyword research tool. Use this tool to search for the services you offer. Each keyword in the results is paired with search volume data. This data lets you know how many people are searching for that query. 

It is hard to find local search data here, as most SEO tools calculate their search volumes by country. Even if you have services with an incredibly low search volume, it’s still important that you have a dedicated page for them on your site.

However, those services with high search volumes are the ones you need to prioritize in your SEO strategy (put them at the top of your list!).

When it comes to local SEO keywords, it’s important to note the difference between implicit and explicit local searches.

Implicit keywords are searches like “electrician” and “alarm installation”, where the searcher is hoping local results will automatically come up. 

Whereas explicit keywords are searches where the searcher specifies their area, such as “electrician in Chicago” and “alarm installation in Chicago”.

Search volume for a neighborhood in Chicago

Finding implicit keyword search volumes:

Although it can be hard to find local search volume data for general keywords like “electrician” and “rewiring”, it is made possible by Google Keyword Planner. This data will then help you further prioritize your list.

Simply paste your services into the bar that says “get search volumes and forecasts”. Make sure these services are in implicit form, meaning it’s just the service – no mention of location. Then change the location to the area where you offer that service. 

This will then reveal the number of people in that area searching for that service per month. The services with the biggest search volume should be prioritized at the top of your list!

Finding explicit keyword search volumes:

For this one, you can go back to your free keyword research tool. Entering explicit versions of your service keywords – which means service followed by the area you service. For instance, “electrician in Chicago”, “rewiring services in Chicago”, or “alarm installation in Chicago”.

Your search will reveal the search volumes for these explicit keyword searches. Once again, move those with a high search volume to the top of your list.

Keyword strategy for service pages

When creating search engine optimized web pages you will need to follow a keyword strategy. This strategy should include a focus keyword, as well as related keywords, synonyms, and long-tail keywords. You’ll use these keywords later in your on-page content (see step 3).

By now, your keyword document should be divided into each service page and any subcategories. Make those service pages headings so that you can list related keywords below.

For every service page, your focus keyword will be the service itself. In this case, it’s “alarm installation”. Further keywords will include explicit localized terms such as “alarm installation in Chicago”.

Now, return to your keyword research tool and run a search for your service term. This should offer related terms such as “alarm system installation”, “alarm installation near me”, “alarm repair”. You may also find long-tail search queries such as “how much does alarm installation cost?”.

Make a note of the terms you think make the most sense for each service.

4. Optimize your web page content

This step involves optimizing on-page elements such as URLs, title tags, meta descriptions, text content, images, and NAP details. This will boost your site’s user experience and attract organic traffic.

Local SEO NAP

Content is one of Google’s most important ranking factors and we’ll show you how to optimize your on-page content for local searches.

URLs

Firstly, make sure every page’s URL is clear and simple, utilizing your focus keyword where possible. For example, “yourcompanyname.com/services/alarm-installation”.

Title tags

Your page’s title tag will be the clickable headline that appears in a Google search. This needs to be concise and include your focus keyword. Try our title tag generator to stay within Google’s character limit.

Meta descriptions

Meta descriptions are the preview snippet that appears in a Google search result. Just like title tags, these can be optimized by staying within a character limit and including keywords. 

If using WordPress, you can use the free Yoast SEO plugin to create a Google-friendly snippet for each page.

Text content

Every service page should include a description of the service, how it works, how much it costs, what’s included, etc. Review your keyword list to make sure searcher queries are answered on the page and include your keywords naturally without stuffing. 

Images

Images are a great way of breaking up content and illustrating your services. However, large file sizes will slow down your site and ruin the user experience. Use a free service to compress your images.

NAP details

Make sure that every page of your site uses the same business name, address, and phone number – including your Contact page. You should also ensure that these are the same details listed on your Google Business listing and any directories you appear on. See Step 7: Optimize Citations for more details.

Incorrect Local Citations

Sticking to these rules when creating or editing your homepage, web pages, and landing pages will stand your small business in the best stead to rank on Google.

5. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly

As of 2022, 70% of web traffic comes from mobile phones. What’s more, 78% of local searches on mobile result in an offline purchase. 

Google’s algorithm ranks mobile-friendly sites higher in search results, so making sure your site is responsive and ready for mobile browsers is a huge part of your local SEO efforts.

Consult your web designer to make sure that your site is responsive to mobile devices and tablets. You want to make sure that page load speed is just as quick on mobile as it is on desktop.

Google also offers a tool that checks how mobile-friendly your pages are.

6. Blog content aimed at your target customer

Your search engine optimized web pages should now be targeting lots of your target keywords. However, you may find that there are some keywords you haven’t been able to use. You can now use these key terms and questions to shape blog content for your site.

Having a regularly updated blog is a staple for any digital marketing strategy. SEO keyword-focused articles are used by content marketers to boost visibility in search engine results. 

But bear in mind: When it comes to local SEO, the same people searching “how long does car alarm installation take?” may not have the local intent necessary to hire your business.

Don’t let this put you off including blog content on your site! These search queries and keywords provide valuable information about what your potential customers and target audience want to know.

Including helpful blog content on your site helps build reputation, authority, and trust. And every local business stands to benefit from a community of trusting customers.

7. Encourage customer reviews

Remember when we said your Google Business listing allowed customers to leave you a review? Generating and monitoring those online reviews is a vital part of mastering local SEO! Here we’ll explain some of our best tips and tricks to make the most of this feature…

Better reviews = more clicks

To generate more Google reviews for your business you can:

• Ask your customers to leave a review.
• Add a Google review button to your site.
• Use your Google Business account to review other businesses in your area – they may return the favor as a token of appreciation.

Negative reviews happen to every business, but how you deal with them is what affects your local SEO efforts.

In the case of a negative review, try to respond with contact details to resolve the issue in private.

Although Google has stated that negative reviews may impact your business, responding to all reviews will boost your local search performance – so remember to respond to the positive reviews too!

