What's coming for Local SEO in 2017?

When you talk of local SEO, it is important that you need to optimize your website for local SEO or strategies for clients and customers who may be searching for your local business. Local competition is gaining importance, and if you are not on top of your rankings, you can always find your competitors there. In today’s world, local SEO services gives an incredible opportunity to grow your business.

*Statistics provided by 2017 Moz Local Ranking Signals Report

In this article, we will explore the five important local SEO tactics you can use in 2017 to help your business rank higher for local search terms.

1. Title and Meta description tags – The title and meta description tags are important for any local SEO. These tags are HTML element reflect the content of your web page. The text of your title and description tags is displayed in search results. Generally acceptable length for title tags range from 50 to 60 characters, and description tags can be approximately from 160 to 200 characters. If you want to reach local customers, include the name of the city your business is in and/or the area your business serves (e.g., “Serving the suburban of Mumbai City”).

2. Online directories – Research says that four out of five consumers use search engines to conduct local searches. It is important that you get your business listed correctly and consistently on online business directories. You have to always make sure that your company’s Name, Address and Phone no. is consistent on these directories as possible. Discrepancies like misspelling will display incorrect information or not show your business at all in search results.

3. Online reviews are important – According to a recent survey, it was found that 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation and seven out of 10 customers will leave a review for a business if asked by any other business house. Respond to a review, be it positive or negative. This shows that other people reading the reviews that you, the entrepreneur, care what your customers think. You should focus on your business’s Facebook page and Google My Business page for the reviews.

4. Use local structured data markup – Structured data markup is often referred to as schema markup or schema.org markup. It can be added to your website’s code to provide search engines with more information about your business, like the products you sell, reviews you have collected, services you offer and so on. It is found that only 31.3% of websites are using this markup. You can make your local business stand out if you add structured data markup to your website.

5. Claim and optimize Google My Business – It is important for any local business to claim their Google My Business(and Bing Places for Business) page. It is free and can get you incredible exposure if can optimize to show up in Google’s local pack.

There are hundreds of ways to build your local seo for your firm. Focus on strong and sustainable strategies. If you want to do it right, there aren’t any shortcuts.

7 Most Effective Digital Marketing Strategies that Work Best for Startups

With the support of technology, communication is now just the job of a click. The big world has actually shrunk to the distance of few milliseconds from one person to another. Using this side of technology, any sort of business enterprise can be made to flourish and boom. Especially the startups as they emerge in the competition of trade require a huge advertisement and marketing and that too at a low price. Digital marketing is a thoroughly productive option which can be used to popularize a startup right away.

In the opinion of the marketers, the course of marketing has changed to a huge extent over the past years. Some even say that it has changed more in the immediate past of two years than even 50 years before that. Most startups have opted for the options provided by the digital marketing nowadays, yet some are comparatively more successful than the others. This is because of the fact that marketing requires tricks and skills that succeeds only with proper strategy. Here, the digital marketing services are discussed in details. Read on to get your success mantra.

1) Email Marketing
This strategy is most useful when the goal is to target specific individuals or bodies. Despite what was foreseen as the fate of email that they won’t find much value in the world of marketing, the reality seems to be quite the opposite. The emails are much on demand for its high margin of return on investment (ROI).

They rank the most profitable among other digital marketing schemes and their return on investment rate is as high as 122%. These data were given by the Demand Metric and the Data & Marketing Association (DMA). They conducted a recent survey where they concluded this.

Some tips are presented here that helps make your email marketing services crisp and attractive enough for customers to click on it. These are:

• The subject line is the primary point of communication. It should be eye catching, engaging and also should seem useful to the customer.
• Use as simple language as possible. Certain terms that might be typical or specific to your domain of work, does not necessarily stir up interest in the customer.
• The email should be well presented with a clear content of what is to be offered.

2) Social Media Marketing
This is another powerful digital marketing tool of the present times. According to a Social Media Examiner’s report, 90% of the total number of marketers was confident about the importance of social media marketing for their business. Also, 89% of the marketers said that the use of social media has allowed more exposure to their company and thus expanded the business.

Social media marketing services can be regarded as the second best digital marketing strategies for the startups. Some benefits of this strategy are listed here:

• Social media marketing provides a platform that helps increase exposure and traffic.
• Searching is easier in social media that facilitates quick sales.
• It generates leads & sales.

