logo
banner_slide_img1

Loebig Ink is a small business consulting firm
fueled by coffee, creativity and music to provide
SEO, web design and social media solutions.

Tag: metatags

Blog SEO for 2020 

Posted on by Robin Renee

Blog SEO for 2020Search engine optimization is incredibly important for your website’s visibility. It is also a moving target. It is important to maintain the efforts you’ve made, while staying aware of the latest information on what you can do to improve. Much has remained the same. Read our previous article, “Optimize Your Blog,” for the basics. But given an increasingly mobile-first world, Google’s algorithm changes in response to user behavior and more, you have to stay on your game. Here are some important updates to SEO best practices for blogs in 2020.

  1. Keep it brief. In the not-too-distant past, it seemed that filling out your title tag completely by using 60 -70 characters was the ideal. Doing so gives you the opportunity to use your target keyword right up front followed by other search-friendly terms and information about the page. However, it seems that shorter is now better. Keep your title tags brief and to the point. 14 to 40 characters are ideal. Try streamlining your meta title by using the target keyword followed by only the most pertinent terms relating to the page.
  2. Ask a question. What catches users’ attention? How can you get more clicks? One factor seems to be putting your title tag in the form of a question. Try asking what you think your ideal client or audience wants to know like “Who is the best writer in Silver Spring?” You may also try a question that the client would answer enthusiastically with “Me!” like “Looking for a doula in Danbury?” Question-based title tags have been performing with a 14% greater click-through rate, so ask questions first!
  3. Meta descriptions matter. It can be hard to keep up with every detail of your SEO, especially when you are creating new content frequently to keep your blog fresh. That said, writing a meta description for your post is a step you shouldn’t skip. Your meta description won’t appear anywhere on your actual blog post. Rather, it will show up just under the meta title in a Google search. If you do omit this step, the first words that appear on your post will populate the description by default. That may seem ok, but why not take control of what you want to appear in that space? As with your meta titles, this is another place to use a focus keyword prominently. The number of characters you can use in your description varies by platform – some may allow 300 or more – but in many cases only the first 160 or so characters will be seen. Just adding a meta description can get you 5.8% more clicks.
  4. Keywords are still key. As mentioned above, using keywords still matters. Choose them wisely and then give attention to how you use them. Choose a target keyword for each page and use it in the meta title, meta description, and H1 tag. How often should you use your keyword? 1% keyword density is enough to signal its importance to search engines. That’s once every 100 words. Stuffing more keywords than that into your text will not only annoy your readers, but it could earn a demerit from Google. Stick to reasonable, consistent keyword usage and you’re on your way up in rankings.
  5. Your keywords are your address. Another place to give your keywords a place to shine is in the web address, or URL for your blog post. Adding keywords to your URL can give you an amazing 45% higher click-through-rate than one that doesn’t use keywords. So try for a URL that uses a focus keyword for the post like website.com/piano-movers-dc, website.com/catering-in-nashua, or website.com/custom-home-project.
  6. Pay attention to your parents. Or at least optimize for the parent topic! According to Ahrefs, a parent topic is the main topic of a web page, the most popular version of a keyword phrase on a page that may also rank for many other similar keyword phrases. So while considering individual keywords is one approach to optimization, you may not have to write a separate blog post with a focus on every single one. Do some research to find the parent topic for your page and optimize with the topic in mind. Vary the phrases you use to discuss the topic and you can expand the searchability and reach of the article.
  7. Optimize for Featured Snippets. What’s better than a regular old high organic ranking? Getting a Featured Snippet on Google is one way to a big jump in visibility. While you can’t tell Google directly to feature your excellent blog post, you can maximize the chances that Google’s algorithms will deem it excellent and worthy. To increase your chances, make sure the information on your page is easy to read and useful. Craft it to answer a specific question. Use structured data, or schema markup behind the scenes to highlight the information you hope to have featured.
  8. Write long-form. Articles with a high word count get 77% more clicks and social engagement. So rather than keeping it short and sweet when it comes to your blog posts, try going for 1,500 words or more. In-depth, valuable information gets attention. If you can provide a comprehensive answer to an exact, frequently asked question, you just may have struck internet gold.