8. Optimize citations

Citations are other mentions of your business’s NAP details (name, address and phone number) across the web. Google uses these citations to verify your business’s online authority. Optimizing your local citations can be a time-consuming task that requires attention to detail, but we’ve broken down every step here:

• Make sure NAP details are accurate and consistent across every web page and business listing.
• Ensure every link to your website directs to the correct landing page.
• Use the Moz citation checker to do a citation audit, then clean up duplicate content and incorrect listings.

• Analyze your competitors to see where they get their citations. If they have a citation listed somewhere you do not – get listed there too.
• Get listed on local directories (more on this in Step 10).

9. Local link building

The citations described above begin the process of link building for your website. However, a local link-building strategy could also benefit from some high authority backlinks leading to your site.

Backlinks are important for SEO because they demonstrate domain authority to search engines like Google and Bing. However, when it comes to local SEO, you’ll want to get backlinks from locally relevant sites.

Let’s talk through the options to find and secure local backlinks:

• Submit guest posts to locally relevant blogs and publications.
• Join local industry committees and get them to link to your site.
• Sponsor local events.
• Use a free backlink checker tool to see how your local competitors get backlinks and reverse engineer their methods for yourself.
• Offer quotes and statistics to local news reports and stories.

10. Local PR

Getting local PR coverage for your business could fall under the link-building category, however, it also serves to increase brand awareness, trust, and authority.

Strive to get your business’s name in local papers, publications, and news sites (for the right reasons!) – not only will you receive a backlink, you’ll also spread word of mouth.

Reach out to local news if you have a grand opening or event – they may be interested in covering it.

11. Local directories and listings

The more local directories your business appears in, the more signals Google gets that you’re a significant local business that they should prioritize in local search rankings. 

Make sure that you have claimed and optimized your listings on popular directories such as Yelp and Yellow Pages, using accurate and consistent NAP details. Use images on these listings where possible as they get added to the Google Images algorithm. Other free directories include Foursquare and Bing Places.

Directories are already taking up multiple 1st page listings

Note: Many of these directories allow your customers to leave reviews. You should monitor and respond to these just like you do with Google Business.

12. Use Schema’s geographic markup

One of the final methods you can use to improve your local SEO is to add Schema markup to your website. 

Schema.org is made by the world’s most popular search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo! and Yandex. You can use it to help search engines understand your site better and rank it accordingly. 

You can also add Schema’s code to your web page content to allow star ratings, reviews, and pricing info to appear in your Google search results. 

When it comes to using Schema’s data markup for local SEO, you’ll want to pay attention to their “geographic markup” feature. This markup provides search engines with more information about your geographical location, thus boosting your performance in local search results. Before you add Schema’s geographic markup to everything, check Google’s Schema guidelines to avoid becoming spammy. 

13. Social media 

Social media continues to be a valuable brand-building tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes, but how can it help your small business and your local SEO?

Connect with customers

Customers are expecting a higher degree of transparency from the brands and businesses they support – they want to know who is behind a business, and if their views and values align. A strong social media allows you to make emotional connections with customers and improve retention over time.

Reach more of your target audience

All main social media platforms offer paid adverts that can help you reach more potential customers than ever.

SEO-boosting links

The jury is out over whether a portfolio of strong social media pages sends signals to Google to boost your rank. However, every social media platform you join is still a valid backlink to your site. 

It’s Time to Put This Local SEO Checklist To Good Use

Before you run off and crush the local SEO game, we’ll leave you with the reminder that good local SEO starts at your brick-and-mortar business. 

Completing all of the steps on this list will only boost your bottom line if you run a healthy and positive business that does its job well. A good website and a few backlinks are no replacement for good staff, products, and customer service! 

Hopefully, you found this local SEO checklist helpful! If you have any more questions about boosting your business’s SEO, don’t hesitate to reach out and give us a call – we’re here to help!

P.S. Have you signed up for a HOTH account yet? You can get access to SEMRush data for free, plus manage all your link building in one place. Click here to sign up (free).

The post Local SEO Checklist: 13 Tips To Optimize Your Site appeared first on The HOTH.

Are they high-quality links from sites with incredible domain authority – or are they more on the spammy side from web directories? 

If you aren’t sure – you could unknowingly be doing damage to your website’s visibility on search engines (or unknowingly helping it – depending on the quality of your links). 

That’s why it’s crucial to have an awareness of the ‘health’ of your backlink profile. You’ll also need to know how to distinguish between high-quality and low-quality backlinks to ensure you don’t wind up tanking your domain authority. 

You see, backlinks have always been one of the most important ranking factors to search engines. 

In the early days of SEO, link-building strategies were simplistic and relied on quantity over quality. A boatload of links pointing to a website was enough for it to soar to the top of the SERPs. Today, search engine algorithms are more robust and place more importance on quality. 

Yet, a fierce debate still remains over whether you should focus on backlink quality vs. quantity, but which is right?

There are also a variety of SEO tools (such as SEMrush) that claim to point out ‘toxic’ backlinks for you – but are they reliable?

Read on to discover the answers to these two questions and many more in this extensive breakdown of backlink quality. 

What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks are links contained on another page (social media, blogs, news posts, etc.) that travel to your page. In other words, a backlink is a link to your page from another page. An example would be a related blog in your niche containing a link to one of your web pages.  

There are numerous reasons why another page would link to your page – such as writing a guest blog post or sharing relevant infographics. 

Backlinks are desirable because they greatly influence your search engine rankings. A robust and ‘healthy’ backlink profile will work wonders for your SEO. 

Why is that?

It has to do with the concept of domain authority (DA). Basically, some websites are more trusted than others. 

The concept of ‘domain authority’ isn’t one penned by search engines. Instead, Moz first developed the idea as a way to predict how likely a domain is to rank in the SERPs. 

