The Complete Guide To Etsy SEO

Are your product sales on Etsy dwindling?

Are you having difficulty ranking within the top 3 pages of the search results?

In fact, have you ever made it to page 1?

If you sell a great product on Etsy, but don’t rank well in search results, it’s most likely a result of a poorly optimized product page.

So before you give up on earning a reputable income on Etsy, follow my SEO guidelines to help you finally reach your well-earned position on page 1 of the search results!

Etsy Title Keyword Structure

Searching on Etsy is like searching on any other search engine – specific keywords yield specific results.

You need to use keywords that, not only help you rank at the top of the result listings but also accurately describe your product.

Why is that important?

If a searcher clicks on your result then clicks out of it and buys another item, it is a strong signal to the Etsy algorithm that your item did not meet their specifications.

The buyer’s purchase specifications can be found in the search query that was used to find your item.

So if nobody purchases your item when the query “fluffy dog toy” is searched, Etsy will assume that those keywords are not descriptive of your item and therefore push you lower in the results list.

Before I teach you how to find your golden nugget keywords, you must first understand the type of keywords you need to look for.

There are generally two types of search queries:

1) Long search queries (long tail keywords) – these yield the most targeted results.

For example

“When is the best time to drink coffee?”

2) Short search queries (short tail keywords) – these produce broad/general results.

For example:

“Coffee health benefits”

Although long tail keywords are more targeted, they generally do not have as high a search volume as short tail keywords.

And though short tail keywords have a high search volume they do not produce targeted results.

So what should you do?

To have the best chances of ranking your product well in Etsy you need to use a combination of short tail and long tail keywords in your listing title.

Let me give you an example of what this will look like.

Let’s say you are selling this dog toy:

A short tail description of this dog toy would only consist of 1 – 2 primary words such as:

• Dog Toy

A long tail description of this toy would consist of 3 – 4 primary words:

• Handmade Plush Duck Toy
• Soft Plush Duck Toy
• Fluffy Baby Duck Toy

If I was to use a combination of the above query types to create a listing title it might look something like this:

“Handmade Push Duck Toy / Soft Plush Duck Toy / Dog Toy / Puppy Toy”

As a general rule, use 1 -2 short tail keywords and 4 – 6 long tail keywords, in order to make up the 140 character Etsy title limit.

There is no need to write a complete sentence, you can simply separate each keyword type with a forward slash “/” or a comma “,”

I would suggest that you use a slash to sperate your keywords rather than a comma, it will make your title much simpler to read.

In terms of the order, it’s really up to you, although if you have the longer tail keywords towards the front of the title, it will make your product more appealing.

Here is a live example of this strategy in action.

Take a look at the second organic result for the term “dog toy” (ignore the first row they are promoted ads):

Notice the combination of short tail keywords (dog toy, small dog toy, etc) and long tail keywords (Dog toy with squeaker, gift for dogs, etc) in the title of this item:

Also notice how sperating each keyword with a comma makes the titles difficult to read – they should have used a forward slash.

Keywords Research

Now that you understand how to structure your keywords in your title, it’s time to actually find your keywords using a keyword research tool.

Keyword research tools provide data-driven proof of the actual search statistics of any given keyword.

Any successful SEO strategy needs to be driven by data-backed evidence.

Never choose a keyword based on an assumption of its search volume, if you want to make the most of your Etsy listing, you need to ensure that it is 100% optimized at the time of posting.

There are free keyword research tools available, such as Google keyword planner.

But the problem with these free tools is that they are not specifically designed for the Etsy search database so they do not provide accurate results.

The best keyword research tool that’s specifically designed for Etsy is Marmalead.

You need to pay a monthly subscription in order to use all of Marmalead’s features, but at only about $19 per month, it is very much affordable.

You can trial their software for free by clicking here

Once signed into the Marmalead platform you can begin your keyword research.

For consistency let’s stick with the ducky dog toy item above

Start by searching for the most basic short tail keyword for your item – in our case “dog toy”

You may notice the incredibly high competition for this search query (over 50,000 listings!)

At this stage that should not phase you because we are purposely searching for a highly competitive keyword in order to give us a starting point to work from.

If you scroll down the page you will eventually see a list of long tail alternative keywords – great stuff!

If you click on the “searches” column you will arrange these long tail queries by search volume:

So now you’ve got a great data-backed list of long tail keyword ideas you can use alongside the short tail keyword “dog toy”

On the far right is the “competition” column which shows the number of listings for each keyword.

Ideally, you will choose the long tail keywords with as high a search volume and as low a competition value as possible – so aim for the keywords that correspond to green or orange dots.

In saying that, there is no harm in choosing 1 or 2 red dot keywords within your title, especially if you dont have many options to choose from.

Keep in mind, when choosing keywords from this list, try to focus on the ones that are as descriptive of your item as possible.

If I was to choose some long tail keywords from the list in the screenshot above for our ducky toy I would choose the following:

• Natural dog toy
• Stuffed dog toy

So now we have the following information to work with:

Short tail keywords:

• Dog toy

Long Tail keywords:

• Natural dog toy
• Stuffed dog toy

Let’s find a new short tail keyword to search in order to find more long tail keywords.

But what short tail keyword should we use next?

On the same results page for “dog toy” scroll until you reach the section titled “Similar shopper searchers”

This will show a list of search suggestions based on the query “dog toy”

Look, here is a great relevant short tail search option – Plush toys!

Let’s search “plush toy” to see if we get any good long tail keyword ideas:

Look at all of these great long tail keywords that accurately describe our item!

• Custom plush toy
• Duck Plush toy
• Plush toy dog
• Small plush toy

So far we have the following information to work with:

Short tail keywords:

• Dog toy
• Plush toy

Long Tail keywords:

• Natural dog toy
• Stuffed dog toy
• Duck Plush toy
• Plush toy dog
• Small plush toy

We now have enough information to compile a title:

Duck Plush Toy / Stuffed Dog Toy / Plush Dog Toy / Natural Dog Toy / Small Dog Toy / Dog Toy / Plush Toy

Whenever you want to check the search volume of a particular keyword just simply type it into the search bar and click search.