Incorporate as many of these guidelines as you can, and expect to see your blog posts rise up the ranks in 2020.

Resources

“On-Page SEO: The Definitive Guide,” Backlinko. Retrieved from https://backlinko.com/on-page-seo

Patel, N. “Neil Knowledge” video post. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/posts/neilkpatel_seo-digitalmarketing-traffic-activity-6609094502919520256-tJFF/

Smarty, A. “How to Optimize for Google’s Featured Snippets to Build More Traffic,” Moz.com. Retrieved from https://moz.com/blog/optimize-featured-snippets

Soulo, T. “Parent Topic,” Ahrefs.com. Retrieved from https://ahrefs.com/blog/keyword-generator/#section5

SEO Frequently Asked Questions

Posted on by Robin Renee

Top Ten SEO FAQs

Top 10 SEO Frequently Asked QuestionsSearch Engine Optimization (SEO), at its best, is an ongoing process. At Loebig Ink, we stay up-to-date with the latest information on the on-page updates and other efforts that can be made to have the greatest impact on visibility for your website. Before the continued efforts and fine-tuning that can keep improving optimization, there is the initial SEO setup. The whole process can be unfamiliar to a new client, so it is natural that we get lots of questions. Here are the top 10 questions we receive about our initial SEO setup process, and the explanations we give to foster better understanding.

1. We have received your recommended keywords. What are the next steps?

The next step for you will be to review and approve the keywords, or to let us know if you have any questions. Once approved, we will begin tracking the keywords for your site as well as for your strongest online competitors for comparison. After that, we will write the metatags to be added to your website. As soon as we have approval for your keywords, we’ll get started!

2. We have reviewed your recommended keywords. Why didn’t you choose these single-word keywords with a higher search volume?

We choose the highest search volume keywords that are most appropriate for the pages we are optimizing. If a local Google search for a given keyword brings up search results that include businesses or organizations that are similar to your business, it is a good contender. Often single words may have a high search volume but are too vague to have relevant search results. For example, there may be many search results for the word “termites,” but “termite control” clarifies the search results and may better describe the content on the page.

3. Why didn’t you choose the specific keyword I suggested? It’s important to us that we rank for it.

If we didn’t choose your suggested keyword, we may have found an equally relevant, higher volume keyword to use instead. Our initial approach is to focus on higher volume keywords that are most relevant for your industry locally so that the website will start ranking for those keywords. Another reason we may not have recommended your keyword is that your site does not currently have a specific page with related content. We can begin tracking your suggested keyword for future use, even though we don’t recommend assigning it to a specific page at this time.

4. If the Cost Per Click (CPC) is so high for this keyword, we won’t be able to pay for it. Can we choose another instead?

We look at the Cost Per Click for each keyword to see how much those purchasing Google Ads are paying for the keyword, which is an indication of its popularity. Our process seeks to increase your organic search results, so you will not need to pay the CPC.

5. The Keyword Difficulty is so high for this keyword. How can our site compete for it?

Similar to how we use CPC, Keyword Difficulty is an indication that many websites are using a given keyword and ranking well for it in Google. From and SEO optimization perspective, a high Keyword Difficulty score lets us know we have chosen a good keyword to target because it is popular and often used on the web. We don’t shy away from keywords based on Keyword Difficulty. Our improvement process competes well for highly sought-after keywords.

6. Why should I use local modifiers in my metatags? I want to go national or international.

Local modifiers are the specific locations that we match to your keywords, such as “mailing services New York,” “fitness center Somerdale NJ,” or “speech therapist Montgomery County PA.” On an initial optimization, we focus our keyword strategy on the physical location of the business. This helps a new website gain a foothold locally since Google has a very strong preference for local searches. We can also use a second geographical area using local modifiers on the pages. Then, an ongoing strategy can build on the initial ranking boost to reach regionally and nationally. To start ranking regionally and nationally, an aggressive blogging and content development strategy is required to be successful.

