Search Engine Optimization – Atalosweb Digital Marketing and Web Design Agency https://www.atalosweb.com Tue, 28 Nov 2023 16:11:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.12 https://www.atalosweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-digital-marketing-agency-atalosweb-transparent-32x32.png Search Engine Optimization – Atalosweb Digital Marketing and Web Design Agency https://www.atalosweb.com 32 32 7 most common mistakes in blog posting and how to avoid them https://www.atalosweb.com/7-most-common-mistakes-in-blog-posting/ Wed, 02 Jun 2021 04:11:21 +0000 https://www.atalosweb.com/?p=3565 Millions of people use the internet to search for products, services, information even entertainment online. After the pandemic, a new lifestyle has emerged, and it’s here to stay. That has made blogging an integral part of marketing strategy. But the content must convey a clear message across, and people should be able to appreciate it.  Your aim is for the blog to “click” and bring money.

Here we have a guideline to avoid the most common mistakes in blog posting that will help you achieve your desired goal.

 Just avoid these 7 most common mistakes:

1. It isn’t what you write but how you write it. Why?

You research, you write well,l but no one “clicks” to read your content or even read past the first paragraph. What do you do wrong? 

3 simple ways to fix it:

You don’t know your readers. Who are they?

It is good to know your target audience to address them directly and communicate your message briefly and clearly. Remember, you are writing for a general audience. You don’t know their background, social status, education, or locality.If you promote a home product, the readers want some information, understand its use, and why they need it. Technical jargon will not do the job.

● You don’t know what they are searching for. How to learn about their interests?

By researching your keywords, you can learn a lot about the readers you’re targeting and directing to your website.

You make a promise that you don’t keep

To avoid such a blunder, make a plan, an outline for your content.

Plan your blog content before you start writing, and break it down into sections. An outline helps you avoid mistakes like repeating or including irrelevant information.

It also helps merge similar ideas under the same heading and check that you have covered all points.

Remember“People judge a book by its cover and read a blog by its title”!

Thorough keyword research determines the success of your content. The right keywords bring SEO-optimized headlines, and when used in eye-catching- ones, they compel readers to click and read the content to satisfy their curiosity.

It is advisable to finish your content first and then write your title.

● Keywords are the backbone of your content! Do you use them wisely?

Keywords do not only improve the domain authority of your site. They also let Google know your site is alive.But don’t overlook search queries, the terms, phrases people use in search engines. They reflect their thought and helpyou target the right keywords.

You only need 4-5 powerful keywords to take the reader down to the last line.

The keywords should appear throughout your blog content in the title, and the paragraphs, to maintain readability to the end. 

It’s also advisable to target long-tail keywords that are almost impossible to target within the copy of your website.

How powerful keywords in your title take the reader down to the last line?

The headline should convey the main point of your content with a keyword in it!

Yet, it must be short and simple to read at a glance.  But also unique to differentiate your content in the search engines. 

Use up to 55 characters to write search engine-friendly blog titles.

It is advisable to finish your content first and then write your title.

Glancing at the title, readers should know what the content is about and if it interests them, and how they will benefit by reading it.

2. Your headlines don’t make noise!  Say it loud! Be Emotional!  How?

Words are to a writer what color is to an artist!

Be creative, original, daring, and why not eccentric?  Use words that make an impact, strong verbs, adjectives, and adverbs!  Do not fear using unconventional adjectives to make the difference.

Write titles to excite your readers, make them eye-catching and effective.  Strong headlines will increase your traffic and revenue in no time.

Numbers work like magic

They are easy to read, prepare the readers for the length of the content and

keep the reader engaged reading through all the points

Do some cheating! Use Question Formulas. How?

People use search engines to look for information, focus on the questions they ask and how they ask them.

When you type something in Google or YouTube, it automatically suggests several search terms.  That’s what people have in mind and have a high search rate.

Question words: Why, Where, When, and How to arouse curiosity.

How to write compelling headlines?

Why are keywords vital?

What is SEO-optimized content?

3. Why bother with headings in every blog post – here’s why!

Headings are short phrases that prepare the readers for the upcoming paragraph. Headings organize the information you wish to convey and allow readers to focus on the parts that interest them most.

Headings contribute to well-organized content

The headings help organize your ideas, give a clear structure of your text, and show readers the points you cover. So, they can scroll down to the section that interests them easy, and effortlessly.  Remember that readers want answers, and they want them fast, on the spot.

● Consistent use of headings helps your search engine optimization.

Google uses headings to index your content and identify its main topic. Some headings should contain your keyword. That helps search engines to recognize that keyword as relevant to your content which brings better rankings.

●Headings break your text into smaller sections and facilitate understanding

Blog posts are usually between 500 to1000 words, maybe more. You want your readers to stay focused and engage in your content.

Headings divide your post into smaller sections. Each section expresses a different point, making it easier to understand.

The best way to use headings in every blog post is as titles to the different sections. When you break up your blog into sections, write a sub-heading for each one.

However, try not to write more than 250 words between the sections, or you will fail your purpose for headings.

 Subheadings are vital to keeping attention. Sub-headings are usually h2 or h3 headings in the HTML structure, and common sense suggests these are good places for keywords to boost SEO.

What a headline does for the post, a subhead does for each subsection ofyour content, so simply apply the same rules.

Treat your subheads like your headlines as another opportunity to stand out, to grab your readers’ attention, and keep them on your site long enough to transform them into “Shares.”