As such, it’s crucial to know that domain authority is NOT a ranking factor identified or used by Google or other search engines. It is, however, a useful metric you can use to compare your website’s performance with competitors and to determine if pursuing a backlink is worth it or not. 

A domain authority score ranges from 1 to 100, with the higher the score meaning the site is more likely to show up on SERPs. To calculate the score, the tool will take into account the quality and quantity of the links to the website. 

Understanding domain authority

• 60 to 100. This is the ‘phenomenal’ score range and represents a website with high authority. These are the high-quality sites that rank high in SERPs and are desirable candidates for backlinks. If you can score a backlink from a website with domain authority within this range – your DA will rise as a result. 
• 40 to 50. This is the ‘average’ range for domain authority. Websites with authority within this range are decent but not great. Backlinks from these websites aren’t too desirable, but they aren’t entirely worthless (more on that later).
• 0 to 40. This is the ‘abysmal’ range. If your website has a domain authority within this range, you need to do some drastic work on your search engine optimization. It’s also best to avoid obtaining backlinks from sites with such poor domain authority. 

Do you want to know how your website stacks up? This FREE domain authority checker tool from The HOTH will calculate your score. 

Dofollow and nofollow links

You’ll also need to familiarize yourself with dofollow and nofollow links in order to build a backlink profile. Both are ways of identifying links, so Google knows how to associate the authority of the website being linked. Here’s a simple breakdown of the difference:

• Dofollow links will help your SEO as they will pass on ‘link juice’ (shared domain authority) to your web pages. In other words, a dofollow link from a site with high domain authority will improve your domain authority as well. You should always ask for dofollow links during your outreach. 
• Nofollow links will not help your SEO as they don’t pass on any ‘link juice.’ You’ll still receive a link that users can click on to travel to your site – but the link won’t impact your domain authority at all. When doing outreach to obtain backlinks, make sure to avoid nofollow links as they won’t help you. 

Now that you know more about backlinks, it’s time to learn what determines their quality. 

What Are High-Quality Backlinks?

The ‘quality’ of a backlink is determined by several factors – not just the domain authority of the website. Instead, there are five primary factors you should use to judge a backlink’s quality:

• The relevance of the anchor text (the text that contains the hyperlink)
• The quality and relevance of the linking page’s content
• The relevance and quality of the linking domain (domain authority)
• The location of the link
• The IP address

Believe it or not, each of these factors has a significant effect on the quality of a backlink. Let’s find out why. 

How to write anchor text 

A link’s anchor text refers to the blue underlined words that contain the hyperlink. Whenever a search engine crawls a page, it will read the anchor text to see if the destination URL is relevant to the page containing the link. 

That’s why it’s essential to use relevant keywords in the anchor text to appeal to the web crawler. 

Let’s say that you’re linking to a page discussing guitar picking techniques. In the anchor text, you’ll want to use keywords like guitar, picking, strumming, playing, and others. The more relevant the anchor text is, the higher the quality of the backlink. 

Since the keywords listed relate to the page in question, it’s high-quality. Yet, if we used keywords such as banjo, drums, and piano – the backlink drops in quality. Make sense?

The goal is to create keyword-rich anchor text that pertains to the page it links to. Yet, you should avoid only using keywords as your anchor text, as that looks spammy and won’t get you far. 

Instead, aim to create anchor text that checks the following boxes:

• Related keywords
• Your company or brand name
• Phrases such as ‘click here’ or ‘learn more’

Here’s an example of high-quality anchor text keeping with the guitar strings example: 

Click here for Peter Music’s guitar techniques. 

As you can see, it contains all the ingredients of quality anchor text. It encourages readers to engage with it (click here), contains relevant keywords (guitar techniques), and includes the brand name (Peter Music). 

Quality and relevance of the linking page

Beyond the anchor text, the quality of the page linking to your site also matters. Bear in mind that this differs from the domain authority of a website – as that metric is for the website as a whole. 

So if your backlink is from a low-quality landing page, the backlink won’t do you much good. 

You’ll want to pay attention to the quality of the individual web page that will contain your backlink. The most important factor here is that the page containing the backlink must relate to the content on your page. 

Once again, you want to pass as much ‘link juice’ as possible from one page to another. 

Pages containing your backlinks that relate to and complement your content will pass the most juice. It’s best to avoid pages that don’t pertain to your niche or cover related material – as they won’t pass much juice at all.

Lastly, you’ll want to avoid orphan pages. 

Orphan pages don’t have any internal links directing to them from the parent site, hence the name. They don’t contain any of the domain’s accumulated value as a result – so they won’t pass much link juice to your web page. 

Note: Besides avoiding getting backlinks from orphan pages, you should strive to ensure your website doesn’t have any. 

You can use a website crawler and set it to uncover pages that have zero inbound internal links to see if you have any orphaned pages. If you do, be sure to add an internal link to them somewhere on your site. 

Quality of the linking domain

You’ll definitely want backlinks from sites with high domain authority to ensure they pass the most link juice. Yet, DA isn’t the only deciding factor if a domain is quality or not. There are other factors, such as:

Its IP address 

While the IP address itself doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of a link – it’s best to shy away from using backlinks from multiple domains all containing the same IP address. That’s because it’s a sign there might be a private blog network, and Google does NOT like those. 

Also, IP addresses from Russia, China, and India tend to be spam-heavy and low-quality – so avoid them if you don’t do any business there. 

Its uniqueness

Let’s say you score a backlink from a high authority web page, and it bolsters your backlink profile quite nicely. You’re as happy as a clam, especially when you score another backlink from the same domain. 

Sadly, this backlink doesn’t seem to have the same power as the first. That’s because multiple backlinks from the same domain won’t have as much power as a backlink from a brand-new domain. 

Its distance from a ‘seed’ site

Google identifies ‘seed sites’ as part of its PageRank algorithm – which are the domains it trusts the most. 