The best keyword choices are those that have a high engagement score (indicated with green colored bars).

The engagement of a keyword is the expected amount of unique visits that keyword will generate.

Note: Do not feel discouraged if all of your keyword searches that describe your item yield low search volumes and low engagement scores, remember you are combining different keywords together so collectively you should have a high enough search volume.

Lets recap:

1. Think of a short tail description of your item – e.g dog toy.
2. Type it into the marmalead search engine and note down all the long tail keyword suggestions that relate to your item.
3. Aim to choose long tail keywords with a high search volume and a low competitor count (orange and green dots) although if your options are limited choose the “red dot” results.
4. Under the section “similar shopper searchers” find a new short tail keyword.
5. Search that new short tail keyword and note down all of the relevant long tail keyword variations.
6. Compile a list of about 1 – 2 short term keywords and 4 – 6 long tail keywords until you have reached the 140 title character limit.
7. Use all of these keywords in your listing title separated by a slash. Aim to place the short tail keywords towards the end of your title to focus on relevancy and descriptiveness.

Product Tags

Choosing the right tags for your Etsy item is imperative to help you rank on the first search result page.

Choosing the right tags is much easier than you think.

In fact, after you have chosen your title keywords you will have all of your tags ready – your tags are an exact replication of your title keywords!

The order of the tags does not matter.

Here is an example of all the corresponding tags I would use for our ducky toy Etsy title:

Etsy Title:

Duck Plush Toy / Stuffed Dog Toy / Plush Dog Toy / Natural Dog Toy / Small Dog Toy / Dog Toy / Plush Toy

Etsy Item Tags:

Duck Plush Toy | Stuffed Dog Toy | Plush Dog Toy | Natural Dog Toy | Small Dog Toy | Dog Toy | Plush Toy

If any of your keywords are too long to be used as a tag, try to shorten them while remaining as true to their original meaning as possible.

For example:

“Chewable dog teething toy” could be shortened to “dog teething toy”

Use Keywords in Description

In the description of your item, you will need to use each of your chosen keywords at least once.

But make sure the description sounds natural and not ‘keyword stuffed”

The Etsy algorithm (like all search engine algorithms) punishes spammy looking content by pushing them to the bottom of the search result list.

Get As Many 5 Star Ratings As Possible

Think about it, the owners of Etsy want to achieve as many customer transactions as possible

The search algorithm will therefore aim to push the best and highest selling products to the top of the results list.

How will Etsy know that your product is amazing?

With a 5 star rating!

Make a note in your description for buyers to leave a rating, or contact each individual buyer to ask them to submit a rating.

Drive Traffic to your Page

The more traffic you can drive to your page, the stronger the signal that your page is in high demand.

Create social media accounts associated with your Etsy shop, build a following, then drive traffic to your Etsy pages whenever you launch a product.

If you have a website that generates organic traffic you can create blogs to accompany each of your Etsy products and include links to them.

A great strategy is to intice influencers with a high number of followers to send traffic to your Etsy page.

How do you do that?

Start by finding an influencer within your niche on social media.

For our example of plush dog toys, we might target a doggy groomer or a doggy school.

Feature them in some posts and tag them.

Make sure you put some effort into your featured posts and write a detail caption convincing your followers to use their services.

After a few posts send them a personal message asking them to share a post of yours that links to your Etsy page (if this is on instagram your Instagram profile will contain a link to your Etsy page, you will then just ask them to tag you in a post).

What makes this strategy so effective is the fact that you are giving incredible value BEFORE asking for a small favour.

If you apply this stratergy to multiple influencers you can drive A LOT of free traffic to your Etsy page and earn some incredible SEO points.

Keep your Etsy Page Fresh

My final SEO tip is to keep your shop fresh and up to date.

The Etsy algorithm favours updated entires because it’s a strong indication that the products are in stock.

You can achieve this by either consistently adding new items or manually renewing your old items regularly.

Aim to NEVER let your items expire.

Renewing an existing item is super easy:

After you have logged into Etsy click on “shop manager” and then click “listings”

Select all the items you would like to renew then click on the renew button at the top of the page.

Voila your items are now fresh on the shelves in Etsy’s eyes!

Conclusion.

Keep in mind that SEO takes time, so do not feel discouraged if your ranking does not improve overnight.

But if you follow my Etsy SEO guidelines, the Etsy algorithm will eventually notice you and WILL reward you.

Remember, Etsy takes a small percentage of each of your sales, so they are on your side and want you to be as successful as possible.

Prove to Etsy that you are playing by their rules and they will ensure you get as many customers as possible.

To your Etsy Success!

Image Source: ponoko.com

The post The Complete Guide To Etsy SEO appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/the-complete-guide-to-etsy-seo/

Why Wix SEO Issues Don’t Have To Stop You Dominating the SERPs

Wix, one of several ‘web builders’ that are currently gaining in popularity, especially with start-ups and small businesses, is a unique creature in the world of the Internet. And one that has been no stranger to controversy in its 13 year history, especially when it comes to Wix SEO.

Why People Choose a Wix Website

Wix has a lot of great things going for it. If you are starting a business, it’s usually one of the busiest and most stressful times of your life. If you are running a smaller local business finding the time to even think about something like building a website seems impossible. But you know you need one. Every business needs one, no matter how new or how small.

However, when you call web developers, the numbers regarding cost get mind-boggling quickly. So when people come across Wix, which lets you build a basic website in minutes, and then charges a reasonably low fee to host it for you (because dealing with that can be a time-consuming pain as well) it can often seem like a logical choice.

When Working With Wix Gets Complicated

Wix is not a great option for many. It is a far more restrictive platform than WordPress, or Joomla, or many of the other more complex CMS offerings. And it is definitely pay for play, as gaining new functions almost always involves micro-transactions and paid upgrades.

When it comes to SEO, to say that Wix has had its problems there is something of an understatement. In fact this long – and very amusing – piece details all of the many SEO faux pas Wix has made – including getting its own IP de-indexed from Google at one point. As the article we cited points out in much greater detail, Wix has also offered, and continues to offer some terrible, very inaccurate SEO advice to its subscribers.