4. Your Readers are Scanners! What can you do?

Readers have become scanners. They scan your content, and within 10 sec they determine if it interests them or not.

Keep paragraphs short and easy to scan to encourage your readers.

Use the space between sections to add an image or a video or even let the eye rest. That will make your content visually easy even to the reader who’s just scanning.

Also, if you are skeptical about how you can convey more information without losing them, try different techniques.  Change the font and format. Change the text color and size include bold and italic parts, images, and links.

More for Less!

Readers want to read less, still get more information. Shorter paragraphs create an illusion that the content is short and easy to scan.

They prefer reading several short paragraphs, so keep them short and underline, bold, or italicize words to help readers stay focused on your point.

5. You don’t encourage readability. Why not try this?

Another trick to break your content and keep readers engaged is bullets.

Write them as if “they’re mini-headlines.”

Keep your bullet points symmetrical.

Maintain the same style and length.

Begin each bullet with the same part of speech and the same grammatical form.

Keep your punctuation consistent.

Capitalize the first word but for single-word bulletslowercase.

Add periods to short sentences but not too short phrases or incomplete sentences.

6. Your Readers don’t Stay Long on Your Site

The longer your readers remain on your site, the more they engage, comment on your blog post, share and like it, and the better it is for SEO,

Help your readers remain on your site. Within your blog post, link to a past blog, post that includes relevant content, or provides additional information. As some topics may need more content, you can write follow-ups and interlink them. So readers can read in sequence.

Include audio and visuals, graphs, images, and videos boost your content’s value and will rank higher in search engines both on Google and YouTube.

7. Don’t get enough “Shares” and “Likes”? Easy!

To know your audience means you know what they are researching. Craft content to satisfy their needs, bring more shares, and generate more organic traffic to your site.Include the terms and phrases they use, so when they read your content, they’ll relate and be eager to continue and “share.”

The “Shares” will bring more readers who will probably read at a later time. As you want them to “share” it, too, all you have to do is create “evergreen” content. That means your information will be equally valuable and appreciated whenever read at any time in the future.

Designing captivating visual content isn’t difficult. Make your content attractive and shareable.

When you brand your images, your blog is easy- recognized, and your readers are more likely to click, read, and share it on social media.

Finish off with a Call-to-Action.Don’t hesitate to ask for comments and shares or invite them to come back to your blog post.

Always double check your work- Then Publish

When you have your blog ready and set, check the following list before you click “publish.” Have I performed the following?

Craft an attention-grabbing headline and Subheadings?

Added interlink posts to increase engagement?

Included a content upgrade?

Design attractive -visual content?

Added a call-to-action for Social Media?

All writers want their content to be read, not scanned.  To capture the reader is a good thing but to keep them reading is an accomplishment.

Can’t do it alone? Tech is here to help you find other ways to increase drives more traffic, shares, and search results for your blog.

Find share-worthy content at Buzzsumo’s (free trial), and type in what you plan on writing your blog post about,

Check Pinterest pins with most saves.

Use  Canva(free tool)  to create graphics.

Create an AdWords account to search for search volume

Research blog posts and videos that have gone viral.

Use CoSchedule’s free Blog Post Headline Analyzer. It analyzes the structure, grammar, and readability of your headline,

Draftposts in Scriverner to improve subheads

Yoast SEO plugin, target several keywords based on your main keyword

For long-tail- keywords, use Quora

KeywordSpy

Moz Analytics’ Keyword Analysis Tool

SECockpit

UberSuggest

KeywordTool

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Writing Headlines that Convert – The Ultimate 19 Steps Guide https://www.atalosweb.com/ultimate-guide-to-writing-headlines-that-convert/ https://www.atalosweb.com/ultimate-guide-to-writing-headlines-that-convert/#comments Sun, 16 May 2021 11:00:42 +0000 https://www.atalosweb.com/?p=3531 In a fast-growing online market, everything evolves at the speed of light.  To stay in the competition and have the edge over your competitors, you must familiarize yourself with all the tricks of the digital market. Nowadays, online marketers are fully aware of the importance content writing plays in their business.   So, do not overlook the significance of an appealing headline in SEO.

Your headlines are what your audience sees first.  It doesn’t matter what it is,  a product or service, or how useful it may be the audience will never know if your headlines won’t take them there.  If your audience is not interested, all your efforts will be fruitless.  Great headlines give your content more visibility and help you rank higher in search engines, so it pays to enrich your headline skills and start writing headlines that convert.

Follow the 19-step ultimate guide to eye-catching headlines that convert.

1. Determine your target audience.

Who is your audience? Before you even start on your content, you must know who you are addressing. The same information, different headlines can be in unlimited ways to be more compelling and have a different impact on your target audience. Some points to consider are age group, social status, locality, education, or skills that may be required. It all depends on what you market. Remember any writing style that may appeal to one group may disappoint the others.

2. How to make your Headlines bring more organic traffic

Write your headline with the most relevant keyword of your content. You should SEO optimize your headline to ensure it ranks high in engine searches.  Use power words, such as verbs and adjectives that will draw your target audience. 

Consider the purpose of your article: is it to convince, inform, educate, or entertain?  Concentrate on the goal of your page and stay focused on your “keywords.”  Write several different headlines and choose the one that best suits your aim.

3. Keep It Short and Clear

Make your point at a glance. Just name your brand, product, or service and what or how the customer benefits.