3) Pay Per Click Marketing (Google AdWords)
Pay per click or PPC management services are quite a time saving strategy in digital marketing. The crux of the matter is using the search engine advertisements for directing the users to your website. For example, if you type “apple cider vinegar” in the search bar you will be shown the top results. You must make sure that the top most result or one of the top results should show the name of your company. So basically, pay per click is an indispensible tool for a company that is relying on digital marketing strategy.
The benefits of pay per click are as discussed:

• Customers can be easily reached to with the right ad and just a click.
• The return on investment rate is lucratively high as the payment is done only each time someone clicks.
• Control over how much you want to spend
• You won’t have to wait for results

4) Search Engine Optimization
Application of SEO services is in a way, making your data gel well with the searching norms of the internet. Search engine optimization plays a deterministic role for content of the internet. Your content will be displayed to users as much as optimized you make it for the search engine. So, this is of utmost importance if you have a motive to actually reach out to people. Search engine optimization is a must for every startup. Just be sure to follow the best SEO practices for your website.

5) Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing services are currently a quick spreading trend in the market. A study in the recent past has shown that 84% marketers look forward to launch a campaign for influencer marketing in the coming year. Another survey concludes that 94% of the marketers think influencer marketing is an efficient tool to boost business. It is also a cost effective method unlike the other strategies.

6) Content Marketing
This digital marketing strategy involves a little more cost compared to the other alternatives. Content marketing services involve creating and sharing relevant online materials such as videos, blog posts and so on. However, content marketing is more popular and important for the B2B and B2C domains. According to a fairly recent study 90% of the B2C organizers absolutely rely on content marketing, and 88% of the B2B marketers strongly agree to the point that content marketing is a highly important part in their marketing programs.

7) Retargeting Ads
Retargeting, also known as remarketing is a category of digital marketing that showcase your goods and services. These ads are displayed to the people specifically after they have already visited your website and viewed your products or services.

Research says, only a 2% of web traffic turns out as prospective in their first visit. This is a strategic trick applied to nudge the customers, who takes time and effort to decide to buy your products or services.

Conclusion
Startups demand a lot of effort to flourish as a successful business. However, the right marketing strategy or even the right combination of strategy helps you excel amongst other competitors.

Trust Marks That’ll Boost Your Site’s Credibility

Building trust marks for your website is the sure way to boost its credibility. Yes! Establishing credibility of your website is as important as your product or services. Customers need to feel confident and trust your online interface enough to consider buying from you. Most companies offering development services would recommend this so you can reap optimum results from your website.

So, what are these trust marks? Many would say that security is the utmost sign of trust. Agreed! Any website offering products or services must be equipped with security so customers do not hesitate to transact. However, security is not the only thing. Let’s look at the website from wholistic point of view. A survey carried out by a consultancy concluded that factors such as security trust marks, professional looking website, fast loading pages, easy navigation, well displayed contact details, referrals from family or friends, etc. are all crucial to establishing credibility of a website. There are various trust marks that can help boost your website credibility. Here’s few to consider –

1) Security Seals
Security seals are the foremost thing you can think of when you talk of trust marks. Customers who share their information, whether credit card or personal, are but obviously wary of doing so unless they feel they can trust the website. Putting up security seals like Verisign, McAfee SECURE or PayPal badges would establish credibility for your website. No matter how you plan to make your website secure, your customers would want to know the facts. And security seals can build their confidence. You can take help of your web developer to plan and put it there.

2) SSL Certificate
SSL certificate is another important trust seal any business website would need. It has a corresponding web address which can be seen as https, signifying a secured website. You may check out Jenni McKinnon’s post on SSL certificate authorities to understand this better.

3) Third Party Logos
Whether or not to use third party logos on your website has always been debatable. Do not think of them as distracters but rather attracters. Yes! Third party logo provides a proof that you are associated with that brand. It offers transparency and builds confidence. Use logos of your clients so your prospective customers see which credible brands you have worked with. This will make it easy for them to trust your services.

4) Awards & Certifications
Displaying your awards and certifications on your website is a sure shot way to ensure your customers trust in your services. If your services or products or your website has earned a certification or an award for its professionalism or accomplishment, go ahead and put it on the website for your customers to see it.