The Wix SEO Workaround

So, would we recommend Wix? No. Do we understand that for some businesses, businesses like restaurants, local stores and other service businesses Wix often seems like the best choice at the time, and as they have a physical business, maybe a website does not matter that much (it does, but we’ll explain that in a minute) Yes. Do we know that some of you have Wix websites and that changing it now is something that you do not have the time or patience to do? Yes.

All of this is why we will explain how, even with the SEO challenges Wix presents, you can still make things work and still get a Wix website that looks good – because we have to admit, design wise a lot of them are lovely – and ranks well in the SERPS, bringing your business all the benefits that a good website should.

Why a Well Optimized Website Matters to Local Businesses

The way people find local businesses has changed massively over the last few years. No one has a Yellow Pages anymore (unless they are using it for a doorstop) and everyone searches for things online. Including where they can go locally to get a haircut, grab a pizza, get their dog groomed, buy their Gran a birthday card and so on and so on. So it is essential that they find your business in that search.

Local SEO, which Pearl Lemon has won several awards for, is an ever-changing thing, especially right now when voice search is once again changing the game.

The number of homes with Echo and Google Home speakers is steadily rising, with Amazon’s Echo Dot being the most popular item sold on its online marketplace during last year’s holiday season. And thanks to tools like Cortana, Siri and Google Assistant, almost any smartphone user can utilize voice search at any time.

It’s easy to see why voice search is so appealing. After all, it’s incredibly convenient to ask your device a direct question and receive a concise answer, especially compared to scanning through text after typing out every single character of your query. Asking Alexa where to get pizza is much easier than scrolling through pages of search results, especially when you are driving and should not even be touching your phone anyway.

So, good local SEO now has to take account of that too. And at Pearl Lemon we are. The biggest goal in local SEO is to get a business into the Google Local 3 Pack – which we explained in detail here – and the good news for those with a Wix Website is that Wix SEO – and its challenges – are no bar to doing that.

Winning at Local Search

While a comprehensive local SEO strategy features many components, we’ve selected some of the most important Google ranking factors when it comes to local SEO to feature here. A local business who focuses on these here will have a distinct advantage in the organic search results over their competitors. Even if they have a Wix website.

Google My Business Signals

Every local SEO effort should begin by creating or claiming your Google My Business (GMB) listing.

Once you have created your Google My Business listing, make sure your profile is properly optimized. Some things to remember:

• The business should be correctly categorized
  Optimize the GMB business title by including relevant keywords
  Double-check that the link to the business website is correct and crawl-able.
  Verify the accuracy of the listed business hours
  This might seem obvious, but verify that the business address is correct! This is so important, as the Local Pack listings consider the businesses’ proximity to the searcher’s location
  Add your company logo
  Include high quality photos

Not of this involves Wix, except the link to the site, so Wix website owners are ‘good to go’ there.

Link Signals

What exactly does the term “link signals” mean? It’s quite simple, really. The term “link signals” refers to inbound links to a website. There are few common factors that should be considered when evaluating the quality of inbound links.

Link Authority: When it comes to inbound links, quality is key. Try to avoid “spammy” links from low quality sites. Instead, focus on obtaining links from high quality, authoritative websites. Links from high authority sites related to your business niche is even better.

Link Quantity: While it’s true that quality trumps quantity, of course the more high quality inbound links you can get, the better.

Link Anchor Text: Anchor text is the text that appears highlighted in a hypertext link, which can be clicked to open the target web page. Google looks at the anchor text of a link as an indicator of the subject matter of the target page. You do have to be careful, however. Google will penalize a site whose back link anchor text profile is over-optimized.

Citation Signals

Citations are the instances where a business appears somewhere on the web. For example, business directories and review sites are two major sources of citations. When it comes to citations, consistency is key with local SEO.

Make sure the business name, address, and phone number (aka NAP) adhere to the same format every time they are published. If you do need to make a change to the NAP information, be sure to update every cited instance.

Review Signals

Online business reviews are another key factor for local SEO. Reviews on these sites help form a company’s online reputation. One of the worst things a company can do is ignore the reviews they receive. If your business falls into this category, don’t worry…it can be corrected.

On-Page Signals

As is the case with traditional SEO, on-page factors are  important to any local SEO strategy. And this is where website owners who have discovered the limitations of Wix SEO really start to get nervous. However, for the most part, the stuff that really matters can still be addressed and includes all the following:

The content on your business website should serve your local audience, offering value to visitors and prospective customers. Make sure the content includes targeted keyword phrases, but be careful not to over-optimize. Content marketing success comes from creating high quality, useful content that people find informative, engaging and helpful. And those people won’t care what platform your website is running on if you can give them that.

Here’s a brief list of some on-page factors that do matter, and yes, they can all still be effectively optimized even with the limitations of Wix SEO in its most basic form.

• Page titles
• Meta Descriptions
• URLs
• Heading tags
• Image optimization
• Site speed
• Mobile friendliness

Eventually, some businesses may have to ‘bite the bullet’ and upgrade to a more robust CMS than Wix. But the fact is many can do just fine with one. They just have to take their Wix SEO advice from those who really DO know SEO (unlike the bloggers over at the Wix site itself who so seem to be WAY out of the loop)

As a Wix user, you want more visibility. We’ve created our service to help you to achieve that. Let’s get started with your Wix SEO today

The post Why Wix SEO Issues Don’t Have To Stop You Dominating the SERPs appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/why-wix-seo-issues-dont-have-to-stop-you-dominating-the-serps/

Are These Common Mistakes Making Your WordPress SEO – And Your Site – Less Effective?

Did you know that according to according to w3techs.com: “WordPress is used by 60.3% of all the websites whose content management system we know. This is 30.2% of all websites.”