During a search, the seed sites are where Google (and other search engines) will begin crawling websites. So if the domain is close to a seed site such as CNN (1 or 2 links away) – it will get treated with nearly the same level of authority. If it’s farther away (excess of 10 links) from a seed site, the authority wanes. 

Those are the primary factors for determining the quality of a domain besides checking its DA outright. 

The link’s location on the page 

Lastly, the location of the backlink will greatly affect how much link juice it passes on. It may not seem like it, but certain sections of web pages contain more link juice than others. 

A basic web page has a header, footer, right and left sidebar, and body content. 

For a backlink to carry the most juice and contribute to your SEO strategy, it needs to be contained within the body content on the page. 

I’ll state that again because it’s very important. 

For a backlink to carry any clout, it needs to be in the body content of the web page. 

It goes even deeper than that, though. 

The location within the body of the article makes a difference, too. Links found at the top of a page have more value than links that appear near the bottom. That’s because search engines view links within the first paragraphs as the most valuable to the reader. 

Beyond that, the number of links on a page also determines how much link juice your backlink will carry. 

The fewer the number of links, the more juice each link carries.

So if a page has hundreds of external links, your link won’t carry much link juice at all. 

But if you’re the only link on a page and it’s within the first paragraph, you’ll get the most link juice possible.

For this reason, it’s wise to avoid obtaining backlinks on pages that have hundreds of external links. Not only does it destroy the value for each link, but it’s also a sign that the page exists to sell backlinks – which will hurt your SEO more than anything. 

Backlink Quality vs. Quantity – The Classic Debate

Now that you know how to identify high-quality backlinks, it’s time to address the big debate – which type of links are right for you? 

Should you focus on obtaining quality backlinks, or should you go for acquiring a large number of backlinks instead?

There are a number of opinions on this issue, and each side has valid points, for the most part. While it’s true that quality does trump quantity in the eyes of search engines – there’s a serious catch. 

Obtaining backlinks from high authority sites is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. 

Is it worth blowing your entire digital marketing budget only for a handful of backlinks from sites with DAs of 60 and above?

Now granted, the traffic generated from high DA sites tends to be high commitment. That’s because the link is relevant and perfect for attracting your ideal client. That’s why it’s worth pursuing high-quality backlinks – but only to a certain degree. 

Quantity has its place, too, if we’re being realistic. While backlinks from sites with DAs of 50 or below aren’t the most desirable – their value will add up. Still, you need to do your best to avoid spammy links, web directories, paid backlinks, private blog networks, and other ‘black hat’ practices. 

In short, you should aim to build high-quality backlinks (more on how to do this in a bit) as well as build quantity with so-so backlinks. As long as you avoid bad backlinks, you should find success with this ‘best of both worlds’ link-building strategy. 

What Are Toxic Backlinks?

If you use a tool like SEMrush, you may have noticed ‘toxic’ backlink markers during an audit. There are numerous markers that identify links as toxic, and it may cause concern. 

It turns out that according to Google itself, the search engine has no concept of a toxic backlink. Sometimes SEO tools such as these make assumptions about search engines that don’t turn out to be true. 

If a toxic backlink is causing you concern, you should know that it’s likely not doing any harm to your website. Even if it’s reading as hurting your DA – remember that it’s not a metric Google actually takes into account. Still, you can disavow the link if you feel that it’s hurting your ability to rank on a particular search engine results page. 

What’s more important is to make sure that the referring domains are quality according to the criteria listed above. As long as the domain is unique with a reliable IP address and relates to your content – it should be fine. 

How to Acquire High-Quality Backlinks Without Going Broke

All right, now it’s time to learn how you can obtain desirable backlinks to improve your SEO. The following techniques are cost-effective (mostly free) ways to get quality links – so you don’t have to worry about wasting your budget. 

Create and share relevant infographics

Infographics are fantastic and informative visuals great for producing quality content. Plenty of web pages generate tons of traffic to view infographics containing current statistics and helpful information. 

Nothing quite sums up the basics of a topic like a masterfully-crafted infographic. 

The good news is you can use them to build high-quality backlinks, too. 

All you need is Photoshop or an account on a platform like Canva. From there, create an infographic that relates to your niche. Going with the guitar example from before, you could create a guitar-shaped infographic that breaks down the different string gauges. 

You now have a helpful visual that can help other websites in your industry, too. 

With some polite outreach, you can request a backlink from related blogs to share your infographic. It’s a win for them because they get to use your awesome graphic – and it’s a win for you because you obtain a desirable backlink. 

For it to work, you’ll need to create a list of related blogs in your industry that have strong authority. Once the infographic is complete, reach out to each site owner via email. To avoid sounding robotic, add a comment or two on their blog posts and what you like about them. 

Engage in guest blogging

Another free and reliable way to snag backlinks is to write a guest post for a related blog or website. Once again, this technique will live and die by the quality of your outreach. 

Do your best to find a group of high-authority blogs and websites in your niche. 

Email the site owner and ask if they’re interested in guest blogging. You can write a guest post for them in exchange for a backlink and vice-versa. 

It’s another example of a win-win for both parties, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a blogger that’s willing to do it. Yet, not every blog engages in guest posts for various reasons. 

Here are a few tricks you can use to find blogs that enable guest posts:

• Enter keywords into Google such as guest blog, write for us, guest author, write an article, etc. That’s a sure-fire way to find blogs to write for in the SERPs. 
• Find someone that writes a lot of guest posts and do a reverse image search of their photo in Google. That will provide you with a list of blogs they wrote for – so you’ll know those blogs accept guest posts. 

Use the skyscraper technique

The skyscraper technique is a fantastic way to go after high-value backlinks. It’s taken the SEO world by storm recently, mainly because it gets results. It works by identifying high-ranking content in your niche (the tallest ‘skyscrapers’ in your industry) that has valuable backlinks and then outdoing their content. 