5) Customer Reviews
Online users want to validate every aspect of your service and that’s exactly the reason why you should provide them all the important trust marks. Exhibiting social proof of your service on your website would make it easy for them to decide. Yes! We are talking about customer reviews. Positive reviews from your customers act as trust boosters. About 74% of the customers are more likely to trust your brand based on that. So, include customer reviews and rating widgets from Yelp like sites and make it a straight forward way for your customers.

6) Customer Testimonials
A better word about your services or products from your customers and you has topped your cake with the delicious icing. Yes! It works as a delight. Customer wants to know how your other customers have been serviced. Quoting their testimonials on your website would be a powerful trust mark for your website. Even case studies act as powerful tool, although putting together the details of the same can be time consuming.

7) Social Media Widget
Social media integration with your website is known to be one of the best practices today. Besides providing users engagement, it offers to serve as a trust mark, allowing your users to connect with your brand on various social media platform. Include all the social media links and widgets to show that your brand is actively involved on the online media.

8) About Page
About Page information is crucial and important too. Customers want to know all about the company – how it was founded, founders, directors, presence, etc. This helps them to determine the credibility of the company and hence act as one of the greatest trust mark for your WordPress website.

9) Multi-Channel Contact
Websites must be customer friendly and allow you customers to reach you in the easiest possible way. Establish multiple channels of contact on your website whether its email, contact number, contact and enquiry form or live chat. Enable your customers to reach you faster. They serve the purpose of building the trust.

10) Terms of Use Statements
The final one, terms of use statements stands as a crucial trust mark for couple of reasons. It offers complete transparency to the visitors of your website. They get to understand how their personal information will be managed or used by your company. The terms of use statements must include –

• If you are collecting email addresses or using remarketing pixels, privacy policy is important and must be published
• Guarantee of service statements
• Rules and regulations pertaining to payment, penalties or refund

You can also publish your internal policies on your website under these terms of use statements. This allows you to protect your intellectual properties and hold your customers’ responsible if need be.

To conclude – enhance your website credibility with these great trust marks and you will see the difference already. If possible, take help of a professional WordPress development service provider for suggestions.

Website Maintenance – Necessity or a Luxury?!!!

Website maintenance is something that most companies have been putting on their strategy list as a last priority. For many companies, it’s not even on the list. Consider this! You buy a Lamborghini and expect it to serve you luxury ride lifetime without having to spend a penny on it. Not possible, right? How do you expect your website to give your business a boost by just putting it up on the web?
Website is one of the vital business marketing tools and its maintenance is crucial to retain your customer interest and allure the new ones. Here’s why you must seriously consider engaging a website maintenance company for the upkeep of your website –

Search Engine Friendly
If you want your website to be liked by search engines, website maintenance is must. If your website has not been updated for a while, Google may cease looking at it and it may lose ranking for important keywords.

Saving From Hacker Attacks
Whether you are using a CMS based website (most preferred, of course!), or using a software programming on your website, you must know that updating security patches for these is must. This is something you mustn’t ignore, else, your website may fall prey to the hands of hackers who thrive on websites which are not so secured.

Customer Interest
No matter how big or small your business is, customer retention is an important aspect. You don’t want customer to land on your webpage and find a news or a blog which is dated 6 months back, do you? That’s exactly the reason you need to look at updating your website information on a regular basis. This will also help in creating a new customer base.

Fixing Broken Links
You may not realize this but for reason unknown (sometimes), you may have internal or external broken links. It’s important to scan your website to scan for these and fix them. So, your visitors do not end up seeing error pages.

Content Quality
Checking and rechecking content quality is a part of website maintenance. Companies that offer website maintenance services advise you to create content which is free of plagiarism. Which means, no duplicate content. Use right keywords effectively. Another aspect to look into is spelling mistakes. Yes! This is most of the times, ignored. How would you feel to visit your potential vendor’s website and read the content which has grammatical errors or spelling mistakes?! Not a good impression, right? That’s what you should be worried about too.
Website maintenance is not a luxury investment but a necessity. It would be a wise business decision to include it in your marketing budget. Website maintenance costs charged by service providers are usually annual and pretty reasonable. It’s a nominal investment that will reap you good returns.