There are indeed very good reasons why this is the case, and why WordPress can be especially good for smaller businesses. However, if you, like so many other people, use a WordPress site for your blog or indeed for your business website in general, now is a good time to stop and do a quick check to make sure that you are not making one of the very common mistakes that make WordPress users look, well, a bit silly and that can also reduce the effectiveness of all of your site-building and site promotion efforts

Here are some of the most important things to be on the lookout for:

Leaving the ‘Not Just Another WordPress Blog’ Tagline in Place

You would be surprised how many otherwise quite competent WordPress users forget to remove the generic tagline that is a part of all new installations of WP. Doing so means that not only will it show up in your header and make you (and your company) look rather silly but it will show up in search engines as well, derailing your (future) hard work on SEO.

This is an easy mistake to make, especially as many themes do not show the legend as a part of the frontend display. Want to make sure it’s gone? Check Settings >General >Tagline and make sure your copy has replaced the boilerplate stuff.

Keeping Deactivated Plugins or Failing to Update Active Ones

WordPress plugins can be very useful. In fact, they are one of the most useful aspects of the whole CMS, as they can allow you to do so much so easily. But the fact is that they can also put your site in danger.

One of the easiest ways that hackers find their way into a WordPress site is through a weakness or ‘backdoor’ in a plugin, especially if it is an older unused one.The security plugin provider WordFence keeps a log of the vulnerabilities they discover in plugins – some of them ‘big name’ plugins – and reading it can be scary.

Therefore you have to not only be very careful about which plugins you install in the first place but also that you delete any plugins you are no longer using, instead of leaving them in place ‘just in case.’ Just because they are deactivated on the front end does not mean they cannot be exploited, so if you are not using a plugin delete it, you can always reinstall it later if you change your mind.

If a message on the dashboard says a plugin needs to be updated do so ASAP, as these updates are often specifically released to address bugs and problems the developers have identified and need to fix.

One of the most widely used WordPress plugins, Yoast, made a mistake last year that damaged the SERP positions of some sites temporarily. The developers worked with Google and fixed it quickly, but affected sites could only ‘fix’ the mistake in Google’s eyes by updating the plugin, and doing so as soon as they released it.

That is an extreme example, but when a plugin is updated it is often to fix smaller vulnerabilities that have been discovered or to retain comparability with the current WordPress version. That means that failing to update your plugins could break your site as well as damage your SEO.

Not Updating Your WordPress Version

Are you one of the many WordPress users that sees the little log in message ‘there is a new version of WordPress available, please update now’ in your control panel and then ignores it for weeks? Bad idea.

There is a reason that so many developers work so hard to create these updates and it is not just to add new features. In fact that is secondary, it is the bugs and glitches that are fixed when an update is released that is so important. Attacking sites via these glitches is another favorite hacker’s tactic, so don’t make things easier for them.

We have noticed lately that site owners have been avoiding updating their WordPress version because that will mean updating to the Gutenberg Editor. Gutenberg, many users have complained, increases the learning curve when using WordPress and is making it harder to use. That is a matter of opinion – it is different, but not that hard to grasp quickly, but don’t let a fear of it put your site in danger. You can keep the classic editor if you want to by installing a WordPress approved plugin but your site will still be as safe and functional as it should be.

Crazy Code

If you compose a blog post, or create a piece of new content, in Microsoft Word or a similar office program and then cut and paste into your WordPress site you are asking for trouble.

Even if you use the little ‘paste from Word’ radio button in the dashboard, you will still be adding the stray code that is a built-in part of Word, and that stray code, even if it does not show up in the visual appearance of the post – which it usually does not – will confuse search engine bots and make it very hard for them to index your site properly. Paste your content in as a txt file and then format it in place. It takes a little longer yes, but the extra effort is certainly worthwhile.

Installing Yoast and Assuming You Have Conquered WordPress SEO

We have often asked new clients what they are doing about WordPress SEO and they have proudly announced that they have it covered because they have the Yoast plugin installed.

At this point we grimace, but do give a grudging nod to the marketing team at Yoast. They do an incredible job of selling their product. But here’s the thing, it’s a tool. A good tool. But it is NOT magic, and it is not doing SEO for you.

Getting that green light in Yoast is simple, it just has to meet four or five basic criteria, and what is in reality a horribly optimized page can get one with ease. So if you have been using the Yoast green light as a benchmark the chances are good that your WordPress SEO needs a lot of work.

Not sure how good your WordPress SEO is? Don’t miss out on this opportunity to have your website audited by our award-winning SEO company. We’ll review your site, provide recommendations and give you a taste of our bespoke WordPress SEO consulting services.

The post Are These Common Mistakes Making Your WordPress SEO – And Your Site – Less Effective? appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/are-these-common-mistakes-making-your-wordpress-seo-and-your-site-less-effective/

Is Google Indexing Your Webpages? If They Aren’t, Why Not?

Before you begin an SEO campaign designed to improve the search engine rankings of your website, and any individual page on it, you need to ensure Google ever indexed the page in the first place. Often when people make these checks, they find large chunks of their site seem to be missing from the Google Index. If their site is indexed, why are pages missing?

What Google Needs to Index a Web Page

As you know, the Google Bots (not real bots, they are lines of code, but the imagery is cool) are at work 24/7, crawling around the Internet accessing webpages to be added to the Google Index. However, just because you create a web page does not mean that they will automatically do so.

Before Google can rank your content, their bots need to find it, be permitted to ‘read’ it evaluate it, and then finally index it. If anything goes wrong at any point in this process, a page may not be indexed into search results, even if other pages from the same website are. So contrary to popular opinion, just posting your content online is not enough.

Discovery

As clever as they are, Google Bots are not psychic, nor do they have ‘spidey senses’ that alert them to the creation of your new page.

To index a page, Google has to be able to find it. This means that somewhere has to link to it–whether that link come from other linked pages in the same site, or from other websites.

Depending on the quality and the relevance to yours of the places the new content is linked from, it might take time for Google to schedule following those links and finding your pages.

This also means that the page cannot be ‘hidden’ in any way–which, for example, might mean content is password protected, blocked via robots.txt, or only available to users in certain countries.

This is the reason SEOs will always advise that you create and submit site maps to Google regularly and that you try to link content you would like to indexed quickly into an existing menu or with content that you are certain already appears in the Google Index. The more of a guiding hand you give the Google Bots, the more likely they are to find your content.