State the obvious in your headline briefly and clearly to make it easy to understand. When potential customerscatch a glimpse of your headline, they shouldn’t need any help to figure out what you’re selling.

According to Statistica, a person’s attention span is 8.25 seconds, and people’s attention span decreases every year.

So, be straight forward use simple words to convey your message. Always use common words and adjectives that people can relate to, keep it clear and short.

Examples:

Best athletic shoes. 30% OFF if you order now

OnlineWriting Course. Register now and get a FREE e-book

Looking for a Fast PC? Best Offer for Few Days Only.

4. Adjectives Make all the Differences

Adjectives are necessary because they make – a big (gigantic, enormous, considerable, humongous) difference.  Use descriptive adjectives and give your headline a boost and make it unique and most catchy to your audience’s needs.

Don’t be afraid to be unique and creative.  In other words, your headline has to be different from others todistinguishyou from your competition.

Look for descriptive wordsrarely used in headlines. Be original instead of saying “The Most Popular Vacation Destination,” why not say “The Least Known Vacation Destination for Memorable Holidays!”

Examples:

Ergonomically Designed Desk to Work from Home

The Most Useful  Book you will Read

Best Dietary Supplement for Vegans and Vegetarians

5. Let Emotional Words Do the Trick

Different words bring different results.  Some words evoke different feelings and emotions. Use emotional, impulsive words that can motivate your audience into action.

People want to achieve their goals while others want to avoid mistakes. By pointing out common errors in particular situations, you can draw their interest.

Examples:

7 Tricks to stick to your diet this time

How to get more “Clicks” for your Website

10 Guaranteed Tips to Avoid Injuries at Home

6. Explain to your Potential Customer how to Solve a Problem

Let your customer know what you offer and how you differentiate from your competitors. Why they should choose you over your competition.State it clearly in your headline. Your audience must have that information to “click” and continue reading. The longer you keep your audience engaged on your page, the more likely they will respond positively.

Examples:

Are you still Wasting your Time on Diet Pills and Still Weigh the Same?

Are you still spending on house maintenance without any results?

Still trying to quit smoking but can’t?

5 proven tip to increase your traffic

7. Pose  a Rhetoric Questioning your Headline

Such a headline should ask your audience to think and answer affirmatively with a “Yes.”  This response will motivate your target audience to read for more valuable information. 

Asking a question in the headline gets your audience more engaged. If the audience reads the question and feels compelled to answer it, the audience will read your content.

This headline applies to various products and services. It shows ways to solve a common problem without wasting time, cash, and effort. These factors matter the most to all. 

Examples:

10 Tips How to Write a Catchy Headline.  Are you still thinking?

Is your cell phone hurting your neck?  Contact us now!

Did you buy the wrong appliance? Here’s what you should do.

8. Arouse your Audience’s Curiosity

People want to be informed about new products and services, as well as interesting and useful ones. Even though your product or service may not be something new, it is how you present it that will be news.  Satisfy their curiosity by providing all the necessary information they need to know and add that extra feature your product or service offers.

Examples:

At Last Clean your House While you Sleep. Try this robot vacuum!

Here’s a New Method of Learning a Foreign Language in 7 days.

Try these Workouts to Stay Fit Without Sweating

9. Evoke a Feeling of Lack of Awareness.

Your headline should intrigue your audienceto read more to enhance their knowledge. It should keep them engaged on your page for more information.

Examples:

Here’s What You Don’t Know About Digital Market that could Cost You

All You Need to Know About Your Retirement Plan for Your Savings

Here’s What You Should Know About Headlines for Your Page

10. Use headline ‘formulas’ that Work for You

What makes a headline good is its style that is the  “the formula.”

Find the one that serves your needs:

The (9) Best Ways to (lose weight) Without (Dieting)

The (11) Most Important (Tools) for (your Website)

The (9) Best (Treatments) for (Back Pain)

The (15) Guaranteed (Ways) to (Earn Income for your Home)

How to (Get more Engagement in Social Media)

Why(Is an SEO Checklist Useful) for (your Site)?

You should try different headline formulas to see which one works best for you. But, when you use these formulas, make sure to include the keywords relevant to your content.  That will get your audience to engage or buy your product.

11. Provide Reassurance

People don’t want to waste their money nor their time.They want to achieve the best results without mistakes. By pointing out common mistakes your target audience may have experienced, you easily grasp their attention.

Inform them about the strengths of your product/service. People trust products and services already tried out by others. Let them know what your customers said about your product. Use 1st person and quotes:

Examples:

“It’s the best Dental product I have ever used!”

“The Most Effective Exercises I have done!”

People are very skeptical in our days before they make any online purchase

So, a headline is compelling when it states that a reliable group of people now recommend the product

Examples:

The Diet Pill Doctors Now Recommend

Doctors Explain 6 Things That Cause Swollen Legs and How to Treat it

12. Provoke action- Be persuasive

Your headlines must motivate your audience to act promptly so as not to miss the opportunity. Be earnest, and use the imperative. “Ask for your free trial now!” 

It is advisable to use “you” insuch headlines.

In every headline that contains ‘you,’ the engagement seems to increase.Your audience relates with the word “you” and gets more involved.

Stop Wasting Your Money on Groceries and Try Our “Meals on a Tray”

Invite them to a challenge, try something new to benefit.

Examples:

9 Secrets How to Buy More and Pay Less

How to Sleep Less and Still Wake Up Fresh for Work

13. Give Vital Information

Although people are overwhelmed with information through the media, what they search for is ways to use what they possess, broaden their experience, and grow their business potential, and improve their lifestyle.