7. Why should I use my town as a local modifier? No one will ever search for such a small town in Google.

Your keywords and local modifiers not only help people who enter those terms in a search engine to find your website, but they also help establish your presence to search engines themselves. Because Google has such a strong preference for local search, it is imperative to begin your search engine optimization by using your actual location as a local modifier. Once you establish that connection, your site will begin to appear in relevant searches near you whether or not someone typed in the name of your exact city. So by achieving consistently high ranking results for keywords using a local modifier for a small town such as Detour, MD, your ranking will in turn improve in larger cities such as Frederick, MD and the surrounding area.

8. How do I interpret my Initial Keyword Ranking chart?

The numbers next to each of your keywords show where your website is currently ranking in Google for the chosen keywords. A ranking of 1 is the best. It means that when someone runs a search for the given keyword in Google, yours is the first site listed on page one (after paid advertisements/special listings). A ranking of 1 to 10 is on page one, 11 to 20 is page two, and so on. A “100” means the ranking is 100 or above, i.e., the keyword is essentially not yet ranking at all in Google. We provide this chart so you can see where your current rankings are before optimization. We also provide this information about your top online competitors for comparison.

example keyword ranking - music website

9. Why didn’t you choose the competitors I suggested? The ones you chose aren’t my competitors.

We do take your competitor suggestions into account and they especially play a role in our initial research to determine the best keywords for your website and industry. The competitors identified in the list are based on the array of keywords we optimized for the site. Those are the top competitors in Google for the keywords we are using to optimizing the website. Our SEMRush tool shows us who the top keyword competitors are in an area for a given set of keywords. In many industries, it often happens that real world competitors have done little or no SEO and do not rank for your keywords. Those sites would not be useful benchmark web competitors for SEO purposes.

10. Where do the metatags appear on my website?

The title tag appears on the small tab at the top of a webpage and is barely perceptible on the site. It also appears as the blue heading at the top of a search result. The meta description is not visible at all on your website. It appears only as the brief description just below the heading and web address in a search result:

Kansas City Star Google listing

The H1 is the main heading on a webpage. The H2, if used, is the subheading beneath it. In this example, “Optimize Your Blog” is the H1 and “Blog Writing Best Practices for SEO” is the H2:

Optimize Your blog screenshot

We hope this list of FAQs has answered some of the questions you may have had about an initial SEO setup. Feel free to get in touch with other questions you may have about search engine optimization or our SEO services.

Optimize Your Blog

Posted on by Brian Loebig

Blog Writing Best Practices for SEO

Optimize Your Blog - Best Practices for SEOWhen you’re trying to keep up to date and make sure your website is the best it can be, it is easy to get caught up in the many possible tasks you can take on to effect improvements. Making sure the site is mobile-friendly, eliminating bulky images that slow download time and exercising due diligence to understand your competitors and what makes them successful are all relevant efforts. However, there is one thing you should make sure not to lose sight of in the mix: always keep your content in the forefront of your mind.

Fresh content is a must. It makes a lot of sense to update your main pages with new information to keep your audience informed. But beyond those changes, adding regular quality content is a big step along the road to high search engine ranking. If you are taking the time to make strong, consistent blog posts, give it a little more forethought and make sure your SEO is up to the task as well.

Once you have decided on your topic for a new blog post, consider the primary keywords for which you intend to rank. Don’t force-fit keywords; make sure the one you choose flows easily and fits well with the main focus of your post. If you have a pet care service in Hoboken, NJ, for example, you may decide to write a story about walking dogs during owners’ working hours. If you then choose “dog walking” as your focus keyword, you’ll want to make sure to use it in all the ways that will give you maximum SEO benefit. Here are your next steps:

Write great content. Think first of the reader, rather than Google. Make sure that the person who lands on your page will find your content relevant, entertaining, heartwarming, or whatever your goal is for the piece. Using at least 500 words makes it better for SEO. If you can write a longer article all the better, as the trend is moving toward longer articles for higher search engine ranking. A 1,000 to 1,500-word article that is authoritative, engaging, and well-focused on a topic relating to the target keyword will not only please your readers but will signal to Google that the web page is worthy of ranking.