Pros & Cons of Using Magento as Your E-commerce Platform

Whether you are planning to roll out a new online store or already have one as your core business, Magento is one of the best ecommerce platform to have work for you. It is for sure the first preference of the companies offering ecommerce website development services. With a total market share of 29.1% (as per a research), Magento is clearly dominating other ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Prestashop and many others. Why most Magento website development companies opt for this wonderful platform? There are more reasons than you can think of. Let’s look at the pros –

Open Source Platform
For those who are just starting and those who wish to explore, Magento is the best ecommerce platform available that uses open source and programming. The good news is that the community edition of Magento is available for free. Loaded with all the necessary features, for starters, it’s nothing less than a sweet delight. And to top it up, it is backed by community support of veteran Magento developers who have made their instrumental contributions through development of new extensions and offering their support to the users.

Feature Rich Platform
Magento website development turns out to be more lucrative option because of its rich features too. Unlike other platforms, Magento ecommerce platform is packed with great functionality and features. Some of these features include multi language, multi store functionality and multi-currency support. The platform is also search engine friendly and has designs that are mobile compatible.

User Friendly Admin Panel
This is of course the best treat your website admin can get. Who would want to manage a backend which is too complex?! This is also one of the reasons why an ecommerce development company would pick Magento over other platforms – user friendly admin panel loaded with easy to use features offers great experience to the admin and make it all easy.

Scalable & Customizable Platform
Being an open source platform, Magento is a fully scalable platform which can be used for ecommerce website development. This is great when you are expanding, you would certainly need dedicated servers for better efficiency of your website. Magento also allows you to customize your store as you wish. With theme structural designs, you can have you store the way to want it to be. With complete control over the codes, you will be able to modify any feature you like. While there are more reasons why ecommerce website development provider would choose to go with Magento, it’s better to look at the other side too. No harm in knowing the cons part. Let’s peep into it –

Costly Talent Hire
Magento community edition may be free. However, Magento developers come at a very good price. Reason being, comprehending the complexities of Magento is a challenging task for novices and hence if you must, you need to look at only skilled developers for your ecommerce website development. And this would cost you quite a handsome amount.

Higher Investment on Enterprise Version
Unless the online store is your core business, going for an enterprise version may not make sense for your business. That’s because it’s quiet and investment which starts at $14420 annually.

Hosting Charges
Most Magento ecommerce development companies would advise you to go for dedicated servers for your online stores as Magento is a very large system. Having a shared server may lead to reduced speed and efficiency of your website.

High Time Investment in Customization
Magento website development is time consuming. Magento is fantastic when it comes to customization. However, as compared to other platforms, it takes longer time to build the functionality.

All in all, Magento ecommerce platform remains a great choice for business that intends to sell online. With great functionality and features and high scalability, it is a lucrative option in the long run.

50 Reasons – Google Can Be Penalize Your Website

SEO experts know getting a ranking on Google is not a cakewalk. And Google certainly operates in the most unbending ways. Google tweaks and fine tunes its algorithms so any webpage that deserves to be ranked on the top gets its ranking.

However, with putting the best at the top comes the penalty for those who do not meet the standards. Yes! Google penalizes too!!! And most of the times, this penalty is well deserved.

Let’s look at what’s Google Penalty:
Since the year 2000, there’s been constant change in the ranking algorithms of Google. We witnessed the very growth of SEO industry which is largely defined by those norms. As Google continued to roll out novel and improved algorithms, we saw the elimination of content which was of poor quality. And at the same time, the good quality content got the perks of being ranked higher.

Google penalty is evident in the Penguin update which came in 2012. When it hit, more than 1 in 10 websites were completely wiped out from Google search results overnight because of the quality issue. This is when SEO professionals began to take content strategy seriously.

How to identify Google Penalty?
Automatic or manual, Google penalty is not good for your brand. While in manual one, you may be informed, automatic is caused by the evolved algorithms. And most of the times, it can strike with surprise.

Look for these clues to know the algorithmic penalties by Google –

1) You are not getting a good ranking for your brand website. SEO expert says if not all, your website must earn brownie points and get ranked at least for 1 select keyword.

2) Your webpage which was ranking at one suddenly sees a dip to second or third position in due course on its own

3) You see your website being wiped out completely from Google cache, just overnight

4) You look for your listing on Google and find it as a webpage of your site but not homepage

If you have observed any of these factors on Google for your website, then you are surely facing penalty.