Show them the trick, the secret formula that will improve their situation.

Examples:

7 Easy Tricks to Increase your ROI

9 Secrets you Need to Know Before You Retire

5 Top Holiday Destinations to Travel Before your 40s

Best Skin Care Cream. Get your FREE  Sample Today

12 Great Barbecuing Tips and Tricks!  Best great outdoor grilling tips and tricks

What is a ‘vaccine passport’?  Will you need one the next time you travel?

14. Write a Headline that Solves a Problem

After reading your headlines, the question is, “Why read it?”  They will, however, decide to do so if you convince them that you provide a solution to their problem. Why are you reading this now? Because you need help with your headline writing.

Examples:

Skin Acne is no longer a problem

Take these Vitamins to Boost your Energy

7 Easy Tricks to Grow your Business

15. Motivate your Customers to Compare 

Introduce a comparison in your headline. Consumers usually compare products before deciding on the purchase.  But ask them to compare things that matter to them and explain how they will benefit by choosing your product or service.

Examples:

Individual or Group Training: Which is Works Best for you?

The pros and Cons of Electric Bikes. Which to Choose

To hire a Web Designer or Download a Free App? Which Brings Best Results?

16. The “How to…….” And  “The Best way……” Formulas

People are very eager to achieve their goals. But they are also keen to reach them the quickest possible way. Nowadays, people are looking for l low cost, less time, and with less effort, ways to satisfy their needs.Try to deliver the promised results within the shortest period possible, but remain realistic about it. Try to provide solutions without extra expenses.

Examples:

How to Pay your Monthly Bills Working from Home

The 5 Best Tips to Recover after an Injury and Enjoy Life Again

How to Get the Job on Your First Interview

How to Feed your Family on $25 a day.

How the pandemic will shape our social life in 2021

How to Grow Your Veggies without a Garden

7 Steps – How to Make More Money from your Kitchen?

17. The First Impression Plays a Role

Currently, people are more concerned about the impression they make on others.  Image coaching is on the rise nowadays. They want to know more about themselves and how others see them. Fortunately or not, appearances are important. So, when you show them how your product or service can help them,  you get their attention.

Examples:

5 Things your Car Says about You

The First 6 Things a Decorators Notice When They Visit your Home

Do your Shoes Clash with Your Overall Appearance?

18. Put Numbers in your Headlines

Numbers are attention-catchers but written as numerals, not in words. That is because we read digits faster and easier, so 17 is easier to read at a glance than “seventeen.”

People also prefer numbers, especially in headlines. Numbers are something everyone understands and give a hint on how long an article may be.

Including numbers and numerical data in your headline is an effective way to attract more readers. Research studies have shown that headlines with numbers tend to generate even 70% more engagement.

It is also interesting to know the science behind odd numbers. You may have noticed that headlines often have more odd numbers than even numbers. That is because the brain registers odd numbers better than even ones.  For some reason, odd numbers help people understand and recall information easily.

Even more intriguing is that number 7 seems to get more “clicks”!

Examples:

9 out of 10 Marketers have Switched over to Outsourcing

85% of Entrepreneurs Work from Their Home

19. Don’t Overlook  Some Technicalities

●   A recent study conducted by Content Marketing Institute found that including a hyphen (-) or a colon (:) in the headline increased the click-through rate by 9%.

Examples:

Weddings in Santorini: The ultimate Summer Destination

Working from Home: Are you disciplined?

Invisalign – An invisible method that gives visible improvement to your smile

●    Build the headline around the keywords of your written content and make sure it has fewer than 70 characters because more words render it too long for Google to index.

● Write in capitals letters nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. Use lowercase articles -a, an, the, and prepositions.

●   Keyword search is required to achieve top ranking in search engines.

The right keywords will drive you leads, sales, and conversions. Of course, keep keywords relevant to your product and content.

Don’t Forget your Headline Checklist

Once you finish with your headlines, check and make sure you did the following:

● Determine your target audience

● State what you can deliver

●  Write powerful verbs and adjectives

●  Pose a question

●  Arouse curiosity

●  Provide a solution

●  Give reassurance

●  Ask for a comparison

●  Provide relevant and new information

●  Try various styles of headline formulas and structures

Check your Audience Engagement

Within 1 – 2 months, check for customers’ inquiries.  If you got some new customers, then your headlines are working.

But don’t rest on your laurels. Keep working, optimize and improve them.

You should figure out which content is driving the most leads for your business. When you do that, you are on your way to improving conversions and generating sales.

Write Tailor-made Headlines for your Audience

Remember your audience is your potential customers.  So, address your audience and write headlines explicitly for them. Your headlines can vary. You can have a statement, question, or a combination of the two. The choice and decision are yours as long as you get your audience’s attention and get them to click. 

That is important because statistics have shown that a majority reads your headline, but only a few will click to read your page.  The headline’s purpose is to draw more readers.

There are numerous ways to write a headline but what you need is the one that will hit the “click” button!That’s your target. When you accomplish this, then the content will take over and convert the audience into customers. An eye-catching headline will draw the audience’s attention and increase your page’s traffic and Click-Through-Rate (CTR).

The more headline formulas and structures you try, the better results you get. As long as you keep your audience in mind and write compelling headlines, they will click and read your content.

It’s a fact that headlines are an integral element of your content. Craft them wisely!