Assessment

Just because a Google Bot find a page does not automatically mean it will add it to its index. It takes the time to evaluate its suitability first, and in doing so takes a number of factors into account:

Low Quality Content

Just how Google determines that a page is low quality has something of a secret sauce element to it, and their definition changes often. The company themselves often point to the Google Quality Rater’s Guidelines as a good guide these days, but some known factors that they consider include:

Low word count

While there is no ‘set’ word count considered perfect anything under 300 words is certainly likely more likely to be judged ‘thin content’ and rejected from Google’s Index.

Excessive use of the same keywords

Keywords are still important, but it is their careful and sparing use that is successful, not using them repeatedly.

Duplicate content

If the page is a close or even direct duplicate of content found elsewhere on the web (including on the same site) it is unlikely that Google will include it in its index.

Speed

If the page loads too slowly, bots know humans don’t like to wait, so they don’t either. Speed is known to be an increasingly important factor in the quality of a page, but it is still something that many webmasters are overlooking. Discovering just how fast – or slow – Google considers your page, and what needs to be done to fix the problems – is easy to do though. Simply input the URL into Google’s Pagespeed Insights tool and it will tell you all you need to know.

These are just some factors, there are many more. It’s one thing that makes SEO so challenging and one of the biggest reasons people may need to seek professional SEO help for their site right from the start.

Code Issues

Google Bots read code, not words. If a web page is coded in such a way that it is hard for them to read they will not hang around trying to do so. They will determine either that the page is empty if they can’t see it at all of that the page is low quality and move on.

In terms of code that it is hard for a bot to read, sites that rely heavily on JavaScript, or include content in complex or non-standard ways risk the fact Google Bots might not be able to consume the page content and therefore just won’t index it.

Indexing Is Not Forever

Congratulations! Your page passed the test and is appearing in Google. But – and this is another bit many people do not know – that does not mean it will stay there. Google repeatedly crawls and re-evaluates content – so if your quality drops, or if you accidentally prevent Google from evaluating the content, then your page might get dropped out of the index.

How Do I Know Which of My Pages Google Has Indexed?

Now that you know that Google may not have indexed all of your website’s pages you are no doubt keen to head off and check. But what is the best way to do that? Itis actually very simple to do so:

• Click in Google’s search field.
• Type site: followed by the website URL you want to limit the search to. Ensure that there’s no space between site: and the website address.
• Follow the website URL with a single space and then type the search phrase.

You don’t need to use the http:// or https:// portion of the website’s URL, but it doesn’t change the result if you include it. You will then be returned a search that lists all of the pages from within that URL that are listed within the Google Index.

The post Is Google Indexing Your Webpages? If They Aren’t, Why Not? appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/is-google-indexing-your-webpages-if-they-arent-why-not/

How to Create and Use Infographics to Drive Traffic to Your Blog and Boost Your SEO

By now we have all done it. Seen an infographic so interesting that we have been compelled to immediately post it on Facebook, tweet it, forward it in an email or share it on LinkedIn. You may have also chosen to feature a particularly good one in your latest blog post.

Given that creating good infographics is not the easiest thing is it worth taking the time and attempting to do so? And if you do, how can you ensure it does what you expected it to?

The Basic Benefits of Infographics in Content Marketing and For SEO

A good infographic is a lot more than just a pretty picture. Here’s a look at some more compelling reasons infographics can make great content for almost any niche.

Addictive and Attractive

People love facts, figures and statistics. Add some compelling images and graphics and just like that, you have addictive content that will engage readers while also offering the kind of useful information Google expects good content to do every time

Easily Scanned and Viewed

Human beings are highly visual and because 90% of the information that comes to the brain is visual you need to tap into that “optic nerve” as quickly as possible with your content.

Eye-tracking studies have shown that internet readers pay close attention to information-carrying images. In fact, when the images are relevant, readers spend more time looking at the images than they do reading text on the page. 

Better Recall

Have an important message you want to convey that people will actually remember? Add an infographic to it. Studies have shown that people can recall 65% of the visual content that they see almost three days later. Compared to about 10% of text only content three days after it’s read.

Big SEO Benefits

Not only can infographics, when shared, draw new and increased traffic to your website but they are also great link bait. If people use them on their site – which they will if they are interesting and informative – they will have to link back to you. This can be a great way to get links from sites much ‘bigger’ than your own that might never have considered linking to your site before.

Demonstrate an Expert Understanding of the Subject

The research and understanding required to create an infographic will display your knowledge and position you as an expert on your category or topic, even if the fact you make use of come from many other sources – which they often do.

Tips for Creating a Viral Infographic

As you can see, when they do ‘go viral’, infographics can be a hugely effective way to get a marketing message across, bring wider recognition to your brand or idea and boost your SEO. And while you can never be certain that your infographic will catch the attention of the masses – or at least your target audience – there are some things you can do to help its chances of doing so:

Identify a Real Goal

In order for it to be of use to you as a promotional tool, you need to define exactly what your goal is for your infographic. Do you want to build your ‘brand profile’ by educating and/or entertaining people or are you trying to acquire customers or sell a product? By answering these questions, you can determine just what kind of information and content to include.

Tell A Singular Story

Although an infographic contains a number of different pieces of information they should all relate to the same central idea and tell a cohesive story. Creating a great, shareable, infographic involves coming up with a way to impart facts, figures and information about a single idea in a new way, not just jumbling some random facts together and adding cartoon clip art.

Get Your Facts Straight

To avoid embarrassment, make sure that the facts you include come from a reliable, accurate and verifiable source. When you think the piece is finished, make sure that you go back and ensure that any numbers you have included are absolutely right as well, as an extra zero added or omitted by mistake can change everything!

Go for Good Design

The appeal of an infographic is also its design and visual appearance but that does not mean you should go so overboard with the visuals that the actual message gets lost. To create a good balance between the two elements try looking at some of the infographics that have personally appealed to you in the past for help and inspiration.

There are also an increasing number of softwares and web-based applications that can be utilized to great effect if graphic design is really not your ‘thing’. Good options include Visme, Easel.ly and Canva.