So why Google has penalized you?
Google continually keep on updating its content indexing system through tweaks and revisions. However, there’s no way you can completely understand how these tweaked algorithms work, making it all the more difficult to understand the reason behind the penalty imposed upon your website. Our SEO experts however have put together some 50 common reasons why Google will penalize your website. Here they are –

1. Duplicate Content
Plagiarism is illegitimate and punishable offence. So, duplicate content is obviously a big NO. And as far as Google is concerned, it considers duplicate content as useless. So, when you are drafting that content for your website, ensure you keep it unique. There are some good tools like CopyGator and Copyscape available online to check if there’s any duplication in your content.

2. Buying Backlinks
Most of us have a strategy of buying links which is a part of SEO. Many even state that buying backlinks has nothing to do with Google penalty. It may not be completely true though. Google may see this as a manipulation strategy to gain PageRank. Point is – you may end up being caught in some vicious cycle of buying bad links and you will have to pay for it.

3. Excessive Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal link was initially used as a good marketing strategy. However, eventually many started to overuse and soon became an abuse. So, it may happen that your swapping of links with your clients may be seen as a manipulation, if you are overdoing it that is.

4. Internal 404s
The one thing that Google hates the most is internal errors and problems on the website. So ensure that there are no 404 errors on your website, else you be prepared to be penalized.

5. Overuse of H1 Hashtags
H1 hashtags are used so Google could recognize the page content. However, an overuse of H1 Hashtags could mean trying to boost a listing for a keyword and that could land you in a soup.

6. Linking to site of different language
You may think this should not matter. However, what Google counts is the usefulness of links and your website. If you are linking your website to another site that has content in different language, it may really not be of any use to the users. This automatically downs your points.

7. Footer Links
Footer links must be planned well. It’s not just space to fill in. Consider user experience. Usually, footer has non-important SEO links. Some may put the links for navigation purpose too.

8. Content stuffed with Keywords
You may read many rules about acceptable keyword density in the content. Remember not to fill you content with too many keywords. Overuse of keywords means a red flag for your webpage and you may be penalized for that.

9. Missing sitemap data
Your website structure is analyzed by Google using XML sitemap. So ensure that it is available and you have updated and submitted in your account of Webmaster tools.

10. Broken external links
Be vigilant about your external links. Have them updated regularly. Make sure all the external links are working and users do not end up with 404s error. Else Google may take it as a careless approach towards your website and user experience.

11. Hidden Links
Don’t try and make your links subtle or hide them. That can raise a question of suspicion. Ensure they are clearly visible.

12. Hidden Content
This is one of the most unethical technique used for SEO. Text is disguised in order to manipulate the keyword weightage or the theme. Certainly, you are up for a penalty of you follow this.

13. Scraped content
Pulling content from other website to bulk your pages may seem pretty innocent; however it is seen as duplication by Google. So, if you have done this, it’s time to replace it with your original and unique content.

14. Overuse of Anchor Text
SEO experts used to link keywords to emphasize their authority. However, when the Penguin update rolled out in 2012, it discouraged the overuse of anchor text linking pretty strongly. So, ensure that you remove all the forced and irrelevant keywords and replace them with the ones that are relevant and phrased well in apt English.

15. Website Timeout or Down
Make sure that your website is up and running fine. If your website doesn’t load or shows timeout, your users get irritated and Google certainly does not like that. It may well remove your website from the index rather than letting your users get irritated for long. So be vigilant about it.

16. Neglecting hreflang
You cannot neglect this one. If you happen to publish any content intentionally that’s duplicate, it notifies Google and that’s certainly not good.

17. Keyword domains
Using keyword domains can be tricky. If you keep linking the anchor text to your keyword domain, it might look like a manipulation to Google. So if you still wish to go ahead with a domain that matches your keyword exactly, then you better have a lot of good and relevant content to go with it.

18. Using blog networks
Blog networks are considered as SERP manipulation by Google now. That’s the reason most of the blog network users have either shut down or deleted their incoming links. That’s exactly what you must do as well.

19. Rented Links
Rented links are believed to be useful by SEO experts; paid for on monthly basis. They keep changing them infrequently. No matter what, they are still paid links.

20. Overuse of meta keywords
Meta keywords are easy to manipulate and hence have been a matter of debate amongst SEOs. Ensure you do not use more than 5 meta keywords on one page.