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SEO Checklist: Find The Most Comprehensive On-Site SEO Checklist https://www.atalosweb.com/seo-on-site-checklist-for-your-site/ Sat, 17 Apr 2021 12:13:10 +0000 https://www.atalosweb.com/?p=3417 What is on-site SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of taking care of your online content so search engines will be able to index it properly and rank it higher among the top search results. If you manage to rank high in organic search results, that means that you will get free and targeted visitors to your website. SEO includes on site and off site actions that you need to take care of. In this post, we analyze all the on site SEO actions you need to implement to your website to “help” search engines rank your website higher!

Why is SEO important for your business?

SEO should be used along with your marketing strategy to improve your ranking on online search engines.  SEO is essential to get for free more targeted traffic and real customers, increase visibility, and search engine recognition to rank your content higher.

How will this SEO checklist help you?

An SEO checklist will find weak points that may harm search engine rankings.  A thorough check spots the errors on your web page which may need your attention.

It may seem like looking for a needle in the haystack! But it isn’t as complicated as it appears.  Most of the basics should have already been integrated into your website by your developer. However, if that’s not the case, here are the essential actions you will make.

1. Subscribe to Google Search Console.

Google Search Console (GSC) monitors your site’s performance in Google Search results. It gives you a full picture of your site and how to improve it in the SERPs (Search engine results pages).

This is important because the higher your website ranks, the more searchers visit it, the more customers you get.  You get a clear insight into the metrics relating to the ways your site appears to searches with your target keywords

2. Subscribe to Google Analytics.

Google Analytics (GA) gives information about the audience and their engagement with your website. That is how viewers find and use your site, their interaction, your traffic, your bounce rate, page views and time spent on it, and even some demographic information of your audience.  You can also see where you send your traffic, off your site. 

Having all this information is valuable for digital marketers to increase traffic and site visibility. 

3. Install an SEO plugin.

It is not necessary to have technical skills and knowledge to optimize your site.  As you are most likely using WordPress as your main CMS (Content Management System). It helps you create, manage, and adapt content on your website easily. The most popular WordPress SEO plugins that will help you with your SEO on-site process are the following:

RankMath

Yoast SEO

All in One SEO

All of the above plugins will make your recommendations on how to use your keywords in your content, while also taking care of some basic SEO settings (sitemap, robots.txt, etc)

A complete on-page SEO Checklist includes:

  • Keyword search
  • ON-Page SEO 
  • Technical –page SEO

4. Identify your Target Keywords

Keyword search is the key for a Website to achieve top rankings in search engines. Your target keywords will make all the difference.  SEO is built on keywords, the words people use to search whatever they are looking for, products, services, information, etc.  It is the right keywords that will drive you leads, sales, and conversions.

Your keywords must be relevant to your content.  Therefore, you need to research the most appropriate keywords that will cover your needs and the ones used mostly by most users. A good suggestion is to also check the keywords that your competition uses to compare ranking rates and see what brings them traffic. It goes without saying that you do not copy them!

Knowing what your audience needs and what they are searching for can also help you build your site’s content so don’t forget to look for queries most often asked. Then base your search for your target keywords on your research. You will understand the importance of keywords later as you monitor your website rankings and the various checks you will need to  carry out.

The best Keyword Tools you can use for that process are the following:

Google Ads Keyword Planner (you need to have an active Google Ads account to get the most of it)

Semrush

Moz

Ahrefs

seo checklist - keyword

5. Don’t overlook your SEO Titles and Descriptions

An eye-catching title in a blog post or on a website page will grab the audience’s attention and increase your page’s traffic and Click-Through-Rate (CTR) a measure of your page’s success.  The title serves both users and crawlers. So make sure to include tags with your keywords on your page. Headers, H1, H2 tags, and title should be related without repeating each other though. Use your keywords or similar terms throughout your pages.

One of the easiest and most common methods is to use clear headings to break up sections of your pages, check that Header tags range most general H1- to the most specific subheading H3.

Don’t forget to optimize your meta description field. Create it in a unique and eye catching using your focus keyword inside. Don’t make it more than 160 characters!

6. Make sure your URLs are SEO- Friendly

The URL is your “web address” on the internet. The URL is another place to include your keyword but keep it short and clear. It gives Google information about your page and helps increase views. The search engines use your webpage’s URL to understand what your content is all about. Check all the URLs on your website for length, make the URLs don’t have too many variables in them, use hyphens to separate words, no underscores. The URL should inform the audience about the page, and what they will see when they click on it. Make sure it gives them the correct information and it is not irrelevant. Keep in mind that permalinks (URLs) should be at most 75 characters long.

SEO checklist - url

7. Put your Content Marketing Skills at Work.

If you want to rank in Google, you need great content.  Content has become an absolute necessity in any SEO strategy, make sure that your page’s content matches the searcher’s intent.

Create the right content for your site. Go for quality, not quantity.  Make sure your content is long enough for readers and search engines. There is no ‘perfect’ content length but readers often will scan to spot their answers quickly.  So, if your content is a bit too long but you think it is all necessary to be included, then make it easier by breaking the text into shorter sections using proper Headings.

Each page should be unique and let the search engines know that with the correct Headers as we mention in the previous section. Keep the viewer’s interest throughout your content. Do proper keyword research before writing for any topic and optimize your content based on your focus keyword.

Create 2-3 internal links with other pages on your site. Link new pages with previous ones. This action shows consistency, coherence, and it helps add to and update your content.