Make It Super Sharable

In order for an infographic to go viral people have to share it and so you do need to make it as easy to share as possible. Besides the very obvious links on major social channels, offer an embed code so that people can add it to their own websites or blogs with ease.

To make it even more sharable, offer a PDF that can be downloaded and printed off. And don’t forget that as it is an image after all to add it to a site like Pinterest, a place that you may not think of as a promotional site for information – but where actually more images are now shared from than any other single spot on the Internet!

A blog or website that is filled with nothing but infographics will not appeal to many, and won’t do much for your overall onsite SEO, so that is NOT what we are suggesting. However, the occasional well executed infographic included as a part of a structured content marketing plan has the potential to offer benefits far beyond what you ever imagined a simple image could.

 

 

The post How to Create and Use Infographics to Drive Traffic to Your Blog and Boost Your SEO appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/how-to-create-and-use-infographics-to-drive-traffic-to-your-blog-and-boost-your-seo/

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The post This is a test appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/this-is-a-test/

Mastering Marketplace SEO – eBay, Amazon and Etsy

Are the Russians Coming for Your Website? How Hackers Can Wreck Your SEO

Russian hacking exploits have been all over the news again recently thanks to that Mueller Report causing so many waves and so many headlines all over the world – but what you may not have realized is that this is nothing new, it just so happens it has affected some ‘major players’ recently so has the issue

In fact, take a look at some of these eye-opening stats

• About 30,000 websites are infected with some type of malware daily.
• 73% of Internet users fall victim to some type of cybercrime.
• WordPress powers about 25% of all the world’s website. WordPress hacks are also the most common and, according to hackers, the easiest to execute.
• It only takes about 10 minutes to crack a lowercase password that is 6 characters long.

In fact, the number of hackers from Russia, China, Eastern Europe, the US and even right here in good old Blighty, trying to get into business websites of all kinds has been increasing for some time. Not only can this be bad news for the security of a website in general, but it can also seriously damage a site’s ranking in the SERPs.

Are Hidden Hackers Wrecking Your Site’s SEO?

You may wonder why we are even suggesting you worry about your site being hacked. Yours is simply a small local business, what could the Russians possibly want from you?

According to Google, hackers are rarely specifically targeting a certain business at all. Instead they are making use of hundreds – sometimes even thousands of bots – that scurry around from site to site until they find one that can be exploited.

Even though the hacker’s bots may not be after your site specifically, they will ‘take it’ if they can and if they do, it can have a serious impact on your site’s SEO.

Why Do Small Websites Get Hacked?

Some hackers don’t really have too much of a plan behind their efforts, they are out to cause trouble for the sake of doing so. Often, once they take a site over they replace the content with offensive, or nonsensical copy and don’t do much else.

The biggest aim is to embarrass the website owner. They may not know who that is, but it’s often supposed to be a lesson to those who fail to pay enough attention to their site on a daily basis.

Ad injection attacks, as they are known, are also common. The concept is simple: you distribute your often malicious adverts on to someone else’s site to drive more traffic to your own. This can take the form of simply displaying the adverts on the site or in extreme cases, redirect all traffic to the hacker’s site. These adverts can then contain malicious code that leads to gaining control over a user’s machine or sensitive data.

Unfortunately, not all hacks are visible and some can be quite subtle and difficult to track. For instance, if you are using your WordPress site as an e-store, you might store your client’s credit card details or personal information. This is valuable to any hacker and they will not make their presence known so they can keep exploiting this information. In addition, there is now a new hacking wrinkle; websites hacked only to mine cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.

While a business owner may be too busy to notice what’s going on, Google – or rather their bots – certainly will and they will pick up that the site has been hacked. They will attempt to notify the website owner via Google Webmaster Tools, but obviously that message will only get through if the webmaster makes use, which far too many people do not.

In the meantime, in the interests of protecting the public, Google will slap a hacked site warning on the affected website. You may have seen these. They are big red screens that advise browsers not to proceed, as they may be headed into dangerous territory. Almost everyone complies with these warnings and so very quickly a once busy site can see its traffic decreased to zero and kicked out of the SERPs to boot. 

The DDoS Attack That Isn’t

DDoS attacks–when so much traffic is deliberately aimed at a site that it chokes its servers and shuts it down–are better orchestrated affairs and these are usually aimed at specific sites. Most often you will hear about DDoS attacks that shut down the likes of Amazon, Sony and other multi-million-dollar concerns.

The chances that your business’ website will be deliberately targeted for a DDoS shut down are slim–unless you have an aggressive competitor with a taste for black hat SEO–but traffic surges caused by pesky spam commenters can mimic the effects.

Comments can be useful to a website. They can help drive engagement and to a certain extent Google will approve. However, by allowing them you are opening your site up to a potential hack. Besides leaving spam links that are terrible for your SEO, if too many bots arrive to comment on your site at once they can cause a bottleneck that causes a situation very like that caused by a deliberate DDoS.

How can you prevent all of this? With vigilance. Proper security should be maintained on the site at all times–there are plenty of tools available to help you–and if you do allow comments they should be properly monitored on a regular basis.

Finally, get into the habit of navigating to your own site once a day, not to the back-end, but to the front, in the same way your ‘regular’ visitors do, to make sure nothing looks odd or is failing to function correctly. Doing this will only take five minutes from your day but it could save you days–even weeks–of hassle trying to ‘cure’ a site that has been taken over by those odd foreign bots. And don’t forget to check those Google Webmaster messages. If your site is hackedthey will help you fix the issue – especially when it comes to any damage to your SEO and whenever Google is willing to help? Smart webmasters say yes please.

The post Are the Russians Coming for Your Website? How Hackers Can Wreck Your SEO appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/are-the-russians-coming-for-your-website-how-hackers-can-wreck-your-seo/

Yelp vs Google Reviews: Why You Should Stick With The Big G

Every small business owner knows about Yelp reviews, but what about Google reviews?

In the battle of Yelp vs. Google reviews, there are a few big reasons that Google reviews are better for local business owners. Not only are they more visible in search and easier for customers to leave—there’s also less competition, more impact, and more opportunity. And they are FANTASTIC for local SEO as well.