21. Site-wide links
Remember, Google is watching your website page navigation links as well and it really doesn’t like any unnatural link on your website like the one on the footer giving credit to the web developer. Remove it now!

22. Too many affiliate links
Affiliates links are ok to use provided you don’t stuff your website with too many of them. Overuse can raise a red flag and Google might identify your website content as not up to the mark. Many use redirect strategy for affiliate links to mask them. However, Google is smart to find that out too.

23. Slow speeds
Hosting speed is affected by many reasons than you know. So, it’s difficult to detect where the issue lies. So we recommend using CDN or caching plugin for your website.

24. Comment Spam
It’s good to have comment section on your website. It’s great way to let your users communicate with you. However, it’s better you keep a check on it as there may be many spam comments too that get through, despite commenting system having an automated spam detection system. So keep a close watch and don’t let it pile up.

25. Spun Content
Content spinning is a theft. If you have paid peanuts for good chunk of articles, chances are you have bought spun content. If Google penalty recognizes this, it would be too bad for your website.

26. Black Hat SEO advice
Isn’t this one obvious? Writing about black hat SEO is promoting unethical ways which of course, Google doesn’t like. Publish about SERP manipulation using black hat SEO and be ready to be penalized.

27. Hacked Content
Hacked websites are immediately removed from SERPs by Google. So be vigilant and quick to act on this.

28. Spam Reports
Google allows you to report spam sites through online form for spam site reporting. If you website gets submitted as a spam, then Google may penalize you.

29. Speedy Link Building
This is the biggest mistake you can make to boost your SEO. While you are very enthusiastic about ranking your website quickly, but overlinking is a bad idea. That indicates automation. So, go slow and think long term.

30. Forum Linking
While forum linking is widely used by all of us, too much can make your actual post lose its identity. So while using forum link, make sure you use good content and the good practices of linking.

31. Robots.txt flaws
Robots.txt files help search engines deal with your site. Maybe you are excluding some pages from this for genuine reasons, but excessive blocking may lead to penalty.

32. Hiding Sponsors
If you have sponsors, it’s ok to show them. However, adhere to the rules, avoid sponsors links at all costs.

33. Links to suspicious website
Avoid associating with website that are into illegal practices or dubious work. Also keep a check whether the site you are linked to has been penalized by Google in the past or not. If yes, then you better dissociate.

34. Over Optimization
Don’t become overly obsessed with optimization for your website. Google doesn’t like it and recognizes as an effort to eradicate your competition from SEO list. So, check your strategy. Go slow. Be content oriented, which means publish some good and natural content.

35. Landing pages
Creating multiple landing pages to improve your site position on SERPs can be a bad idea. Many companies try to accelerate their ranking process by creating one page websites focused on single keyword and try and filter their users through these sites. As per Google this is not a good practice.

36. Advertorials
Advertorial pages are used pretty aggressively to manipulate search results. These pages usually have content filled with paid links. These can be good reason for your penalty.

37. Redirection
Redirecting your site using 301 redirect can transfer your penalty to a new location. However, once you remove the redirect, you will still have the penalty.

38. Excessive Outbound Links
Too much of swapping links with other websites which are not related to your website can be seen as attempt for mutual SEO gain. While using outbound links, keep it relevant and natural.

39. Error Codes
Google hates error codes, whether 302, 404, 500 or any. So, if your website page shows any of these errors, deal with it right away.

40. Malicious backlinks
You should be watchful about this one as this may be an attempt to bring down your website from SERP listing through Google penalty. It may be because of malicious backlink campaign.

41. Duplicate metadata
Metadata gets duplicated unintentionally through some of the blogging tools and CMS platforms. It may indicate that you have duplicate content on your website. Hence not preferable.

42. Targeted Keywords
There are some keywords which are abusively used and hence considered as spam. Such keywords appear very frequently on spam sites. One fine example is ‘PayDay’. You don’t want to be thrown out of SERP list because of your target keyword, right? So choose carefully.

43. Poor mobile websites
If you have a poorly designed mobile website, Google may not be able to detect the link between your website and your mobile website. Make sure you website is mobile friendly.

44. Smuggled Links
You can’t fool Google by smuggling links into script files. Google is smart to analyze them and identify those weird and misplaced links.

45. Bad reputation domain
Be careful while buying a domain name. if you pick up a domain name that had a bad reputation or a penalty in the past, most likely you would not succeed in getting your website to rank using the same. Rather go for another one.