8. A picture is worth 1000 words. Visualize your Content

Adding images and videos to your page can catch the audience’s attention more quickly. A majority of people now prefer visual content. Some people would rather see visual content than read a text.  Videos and images provide a better understanding of the content, depending on its intent.  But keep images to the right size so as not to slow your site speed but remain clear.

SEO Optimize your Images

The images are a reflection of your content but Google can’t see them, so optimize your image alt tags and filenames. To help audiences who are visually impaired understand the content better create a descriptive image file name and ALT tags that will rank high in Google image search.

9. Update your content regularly. Stay on Top Ranking

Remember we live in a fast-paced world everything evolves quickly so must your pages. See what is important and relevant in your marketing field and be creative and authentic.  Keep up with the changes. You will be rewarded with more traffic, links, and new customers. You can use Google Trends to get inspired for new topics to write for

10. Use Internal Links

Internal linking helps your pages get found.  Include one or two links from one page to another on your site. The intent must be relevant and connect in some way. This keeps your audience more engaged and will find more information for their searches. When you launch new content, link it to 2-3 other pages on your site. Again use target keywords in your internal links but don’t make it too much! You are never advised to spam search engines since that may hurt you in the long term! On-Site SEO is performed on all pages to give a better opportunity for ranking on search engines.

Technical SEO Checklist

All your work and effort to optimize your site is in vain when there are technical problems so don’t overlook the technicalities. Technical SEO ensures that your site can be crawled and indexed.

11. Index your pages properly using SSL

All pages are indexed so Google Search Console can crawl all your pages. Make sure that you are using HTTPS. Look at your browser’s URL to confirm that.

12. Avoid Duplicate Content

Google will index only one version of your site. But if you have more versions for your sites make sure all redirect to one.

13. Avoid Crawl Issues

The Web Crawler searches documents on the Web that is search engines use crawlers to browse and build an index. What may happen is that sometimes people can see all your pages but Google can’t. When Google cannot view a page on your site, that is a “crawl error” and your page will not rank.  Spot a crawl error, understand what caused it, and fix it.

14. Optimize your Site Speed

Audience interaction is strongly affected by slow sites. Users are impatient even a few seconds can make a big difference.  Find what hinders your speed; content quantity, duplicate content, too many pages, images, etc. Your viewers will not wait they will move on to another site. Don’t forget the audiences are the future customers, you cannot afford to lose them. You can always check your website speed on desktops and in mobiles using Google Page Speed Insights Tool

15. Monitor Internal and Outbound Links.

 SEO- links are one of the major ranking signals for search engines.

Broken links taking users to nowhere is a big disappointment. Fix them by updating your URL or simply remove the link.  Keep redirects simple, straightforward, and avoid multiple tasking redirects. Get as many links as you can.

16. A mobile-friendly site is a must.

Mobility is the new norm. So you need to follow the trends. Since Google switched to mobile indexing unless you do likewise your organic traffic will diminish.

17. Stay on Top

Use Schema.org to structure your data, places, local business, and all that matters to you most. Well-structured data is listed on top of SERPs.

18. SEO Structure – Keyword Cannibalization

When creating a new website, even if it’s a small business website or an eCommerce website, you need to define an SEO strategy. It’s one of the most important things that many digital marketers don’t include in their SEO checklist.

For example, if you plan to rank high on the keyword “Greece Vacation Packages” then you need to include that keyword on your homepage’s SEO title, description, etc. However, if you plan to write blog posts about vacation packages to Greece, then it’s not a good idea to create a post category with the name “Greece Vacation Packages” since that keyword is being used to make your homepage rank high and if you use the same keyword as focus keyword in other posts or categories or tags, then you don’t help search engines to rank properly your website. That’s called Keyword Cannibalization since you are using the same keyword in various pages and you make it difficult for Google to find out which page among all of them to rank high on that specific keyword.

So, what’s the best practice? The Best practice is to use one keyword on your homepage to make it rank higher and similar but not the same keywords in your internal pages. In our example, you can create a category named “Holidays in Greece” or “Greek Island Tours” but DON’T use the same focus keyword multiple times on your website. The same applies to eCommerce websites. When creating product categories, try to include similar keywords but NOT the same keywords that you are using on your homepage or in your blog posts!

19. Keyword Density

Even if there is no ideal keyword density (number of the appearance of your keyword/ total number of words), our basic advice is NOT to make it high or too low. Do make your content look natural and do include your focus keyword multiple times in your content but don’t spam! A keyword density of 0.50% to 1% sounds like a good keyword density. Don’t forget also to include keywords similar to your focus keyword in your content.

Move Ahead. Take the Lead

With millions of searches on Google every day, your website must be ranking on top. SEO increases your site’s visibility to potential customers by analyzing and implementing website strategies to improve your ranking. 

The checklist can be used by eCommerce, local businesses, start-ups —whatever kind of business you’re running. You don’t need to implement everything on the list but the more you do the better results you get.

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7 Ultimate Tips for your Local SEO Checklist https://www.atalosweb.com/7-ultimate-tips-for-your-local-seo-checklist/ Mon, 05 Apr 2021 08:04:55 +0000 https://www.atalosweb.com/?p=3391 Is your website optimized for local search engine traffic?It needs to be if you want to reach more local customers through search engine results pages on Google and other browsers. By following a simple local SEO checklist, you can make your website shine like a beacon for web users searching for local businesses.

local SEO chexklist

Develop a Strategy for your local SEO checklist

Yes, it is a simple local SEO checklist, but all digital marketing needs a strategy. This step makes it easier to check your actions and re-evaluate when traffic doesn’t increase or suddenly drop off. Your SEO techniques must be mobile-friendly first. Over the past few years,mobile and then voice search have taken over importance for web searches.