How do you do that?

Well, read their article and identify all the areas it could be better. Is there a video or an infographic? Can you provide deeper insights or go into more detail?

Don’t skimp here; it’s crucial to create a piece of content that’s 5 to 10x better than the original. 

From there, you’ll want to do outreach for each of its backlinks. Let the site owners know that you’ve created something better, and provide the link. Politely ask for them to provide an inbound link to your piece of content instead – and that’s all there is to it. 

Closing Thoughts: Backlink Quality 

By now, you should have a better understanding of what determines the quality of a backlink. Ideally, a strong backlink is one from a high-authority site that occurs early in the article. While that’s impossible to achieve every time – it is the gold standard for backlinks. 

As far as quality vs. quantity, only aiming for backlinks from websites with astronomical DA won’t find you much success. Instead, you should aim for a balance of both high-quality backlinks and quantity from so-so backlinks (that don’t break any rules). 

Supercharge your link building strategies with The HOTH 

Are you ready to gain access to over 25 of the most robust SEO and PPC tools on the internet? If so, feel free to sign up for an account on The HOTH website today. 

To take your link-building to the next level, check out our suite of link-building services. Options include guest blogging, foundational link-building, a backlink booster, and so much more. 

If you don’t have time to handle the SEO for your company – HOTH X will provide fully managed SEO services to generate targeted traffic for you. Also, if you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it on social media! 

The post Backlink Quality: How to Bolster Your Backlink Profile in 2022  appeared first on The HOTH.

In fact, the CBD industry is expected to reach $7.8 billion in 2022, with more continued growth on the horizon. 

As such, CBD products and websites are popping up left and right – meaning you need a flawless marketing strategy to stay ahead of the competition. 

That’s why CBD SEO services have exploded recently, as dominating the organic search is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies around – with the ability to generate an ROI as high as 12.2x your marketing spend. 

One of the most essential aspects of SEO for achieving higher rankings is link building. That’s especially true when it comes to penetrating the top 5 on the SERPs (search engine results pages). 

A study by Backlinko found that the #1 result on Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than other positions. 

If you want to generate more traffic, leads, and sales for your CBD business – you need to know how to implement a winning link building strategy. 

Lucky for you, that’s exactly what we’re going to show you how to do today – as we’ve compiled the most effective ways to tackle link building for CBD SEO. 

Let’s go!

Why Is Link Building for CBD SEO So Crucial?

If you’ve already done some SEO for your CBD company (such as keyword research and content creation) – you may wonder if it’s necessary to spend time and effort building links. 

The answer is a definite yes, and there are lots of reasons for that. 

First and foremost, domain authority (DA) matters to search engines – even if it isn’t a direct ranking factor that Google uses. 

What’s that?

Your domain authority is a score calculated by Moz that determines how likely you are to rank on search engines. Your DA is a score from 1 – 100, and you can use our domain authority checker tool to check your DA score and the DA score for competing websites. 

Google and other search engines only want to link to high-quality, trustworthy sites that contain relevant, factual information. 

How do they determine which sites are trustworthy and which aren’t?

A few ways, but the most prevalent is by checking the backlink profile of a website. If the site has a number of high-authority backlinks pointing to it (links from trusted domains like .edu, .gov, and other domains with high DA scores), a search engine will view it as a trusted source. 

In a nutshell, that’s why link building for CBD SEO is such a big deal. A robust backlink profile from trusted sites conveys that you’re an established, high-quality website that releases accurate information. 

The relationship between backlinks and higher rankings

The more trustworthy you are to Google, the higher that you’ll rank for your keywords – and there’s hard evidence for this. 

The same study by Backlinko that we linked to previously also found that a higher DA score directly correlates to higher search rankings. 

Without using link building, you’ll have a very hard time penetrating the top 5 results. That’s because other SEO techniques will only get you so far. 

You can have flawless content that’s perfectly optimized for the right keywords – but if your backlink profile is nonexistent or lackluster – you’ll easily get outranked by competing sites that have lots of high-quality links pointing to them. 

So in order to stay competitive with other CBD websites, link building MUST be a part of your overall SEO strategy. 

Constructing a CBD Link Building Strategy 

Acquiring backlinks is only one component of link building for CBD SEO. In general, there are three primary areas of focus when it comes to building links:

• Optimizing your internal linking structure
• Using high-quality external links in your posts 
• Obtaining backlinks through paid and non-paid methods 

As you can see, internal and external links also play a significant role in link building, and it’s no different for your CBD company. 

Internal links and orphan pages

As an easy starting point, begin by analyzing your internal links. As a rule of thumb, every page on your website should have at least one internal link pointing to it. 

If not, it’s considered an ‘orphan page,’ which isn’t good for your SEO. 

How do you know if you have any orphan pages on your website?

You can use a website crawler like Screaming Frog to quickly find out. All you have to do is run a crawl for pages that have zero inbound links, and any orphaned pages you may have will show up.

When writing new blog posts, identify areas where you can link to existing pages via relevant anchor text. 

As an example, say you’re writing a blog about CBD marketing techniques on your website. 

You mention content marketing at one point, which makes you remember that you wrote an in-depth post on content marketing the previous month. 

By using ‘content marketing’ as anchor text, you can link back to the other blog post. 

Internal links are not only great for your SEO but also for your readers. They serve as a way to keep readers engaged with your content, which means they will spend more time on your website – and may even make a purchase or sign up for your newsletter as a result. 

Identifying opportunities for external links 

External links will also boost your domain authority, so you should aim to use them wherever you can. 

Remember, not all external links are desirable, as some will have a poor DA score. If you link to a website that has a low DA, it will hurt your DA in turn – so always check the DA score for any site you plan to link to. 

Another rule of thumb is to never link to a competitor page or a page that serves as a replacement for your content. 