Add the keyword to the text of your blog post. Make sure you use the keyword in the text two to three times. If you’ve chosen your topic well and matched it to a strongly associated focus keyword, this should be a seamless effort. Be careful not to use the keyword too many more times than the recommendation. Search engines will penalize keyword stuffing.

Use your keyword in the H1. The H1 is the main heading of your blog post. If you’ve chosen “dog walking” as your keyword, your H1 might be “Dog Walking in My Favorite City.” Using the keyword as close to the beginning of the heading is best. “Dog Walking in My Favorite City” is stronger for SEO than “100 Other Things I Love to Do While Enjoying Dog Walking in the City.” If it is not too awkward, you can use the target location in the H1 as well, as in “Dog Walking in Hoboken, My Favorite City.”

Use your keyword in the meta title and the meta description. The meta title appears in the tab of your web browser. You will also see it as the bold, blue title at the top of a Google search result. Next, write a meta description that gives a brief glimpse of what will be found in the blog post. This meta description will not be visible at all on your website but will appear below the meta title in a Google search result. Again, it is important to use the keyword and local modifier close to the beginning of the metatag. Here is an example of a meta title followed by a meta description:

Dog Walking Hoboken | Pet Care in the City

Looking for dog walking in Hoboken? We care for dogs, cats, and even some exotic pets while you’re at work or out of town. Call us at (201) 867-5309.

dog walking Hoboken - Google Screenshot

Link up. Find related content within your website and link to it from your blog post. You may want to provide a link to your About or Contact page, or you may reference a previous blog post and want to make the connection. Whichever links you choose, one to two internal links should be the maximum. Next, link to an outside, high authority website. Good possibilities for links that would make sense in the course of our hypothetical blog post would be Dogster or PetSmart.

Finishing Touches

Use images and ALT tags. Adding images and other media to your blog post makes for a pleasant experience for your readers, but it is also good SEO. Use at least one image in your blog post and find the area where you can add background information for the image. In the space labeled “ALT tag,” write a brief description of what is depicted. In this space, using the exact keyword is not ideal unless it is truly in the interest of the description. “A man with a standard poodle on a leash” or “children petting a dog on Washington St.” are examples of typical ALT tags.

Categorize and tag your post. Some popular blogging platforms such as WordPress and Wix give you the opportunity to create categories that describe your blog topics. You can also tag a few people or terms in the blog article that it makes sense to highlight. Choose a category and tags that are consistent with your keyword choice. A thematic category might be “Dog Care.” Tags might include more specific things like “North Jersey,” “pooper scooper,” and “Cesar Millan.”

Check your speed. Make sure you have the edge over the competition by keeping your mobile website up to speed. Use Test My Site to see how your rates. Test My Site, a Think with Google tool, offers optimization tips to help you if the text shows that your site has room for improvement.

Submit the blog to Google. Once you finish with your changes, submit the URL of the blog article using Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool. This helps the pages of your website to be more easily found and indexed by Google. Here’s how to do this easily, but easily overlooked step: https://loebigink.com/how-to-use-the-url-inspection-tool/.

Share it! After you have finished all the steps it takes to complete a great blog post, don’t forget to share it on social media. Raise awareness about your blog and get people talking about your web content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other places online. Those who are interested in what you have to say may mention you on the web and create links back to your website, which is very valuable to SEO. The more buzz, the better! By following these guidelines, you will have a blog set up for success.

Read more about efforts you can make to improve SEO in our previous post, The SEO 80/20 Rule.

Resources:

searchenginejournal.com/4-important-ranking-factors-according-seo-industry-studies/184619

searchenginejournal.com/se-ranking-seo-tasks/229783/

 

remove-button magnifying-search-lenses-tool