Technology has come a long way over the last decade. When a user enters their search parameters, nearly 50% are using local expressions. Standard terms often include “near me.” For example, someone looking for pizza delivery will enter, “pizza delivery near me.” The GPS-based apps on their smartphone automatically find the closest services locally.

Develop a strategy that begins with mobile-friendly, local-driven results using keywords and Google Maps. When you work with a digital marketing company, they can help build your local SEO checklist and get you an excellent return on your investment.

Build Specific Pages to Drive Local Traffic

As mentioned, you want to target local users. An excellent way to do that is with targeted local pages. Your contact page should have the business location, name, exact address, and phone number. If you have multiple stores, it might be beneficial to have landing pages for each place. However, businesses can list the websites’ addresses to drive more local traffic for less than ten sites.

Make Sure Your Contact Info is Highly Visible

There are two reasons for this suggestion. One, the keyword-specific terms will drive visitors naturally.Second, users don’t want to search all over for contact information. People are finicky, if they can’t find what they want quickly, they’ll leave, and you’ll see your website’s bounce rate increase. A skilled web designer can ensure your business’s contact information is highly visible while still looking great and not overdone.

Create Local Content

Develop blogs and landing pages geared for local users. By simply using keywords related to your city and business, you can rank higher in local searches. If you provide services that depend on location, content should reflect it. Consumers are already localizing their searches.

For example, if you search for plumbers, you’ll get tons of results, but they might not be local. By changing the term to “Albany plumbers,” you may get a few results because several cities have that name. Local search terms need to be specific. Create content that meets that need for consumers. Use keywords like plumbers in Albany, NY.

However, don’t switch it up some. Include terms like “residential plumbers in Albany, NY” or “licensed plumbers in Albany, NY.” Also, consider using “near” along with “in” if it’s a smaller region. Google doesn’t like to see the exact terms repeated over and over. Make sure to use unique phrases and include nearby cities to increase regional traffic.

Content written in a notebook

Optimize Metadata

SEO has grown over the past two decades. It’s more than great content with specific words. You need to optimize everything from your landing, product, and contact pages to the metadata and coding. An SEO company can draw users to your site and keep them there to lower your bounce rate. Meta title tags and descriptions are part of Google’s core algorithm and shouldn’t be left out of the local SEO checklist.

Encourage On- and Off-Site Reviews

Positive reviews that are authentic and focus on your service or products are ideal for boosting local search results. Always encourage customers to leave reviews. To increase the number of ways to get reviews, take advantage of local websites that feature user-generated testimonials. List your company on sites like,

  • Zagat
  • Bing Places
  • Yelp
  • Google My Business

If you don’t have the time or experience to build and update these profiles, a digital advertising firm can add this as part of a total SEO package.

Provide Excellent In-Store Service

A marketing agency can’t assist with the little things you do for your customers’ in-store experience that boosts online traffic. Stress to employees the importance of customer service and going the extra mile to make every customer happy. These consumers provide repeat business, excellent word-of-mouth references. They often leave bang-up customer reviews on your page and your social media profiles.

Your local SEO checklist is essential to boosting organic traffic to your website. Digital flow to your social media pages and webpages can increase foot traffic to brick-and-mortar locations. To attract in-store customers, dazzle them with your web skills. For helpachieving outstanding results, contact Atalos Web.

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What’s the impact of Social Signals in SEO in 2020? https://www.atalosweb.com/whats-the-impact-of-social-signals-in-seo-in-2020/ Sun, 11 Oct 2020 10:44:05 +0000 https://www.atalosweb.com/?p=2345 Today’s topic is very interesting since Google keeps a whole mystery around it. The easy answer is to say the following: Google doesn’t care directly about the social signals (likes, shares etc) that your links have but Bing do care about that since they have officially said that in the past.

History behind that starts back in 2010 when Matt Cutts released two videos for that topic saying on the first that they don’t care about social signals but in the second, he told that we tend to use social signals as a ranking factor one way or another. However, in 2014 when Matt Cutts released a new video about that, then he made things more complicated since he clearly said that we don’t “count” how many likes or followers are on Facebook due to many reasons but we still consider links from social media as backlinks from any other website whenever we can crawl them.

Now it’s 2020 and the debate is still alive! There is no a new clear state by Google saying if they are using or not the actual social signals directly as a ranking factor. However, there are a lot of studies around that. Some of them prove that there is a correlation between social signals and seo rankings and some of them not.

To my opinion, sometimes they use it and sometimes not. Why? Simply because Google has their own factors in their algorithm and yes, there are plenty of them, so personally, I believe that if social signals are on the same way as all the other ranking factors that Google algo is using then, they are using those social signals. If social signals are on the opposite way of all the other Google ranking factors, then Google prefers to rely on it’s own metrics and stands “skeptical” towards the social signals even if they are many of them for a specific URL. However, that’s only my opinion from my experience. Anyone can argue on that on the comment’s area!

How social media presence can help your SEO for sure ?

However, even if directly, anyone can argue that Google doesn’t use social signals as a direct ranking factor, NOBODY can say that the indirect effects of a good social presence doesn’t help SEO.