46. Few outbound links
Outbound links are great for your SEO. Google checks your content in reference to similar ones on the web. Not putting outbound links or having fewer may look like you are just trying to pull the traffic to your door unusually.

47. Prominent Ads
Filling your pages with Ads subdues the main content. So make sure your balance it out and not let the ads dominate the page.

48. Content theft
This is a serious offence and most difficult to deal with too. You may have to file DCMA takedown notices orpursue in the court to get the content removed. Request Google to remove the stolen content if you penalized for that.

49. Quick Fixes
There are many who would claim to put your website on the top of SERP list quickly. That’s a red flag. You rather do some ground work and have a long term strategy.

50. Use of Content Farm
Content farming is largely used in the industry. Here the farm is a term used for sites with shallow or low-quality content. Low quality content is a big No in Google’s book. So, if you have such content, it’s better to get it redone by a professional.

Dealing with Google Penalty
If you are facing Google penalty, worry not. Most of it can be fixed. However, solution to all may not be the same. But here’s what you can do –

1) Compose yourself and identify the reason behind the penalty.

2) It’s time to look into all those troublesome links which has caused this. Just disown them.

3) If the penalty was manually imposed, ask for a reconsideration

4) And while you do all the legwork and realigning, wait patiently for Google to revert and take action

In many cases, it may not be possible to remove the penalty. If you are into such situation, you rather focus on rebuilding another site then fighting the penalty.

Tips to Generate SEO-friendly Content

If you are writing content for your website, then definitely you want it to reach to the target audience. That’s precisely why your content should be SEO friendly. Here are some tips to generate SEO friendly content:

1) Create informative, interesting content
The content that you create should be of high quality and interesting enough to engage your audience. If your content is not unique or is just stuffed with keywords, search engines will penalize your website on one hand and on the other your visitors will definitely go away from your website, never to return again. So, the first tip is to create informative, interesting and easy to understand unique content.To find if your content is 100% unique, there are several plagiarism tools available. Copyscape is one such tool where you can check the originality of your content.Only if the content is unique, you can get a better rank in SERPs.

2) Captivating Headings and Sub headings
A captivating heading can capture your visitor’s attention and convince them to stay on your website. Brainstorm your headline and try to fit in within 55 to 60 characters as this is precisely what Google displays on the SERP.

Content that has heading and subheadings along with the relevant keywords gets more weightage by the search engines. As such, Google ranks such content higher and your website will enjoy better page rank. Another advantage of using headings and subheadings is that it makes for an easy read. When people like what they read, they are more likely to share it on social media. For this, you may use the structure of H1 to H6 or insert H2 and H3 headings at the relevant places in the article body.

3) Links
Linking your website with some of the authority websites will have a positive impact on your website. So, create outbound links with authority websites. Creating outbound links with authority websites gives an impression that you have a sound understanding of what you are writing and that you are going one step further to support your content. It also adds to the transparency and trust. However, you must avoid using anchor texts such as “here” as it does not do any good to your website ranking.

4) Article Length
While Google loves longer article, it must be understood that the span of reader’s interest is quite limited. Therefore, you need to strike a balance in your content. It should neither be too short nor be too long. While the minimal length of the article stands at 300 words, there’s no upper limit. However, an article that’s around 700 to 800 words would be perfect.

5) Keywords and Keyword density
Before you write an article for your website, find out the keywords that you should be targeting. The keywords should be placed in the article title, headings, subheadings, and in the first and the last para of your article. The key here is not to overdo it. Maintaining 1% keyword density is good for search engine. Also, try to use variations of the keyword in the article for optimal results.

6) Pictures speak volumes
Add images to your article to make it attractive to your visitors. Optimize the image and tag it with the keyword for SEO. The key would be to make the image smaller, without compromising on the visibility. Adding images with bigger file sizes will slow down your page loading speed and may shoo away the visitors. Also, add alt text or title to your image. Think from a user’s perspective when you name the images.

7) Share your content 
If people read something they really like, they readily share it on social media. So, to make people share your content, give them the option to do so. You can “AddThis” or “Sharethis” website to add the social media buttons to your website. If the content goes viral, your website will automatically be ranked higher.
Apart from these simple techniques, you can hire SEO Company for advanced SEO Services and get higher page ranks in the search engines.