Does that sound too good to be true? It’s not, and while we have little against Yelp! let’s look at all the reasons we think your focus should be on getting Google Reviews for your business.

Unlike Yelp, Google Wants You to Ask For Reviews

Yelp’s official policy is that they don’t even want you to ask for reviews.

Why?

Because Yelp knows that you will not ask for a review unless you think it will be a 5 star review.

Google’s policy makes a lot more sense: not only do they want you to ask for reviews, but they even give you a link to make it even easier.

If you’re in a high volume industry like hairdressing or the restaurant business, it makes sense to systemize your efforts and rely on your staff to remember to ask for reviews as they deal with customers.

If you’re in a lower volume industry like roofing or real estate sales, it might make more sense to chase down each customer with an individualized approach. But, however you do it (even if it’s just a note on a receipt) ask for Google Reviews, the big G won’t be mad.

Google Reviews are Vital for Local SEO

If you’re investing in SEO for your business (which you should be,) Google reviews can give you a strong advantage.

In 2017, Local SEO Guide looked at 200+ local ranking factors, such as “total number of words on page” and “number of photos,” to see which ones had the strongest effect on rankings in Google’s local pack.

Out of the top 10 most influential factors, nine of them involved Google reviews:

Total additional organic rankings
Number of Google reviews that mention the target keyword
Number of Google reviews that mention the target city
Total number of Google reviews
Percentage of Google reviews that mention the keyword
Percentage of Google reviews that mention the city
Average yearly Google reviews
Number of Google reviews not responded to
Number of new Google reviews in the last year
Average weekly Google reviews

Google probably uses these reviews as ranking factors because they offer a direct way to gauge customer satisfaction.

If 100 people say you’re a 5-star business, Google would not be doing the job they claim to do – give their users the best information – if they did not show your business to shoppers prominently just because you don’t have enough words on your page or enough photos on your local listing.

Ultimately, Google wants to show users results that satisfy their needs, and reviews are one of the best ways they can judge user satisfaction.

So do Yelp reviews impact your SEO too?

Not really. Here’s why:

Since Google and Yelp aren’t exactly friends, Google can only guess how much Yelp works to prevent dirty tricks. If one person leaves ten reviews from ten different accounts on Google, Google should know about it, because Google can see things like their IP and if they’ve recently visited the business. But if someone sets up ten Yelp accounts to post fake reviews, Google can only hope that Yelp do something about it.

Ultimately, they can’t trust it.

That’s why Google should, and does, trust their own reviews more.

It’s Easier to Bury a Bad Review than Remove It

Removing a bad review from Google is tough. While anyone can report a fake review, getting Google to remove it can be much more complicated. Get ready to contact their support line, provide evidence, and argue your case. And to wait, for a long time.

The truth is that no one expects you to have a perfect record, and having a few bad reviews can be a good thing, if it helps you improve an aspect of your service you were not aware was lacking. All you need to do is earn a lot more good reviews than bad ones.

Google Reviews Don’t Get Filtered Like Yelp Reviews

If you leave a review on Yelp, there’s a good chance you’ll never see it again. Yelp loves filtering out reviews they don’t think are real, honest, and legitimate, but even they admit real reviews get chucked out too. So, all that effort you put into asking your customers to leave you a review could go to waste because it’s not something they have done much of before so Yelp decided they were suspect.

You won’t have that problem on Google. Google doesn’t remove a lot of reviews, for better or for worse. And if you’re worried about getting too many Google reviews at once, don’t be. Stick with Google and you’ll get to keep your happy customers and your reviews.

Yelp has Trust Issues

After polling more than a thousand users, Brightlocal found that 85% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Meanwhile, 73% of consumers also said they trust a business more if they have positive reviews.

No matter what you personally think about online reviews, the people have spoken.

So why does Google get the edge here, even when their review platform has a lot of problems?

Because Yelp’s trust issues are much more public.

It’s easy to find fairly candid discussions about people writing fake Yelp review for cash, whether you can pay Yelp to remove bad reviews, and whether Yelp sued South Park for slander. Add in a borderline abusive sales staff – yes, no doubt you’ve had calls from them too, we have- a review filter that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense, and a troubled business model, and it’s a wonder that they’ve made it this far.

At least for now, we think a review on Google could carry more weight than a review on Yelp in the future. And Google won’t keep calling you to advertise with them every ten minutes.

You Can Leave a Google Review from Any Google Account

If someone wants to leave a review on Yelp, they’ll need a Yelp account. They’ll also need a few other friends and reviews if they don’t want it filtered out. Unfortunately, that rules out many people. Even if they really like your business it’s a lot of effort to ask them to go to just to leave you a few nice words.

Meanwhile, on Google, anyone with a Google account can leave a review. That means anyone who has ever logged into Gmail or YouTube is good to go, and most of the time Google already trusts them, so the review should ‘stick’

Need more help with your local SEO? Our team of local SEO experts are waiting, contact us to discuss what they can do for you.

The post Yelp vs Google Reviews: Why You Should Stick With The Big G appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/yelp-vs-google-reviews-why-you-should-stick-with-the-big-g/

What is the Google Local SEO 3 Pack and How Do You Get Your Business There?

If you type “pizza restaurant” (where you live)” into Google in 2019, you will get a list of such establishments in your area of town. Google wants to provide the information that is most relevant to you, so the restaurants most relevant to you will displayed — in other words your geographical location will determine which pizza place listings will be displayed.

These listings are at the top of the page in a special list accompanied by a map. 

For example, this result is for the area around our London office:

And, for those of you across the pond, this result is for the area around one of our US satellite locations:

And these kinds of results will display for almost any location (that sells pizza) in the world. The same applies to almost any kind of local business. Hairdressers, plumbers, the list goes on. And there will always be a ‘top 3’, even though there are actually more red clickable markers on the map, so that really is the place you want to be.

Why Did Google Change to the Local SEO 3 Pack?

Before the 3 listings were displayed , Google showed seven local companies in a list form, known as the 7 pack. This meant that more local businesses had a chance to squeeze into the first search results page, even if their website did not perform well organically.