For instance, if you’re writing a blog about managing a cannabis business, you wouldn’t want to link to another article covering the same topic. That’s because a reader may click on it and decide to continue reading their article instead of yours. 

That’s why you should always link to articles that complement your piece but don’t replace it. 

Instead of linking to a competitor article, you could link to a case study following a cannabis business owner on their journey to success. 

When linking externally, try to find relevant pages from trusted domains like .edu and .gov – as they’ll boost your DA. Whenever possible, link to scholarly studies and scientific journals. 

Acquiring CBD backlinks 

Last but not least, backlinks are a core component of link building. There are a number of ways to go about building backlinks, including paid methods. There are entire websites dedicated to selling backlinks, and they tend to vary in quality. 

Cheaper backlinks are often not worth it, as they’re cheap for a reason. If you have the budget, though, it can be worth paying for high-authority backlinks. 

Yet, there are plenty of ways that you can acquire backlinks for free if you have the time to dedicate to it. 

Proven Ways to Generate High-Authority Backlinks for Free 

Why pay for backlinks if you don’t have to? If you have a few staff members to spare for it, you can build backlinks without having to pay a dime. 

There are lots of ways to go about it, including:

• Creating a resource page 
• The Skyscraper Method
• Guest posts
• The broken links method
• Claiming unlinked brand mentions

Let’s take a closer look et each technique for acquiring backlinks for your CBD business or cannabis dispensary. 

Create a resource page on your site 

A clever way to obtain backlinks while also providing value to your readers is to create a resource page. 

That’s where you compile a list of blogs, businesses, and resource websites within your niche. For each resource, you include an external link and a brief description. 

In the case of CBD, you could create a resource page linking to:

• Educational CBD blogs with high domain authority
• Cannabis dispensaries
• Government sites discussing the legality of CBD and cannabis
• CBD influencers and fellow bloggers 
• Cannabis SEO companies 

Those are just a few ideas of the types of websites you could target for a resource page. You can go with just about anything as long as the websites have two things:

• A) A high domain authority
• B) Relevance to your target audience 

The list of resources should be related to your target audience’s interests or needs to ensure it generates organic traffic. Beyond that, it should be a trusted website that has a desirable domain authority score to ensure the backlink is worth pursuing. 

Once you compile the list, it’s time to do email outreach. Send a polite email to every website that you include in the post. 

Let them know that you’ve included them on a resource page and that you’re requesting a backlink. 

It’s likely to work as you’ve already established some trust, and you acknowledged them as a thought leader in your field – so they’ll likely return the favor by linking to your page. 

The skyscraper method 

Coined by SEO guru Brian Dean of Backlinko, the skyscraper method quickly became a staple of the SEO link building world. 

(image source)

It involves identifying the most desirable backlinks from top-ranking websites in your field, or ‘skyscrapers.’ 

These are the blogs and websites occupying the coveted #1 and #2 organic spots on Google and other search engines. They’ve already climbed to the top of the castle, which is why their backlinks are the cream of the crop. 

Pro tip: You can use our free backlink checker tool to instantly view the backlink profiles of your top competitors. 

Once you’ve honed in on the backlinks you want to poach, it’s time to outdo the content they’re currently linking to – and not by a small margin, either. 

Ideally, you want to create a piece that’s 10x stronger than what’s already there. 

How do you do that?

Look for areas where you can go into more detail than the original post. For example, if they list the top 25 cannabis strains, list the top 100 instead – complete with pictures, videos, and infographics if you can. 

Anything you can do that provides more insights and value to the reader will enhance the content. Visuals are a big deal, so include high-resolution images that relate to your post.

Once your elite-level content is complete, reach out to the original post’s backlinks. Let them know that you have a stronger piece (make sure to link to it so they can see it for themselves), and politely request a backlink. 

If your content is indeed more valuable, they’ll likely want to link to your piece instead. 

Guest Posting 

Many consider guest blogging to be the gold standard for acquiring free backlinks. 

While it is a fantastic way to build links and raise brand awareness, there are right and wrong ways to go about it. 

Picking any blog willy-nilly and writing a post that provides no value just to get a backlink won’t work. 

Search engine algorithms are smarter than that these days, and they’ll pick up on the fact that you’re only guest blogging to get a link. That’s why you need to be highly strategic with your guest posts, and you need to dedicate time and effort to them. 

The first step is to make sure that you’re posting on a blog that’s related to what you do. For CBD companies, it could be a CBD or cannabis blog or a health and wellness blog that features CBD products. 

Also, make sure that the site you’re posting on has decent domain authority. Otherwise, a link from them will hurt your DA score instead of helping it. 

Next, write a guest post that informs and educates readers about a relevant subject. You could share a case study or testimonial where your products helped someone out or provide a detailed look at the current state of the CBD industry. 

This type of selective guest posting will yield not only backlinks but serious rewards in the form of increased organic traffic, qualified leads, and higher rankings. 

Finding sites that accept guest posts

When it comes to guest blogging, finding a website where you can write a guest post is half the battle. Not every blog will accept guest authors, and some aren’t worth pursuing a backlink from in the first place. 

So how do you find desirable websites for your guest blogs?

There are a few ways – one of which is to use plain old Google search. Try searching for keywords like ‘CBD guest posts wanted,’ ‘looking for CBD guest blogs,’ ‘suggest CBD post ideas,’ etc. 

If you don’t find anything through that method, you can take to social media sites to search for guest post opportunities. Twitter tends to be the most effective, as you can often find blogs accepting guest posts with a quick search. 

Use the broken link building method 

If you don’t have time to write guest blogs or outdo competitor content, a quick and easy way to pick up a few backlinks is to replace broken links. 

42.5% of websites have broken links – and that includes CBD websites and blogs. 

You can use that to your advantage by uncovering broken links on CBD blogs – and then offering to replace the link with similar content from your website. 