Why is that? Because when a URL is being widely shared by thousands of people, it’s more likely that some of them will link to it on their social profiles or on their websites and those backlinks DO play a role in search engine rankings.

So, if you plan to take SEO seriously, then establishing a great social media presence by updating your social media frequently and by interacting with social media users one way or another, is a MUST to succeed in today’s competitive SEO world!

Furthermore, do you know that Social Media can replace Search Engines?

In 2020, internet users don’t only use Google or Bing when searching something on the web. A new trend has been reported showing that people go directly on Facebook search box and put their key phrase there when they want to find anything.

So if you do care about your overall company visibility not only in Google Search Engine but also in Social Media search engines, then it’s more than crucial that you need to work on a strong social media strategy for your business to make it easy to be found in Social Media queries.

To Sum Up

One way or another, social media signals does help to make your business easier to be found on the web. Establishing a good social media strategy at least in the most popular Social Media networks can surely help on your brand recognition and hopefully, it does matter somehow on your overall ranking in search engines.

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URL inspection tool works with image files? https://www.atalosweb.com/url-inspection-tool-works-with-image-files/ https://www.atalosweb.com/url-inspection-tool-works-with-image-files/#respond Sat, 10 Oct 2020 22:43:28 +0000 https://www.atalosweb.com/?p=2334 Google Search Console is the most essential tool that you need to explore and work on it when optimizing a website.

There are various of indexes and things you need to check there to ensure that you are on the right way to search engine optimize your website.

There is a well-known URL inspection tool in Google Search Console where you can easily put any URL of your website to check if it’s indexed by Google or not.

Today, I will answer to a visitor’s related question:

I put an image file URL to test if it’s crawled by Google but the results made me skeptical! Whatever change I made, I couldn’t make that URL being indexed by Google.

The answer is very quick and easy to understand.

That tool in Google Search Console works ONLY with URLs and not with image files!

So, no worries if the image files don’t show up in URL Inspection tool by Google.

Simply make sure you have optimized your images in your website and make sure that they have been correctly linked from the URLs that exist inside your sitemap.

If you are using WordPress along with Yoast SEO plugin, don’t forget to check out this article to learn more about indexing your images and putting the correct settings in Yoast plugin to ensure that your images will display correctly in Google Search Results

Have a great day and take care of your SEO !

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Seven strategies to increase the amount of organic traffic that comes to your website https://www.atalosweb.com/seven-strategies-to-increase-the-amount-of-organic-traffic-that-comes-to-your-website/ Fri, 24 Apr 2020 13:58:00 +0000 https://www.atalosweb.com/?p=5491 Online publishers must understand that website traffic is king. Whether your monetization strategy is based upon marketing, affiliate marketing, ecommerce, or a mixture of strategies earning a profit depends on how many people visit your website. The more visitors you bring in, the greater your chances to earn revenue you can create.

There are various methods to boost traffic using pay-per-click, the paid search engine, paid advertisements and many more. However, if you’re looking to attract an engaged crowd with your website’s content and are likely to return to your site, then your primary focus should be on natural traffic. Commerce partners and advertisers are seeking this type of high-quality target audience. So it is an excellent idea to attract natural visitors to your website.

For a refresher, Organic traffic occurs if people visit your website by entering keywords into an engine that allows them to select your website from the search results. Direct traffic is also beneficial. (That happens when users go straight to your website simply by typing the URL e.g inam.store in their browser or clicking the bookmark.)

Get started driving organically.

Growing your website’s organic traffic can be a bit of work; however, it’s well worth it. Below are some ideas for you to start.

Make your content search-friendly.

SEO can assist you in attracting more customers by optimizing the content on your site according to the search terms users use. Finding keywords that relate to the content you publish and incorporating the exact keywords across your website will make your website pages more prominent on search engines, making it easier for users to locate your website’s content. This brief guide to the use of keywords will help!

Produce original and high-quality content.

People are more likely to come to your site – — and to keep coming to it — if they discover exclusive content not available elsewhere. Therefore, your content must be unique, interesting and written with your unique voice. The content must be original and essential for our Advertising platform acceptance.

Try different forms of media.

Quality content is the basis of an effective monetization plan. There are many different methods to utilize content, from buyers and product review guides to newsletters and online shopping galleries. It’s about finding the right mix of content which keeps people wanting more and increasing your revenue opportunities.

Maintain your blog’s content current.

The need for fresh content is to satisfy both human and search engine users. Google places more importance on fresh content than outdated content, and people will only return to your website if there’s new content to look at. Repurposing or updating the content that you’ve created is an excellent option to stay new without reinventing the wheel.

Be active on social media.

Maintaining a steady presence on social media will allow you to reach a wider public and increase traffic to your website. The trick is to understand the platforms where your intended users are most active – -such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and so on. and then make engaging social media content that draws users to your main website.

Pay attention to the competitors.

Whatever sector you’re working in, it’s crucial to know the activities of your competition as well, and online publishing isn’t a one-off. Examining your competition’s material can be a fantastic source of ideas, keyword suggestions, etc. Make sure that you’re making your original material.

Learn to recognize your trends in traffic.

If you want to improve your monetization strategies, it is essential to know which strategies are effective and which ones don’t. The Publisher Dashboard can assist you in determining which sites are bringing in the most traffic, highest engagement and most rate of conversion. Based on this, you’ll be able to decide better on the best places to put your money in the future.

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