You can use the Check My Links Chrome extension to quickly scan for broken links on any website you visit. Let’s say that you discover a broken link for a blog post on the benefits of CBD oil. You could then reach out to the webmaster and offer your post on CBD oil benefits as a replacement. 

It’s beneficial for them to say yes for two reasons – one, because it removes a broken link which is bad for their SEO – and two, they pick up some link juice of their own by hyperlinking to your high-value page.

Claiming unlinked brand mentions 

Another quick and free way to acquire backlinks is to claim unlinked brand mentions that are floating around online. 

What are those?

An unlinked brand mention is an instance where another website mentioned your brand but failed to include a backlink. 

They could have been reviewing your product, listing companies in your industry, or mentioning what you do because it relates to their topic. Whatever the reason, an unlinked mention is a backlink opportunity just waiting for you to pick up on it. 

Ahrefs Content Explorer is a particularly useful tool for uncovering unlinked brand mentions. They have a massive index containing almost a billion pages, so the tool is bound to pick up any mentions of your brand. 

Simply search for your brand name while excluding your domain by typing: -site:yoursite.com. From there, you’ll see a complete list of every website mentioning your brand. You shouldn’t pursue every unlinked mention, only those from websites with high DA scores. 

Concluding Thoughts: Link Building for CBD SEO 

Those are the most effective ways to go about link building for CBD SEO. To rank in the top 5 on the SERPs, you need an impeccable link profile that includes high-authority backlinks, external links, and internal links. 

Methods like outdoing competitor content, fixing broken links, and claiming unlinked brand mentions are completely free ways to generate backlinks. 

That will help your brand rank higher and carve a place for itself in the competitive CBD industry. 

If you’re too busy running your CBD e-commerce store to focus on link building, our team of experts can handle it for you at The HOTH. Our link building strategies are proven effective, and we incorporate every strategy you see on this list and more – so don’t wait to get in touch now.

The post Link Building for CBD SEO: Tactics to Get High-Quality Backlinks appeared first on The HOTH.

That’s why SEO is often the only option for CBD companies. If you want to expand your reach beyond a local brick-and-mortar store while complying with ever-changing regulations, this post is for you.

We’ve put together the best CBD SEO practices that can help businesses rank higher on Google Search. You’ll learn how to reach your target audience and stake out a good spot for your brand early in the game.

Why Do CBD Companies Absolutely Need SEO?

The CBD market was valued at $4.9 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach a whopping $47.22 billion by 2028. You still have a chance to become an early adopter — start leveraging SEO to promote your CBD business before the segment gets too crowded and competitive.

SEO will remain relevant to businesses as long as search engines exist. It’s true that their algorithms get smarter day by day, and it’s getting harder to achieve quick wins, but the SEO basics haven’t changed too much.

If you invest time and effort into your CBD SEO and SEM, you can expect to see positive long-term results in a few months. Since the CBD industry is here to stay, it is a reasonable timeframe, especially considering the SEO benefits for cannabis brands.

So, what exactly can you achieve by optimizing your website for search engines?

• Generate more quality leads. If you target the right keywords, your website will attract users with strong purchase intent but also educate and convince those still on the fence about CBD products.
• Build brand authority and credibility. Users trust high-ranking resources — over 25% click the first organic search result, and less than 2.5% scroll beyond position #10.
• Target multiple audiences. CBD products have a wide target audience, including various age groups, so you can gain more attention by targeting different segments with a wide range of keywords and content.
• Reduce your brand’s dependency on social media algorithms. Make sure that your marketing efforts won’t go down the drain just because someone reported you on Instagram or TikTok suddenly banned your viral video.
• Avoid the risk of being banned for paid advertising. In the case of CBD products, the unwritten rules of SEO are more straightforward, reliable, and predictable than the Google Ads policy or Facebook’s guidelines.
• Save time and money by getting more organic traffic. SEO means playing a long game and ensuring that your website will bring you more and more leads in the future without your active participation.
• Improve your general brand visibility. Increase brand awareness by getting more unique visitors and placing your brand name among the most trustworthy and sought-after CBD brands.
• Invest in a long-term marketing strategy. Working on your SEO will help you polish your offer, make valuable connections through link-building, improve the usability of your website, and fill it with content that your potential customers truly need.

10 SEO Best Practices for CBD brands

If you’re new to SEO, it’s quite easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information out there. Thankfully, you won’t need to dive deep into technicalities if you are using any of the top code-free content management systems — they’ll do most of the work for you.

For example, they can automatically generate your XML sitemap or instantly compress, resize, and convert your images to make your pages load faster. That being said, some SEO activities can’t and shouldn’t be automated, and that’s what we’re going to discuss in this section.

Follow these tried-and-true tips and best practices for cannabis SEO to get ahead of the competition without having to spend a fortune on risky ad campaigns or play it too safe on social media.

#1. Run an SEO audit

Before you start doing any optimization, you need to find out what exactly needs to be improved. An SEO audit is the best way to do that.

It helps you identify issues affecting your organic search performance. In other words, it’s like a full health check-up for your resource, and it also needs to be done regularly.

An SEO audit can show you if your website has:

• JS and CSS errors
• slow load time
• poor website architecture
• unnecessary code
• duplicate content and titles
• missing alt tags
• duplicate or missing meta descriptions
• broken or irrelevant external and internal links
• any of the common UX mistakes
• identical or missing header tags
• content gaps

A thorough audit can take days or even weeks to conduct. You can perform some parts of your SEO audit yourself using intuitive online tools like this free website SEO audit tool. However, to fully understand the bigger picture, you might need to hire an SEO professional or an agency.

#2. Analyze your competitors and their keyword strategy

The CBD market gets more crowded day by day, so you need to monitor your direct and indirect competitors and the keywords they’re targeting.

This helps you not miss out on opportunities and better understand how to start winning in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

(Image Source)

In addition, keyword research helps you discover trending searches and generate new keyword ideas.

You can do this manually on Google or use the Google Ads Keyword Planner, but most marketers rely on keyword research tools. You can, for example, use our free keyword planner for Google, which shows search volumes, competition, difficulty, and relevant keywords.

#3. Improve your website loading speed

According to a Google and Deloitte study, a mere 0.1s increase in loading time can boost sales conversions by 8.4%, average order value by 9.2%, and bounce rate by 8.3%. Plus, it’s an official Google ranking factor in and of itself, so speeding up your site is a must.

There’s no need for guesswork — just try Google PageSpeed Insights, Test My Site, GTmetrix, or Pingdom Website Speed Test to measure the loading speed of your website and pinpoint any potential issues.

(Image Source)

The aforementioned website speed test tools can also generate recommendations for your website and help you address specific problems to improve your site’s loading speed.

#4. Make your website mobile-friendly and conversion-oriented

Mobile-friendliness is a crucial factor for cannabis SEO, which hardly comes as a surprise. If you sell lifestyle and wellness products, you want your customers to be able to purchase from you with ease, without having to change devices. Otherwise, their bumpy user experience will totally undermine your selling proposition.

That’s another reason to conduct an SEO audit. A comprehensive audit will tell you how mobile-friendly your website is, which is a huge ranking factor since mobile devices account for more than half of organic search engine visits. Also, companies that commit to great mobile design see increases in revenue of 32% on average.

#5. Analyze user intent and target more specific keywords

The CBD market is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.2%. It makes sense to target a specific niche instead of trying to fight all the biggest players at once.

To achieve that, you need to target low-competition, long-tail keywords that are more relevant to what your target customer is searching for. Targeting more general, highly competitive keywords would be more expensive. Also, many of them are purely informational.

Use the keyword tools we’ve mentioned above to discover easy-to-target keywords your competitors are sleeping on.

Most even calculate the so-called keyword difficulty for you — a complex metric showing how easy or hard it is to rank for any particular keyword.

#6. Don’t forget about meta tags, H1s, and alt tags

It’s easy to get carried away and forget about the essentials — even if your CMS auto-generates meta descriptions for you, it’s still better to double-check them and manually optimize them for your key website pages.

The same goes for headings — make sure that all your important pages include semantic keywords and relevant questions in subheaders and use the correct header tags. Your headings should accurately summarize the contents of your page, not only highlight relevant keywords. By using different header tags, you can create a clear and intuitive hierarchy for each of your pages.

Although image alt tags aren’t as crucial for SEO, they can positively impact your ranking because they make your content more accessible for visually impaired users and visitors with slow Internet connections.

#7. Focus on local SEO

If you own a physical store, you can target potential customers living or working in close proximity to your business. To put it another way, when someone performs a local search for CBD products, your store’s name will pop up in the results.

Local SEO is another way to create organic visibility for your brand. Unsurprisingly, Google does not reveal the exact ranking factors, but the company does shed some light on what business owners should do to appear in local results on Google Maps and Search:

1. Enter complete business data (address, phone number, category, etc.) and keep your information up to date.
2. Verify your business location.
3. Update your business hours info regularly.
4. Actively respond to customer reviews.
5. Add photos demonstrating your products or services.

#8. Work on your internal linking

Internal links point from one page to another and help users and search engines discover related pages on your website. They create logical connections between your website pages.

This optimization tactic is often completely neglected or underutilized, even though it’s practically free. You can use it strategically to boost your cannabis SEO by:

1. Passing authority from “more influential” to “less powerful” website pages.
2. Enhancing your UX by helping your visitors discover more of your content.
3. Using internal links to provide more context.

You can evaluate your existing internal linking by using one of the SEO tools we recommended earlier.

#9. Create authoritative CBD content and earn strong backlinks

Backlinks are considered to be the lifeblood of SEO — they give your pages “weight” and make them more trustworthy resources in the eyes of search engines like Google.

Create authoritative, in-depth CBD-related content and use it for guest posting and earning quality backlinks. Participating in the online CBD community allows you to improve your SEO while also sharing your knowledge and expertise.

You can work with opinion leaders and lifestyle bloggers to get extremely valuable backlinks from related websites. Since CBD oil is all the rage, many creators and magazines will be happy to review a new product or interview you as a CBD entrepreneur.

Here are more reasons why you should double down on content marketing to boost your CBD SEO:

1. Educate your audience on the science-backed benefits of CBD to increase dwell time and win their trust.
2. Use informative SEO-friendly blog posts to drive organic traffic.
3. Prove your brand legitimacy and leadership.
4. Attract a new audience through guest posts.

Make sure to run an SEO link audit regularly — it will allow you to check your website link profile and spot broken or low-quality links.

#10. Use social media to drive website traffic and help your SEO

Even if you can’t run promotional campaigns on social media, you can still attract attention to your CBD brand and make it more visible. Here’s how Instagram and other social platforms can help you with that:

1. Distribute your content more efficiently and attract high-quality leads.
2. Use social shares to signal to Google that many users are interested in your offer.
3. Create searchable high-value content pieces such as podcasts and share them on social media.
4. Publish expert videos to encourage backlinking.
5. Build your brand community and make your audience more engaged.
6. Strengthen your brand reputation to indirectly demonstrate the validity of your website to Google.
7. Increase brand recognition and get more organic traffic.
8. Boost your local SEO by getting tagged and mentioned in relation to a specific location.

Create your CBD SEO strategy in a hands-off manner

While you can invest the time in managing these SEO best practices yourself, imagine the luxury of having your own personal SEO expert working one-on-one with you. That’s what HOTH X is — we offer comprehensive and personalized SEO services.

We design a customized CBD SEO strategy for you, execute it, and send you transparent reports showing everything we’ve achieved. On top of that, we offer flexible pricing and packages.

Book a call to get your free 30-minute strategy session!

The post High on Google: How to Improve Your CBD SEO appeared first on The HOTH.