Google’s decision to show fewer listings appears to have been motivated by the huge rise in mobile search use. 3 Pack search results make desktop searches mirror those on mobile with additional space for map results and reviews, but the caveat is fewer contenders for the top rankings. However, as mentioned above search results are localised, meaning that the local SEO three pack changes considerably by dependent on searchers locations.

You can expand the “More Places” section below the local SEO 3 pack and these results appear to be unaffected in local search results. This leaves ample opportunity for businesses that don’t make the top three to still make it in the top search results. But the ideal is to get into that local 3 pack. So, the obvious question is what is the best way to go about trying to do that? Here are some basic tactics to consider:

Claim and Complete Your Google My Business Listing Properly

Most of the information for your local business as Google displays it (including your address, phone number, images, street view and so on.) is taken from your Google My Business page.

So if you have not done already, start by claiming your Google My Business listing and fill out as much as possible including a minimum of the following:

• A long, unique description that’s formatted correctly, uses a keyword or two and includes links.
  The correct categories for your business.
  A high-resolution profile image and cover photo.
  Additional business photos, as many GOOD ones as possible.
  A working local phone number .
  A business address that’s consistent with the address on your website and local directories.
  If your staff do not mind, add images of them as well. A feeling of personal connection goes a long way when choosing a local company to do business with.

Work on Your Reviews

Google has removed phone numbers and exact addresses from search results, but starred reviews remain. Therefore, businesses hoping to both crack the top three and see traffic from that ranking need to make sure they’ve got a high volume of good reviews.

And these are not only Google reviews, – although those are hugely important – but also reviews on local directory pages like Yelp! and even Facebook, along with industry specific sites. So ask customers to leave reviews and do it often.

Make Sure Your Opening Hours Are Correct

Each local business listing’s snippet now includes the business’s working hours. Depending on the time a searcher begins to search, the searcher will see the following information:

‘Closes at ___ ‘

‘Closes soon’

‘Opens at ___’

‘Closed now’

Ensure you show your company’s correct opening hours on your Google My Business page. Best not to leave it at ‘open all hours’ if you have no intention to do so — because if a searcher calls your business and you do not respond you’ll damage your brand and they do also have the option to report the error to Google, who may penalise your page for displaying incorrect information.

Specialise your Brand

To ensure that you’re turning up in relevant local searches above your competitors, you should make search terms as specific as possible.

If you’re not in the top three results yet for the broader searches you have been aiming for, then reposition your brand as more specialist. Avoid trying to rank for “restaurant” — try for “Pizza restaurant”. Rather than “builder” — try for “residential builder.”

The aim is to be as specific as possible to match what locals search for — then it’ll be more likely you will appear in the local SEO 3 pack. This will call for some significant keyword research in many cases, but it’s time and effort well spent if you want to appear in that Top 3 spot

5# Improve Your Local On-page SEO

Another vital local SEO factor for listings is your website’s content, so try to maximise the most value out of it. Add your City/Region, plus a relevant keyword, within these elements of your landing page whenever possible.

• – Title tag
  – H1 tag
  – H2 tag
  – Page URL
  – Page content
  – Image ALT attributes

Plus, embedding a Google map with your business marker into your landing page will also aid local SEO listings.

Build Local Backlinks

Link building within local SEO campaigns is important. Compared to standard SEO campaigns, local SEO relies much more on links from other local websites that are really relevant to your business.

For example, if you are a local plumber, listing on plumber web directories that display your address is a must — as this adds strength to the local search results.

The same with Yelp and Yellow page related directories. Meaning that besides focusing on driving search traffic to your website, you can earn additional visibility by building a solid business presence on leading local directories within your industry.

Google’s local SEO 3 pack is designed to be a better, more relevant browsing experience for searchers. It’s up to you and your local business to ensure that you apply to their search.

Need help with local SEO? The Pearl Lemon team have the experience and knowledge you need. Contact us today to learn more.

The post What is the Google Local SEO 3 Pack and How Do You Get Your Business There? appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/what-is-the-google-local-seo-3-pack-and-how-do-you-get-your-business-there/

UK/US SEO Basics to Help You Do Business on Both Sides of The Atlantic

As the world opens up via the Internet, so does the scope for all kinds of businesses to make the leap from being a local or national business to that of an international business. And there are great examples of that everywhere, for businesses large and small.

It takes work but a growing number of companies are finding that adding an international element to their offerings is an excellent way to expand their reach and boost their bottom line. One of the keys to success in this arena, however, is understanding how your website needs to differ for users in each country and how the international SEO you make use of needs to differ as well.

People seem to understand this if there is an obvious language difference. If, for example, a US site is also translated into Spanish to better reach the South American market as well, or a UK site is translated in French, German, Spanish, etc. to appeal to other countries in the EU. Where we find people fall down is when you are dealing with two countries that technically speak the same language, as is the case for the subject matter we are going to cover here; the difference between SEO in the USA and the UK.

Why Do Business on Both Sides of the Atlantic?

The Brits and the Americans do have a lot in common, across every aspect of our lives, more so perhaps than ever before. Everyone watches Game of Thrones, and diehard UK fans have actually been staying up until 2 am to watch it live when it broadcasts at 9 pm EST in the States. The Americans have come to love football – even though they still insist on calling it soccer – and there are now some 40 million US residents tuning in on a Saturday to watch the Premier League just like their UK peers. And (almost) everyone loves that wee ginger angel Ed Sheeran, don’t they?

It’s not just across pop culture though. If a company creates a brilliant software, offers a great product, can provide an amazing online service (think life coaches, speakers, advisors of all kinds) they can probably do great business on both sides of the Atlantic. We do at Pearl Lemon, and we do it well. And most of it is down to a deep understanding of international SEO.

What are the differences between SEO in USA and UK? Let’s take a look at some of the most important.

Language Differences

One of the main differences between SEO USA and SEO UK is the language that is used in each country and therefore the language that is searched. Since optimizing a website is all about using the right words, you will need to consider the following aspects of language:

Spelling: Even if your users are searching the right words, they also need to have the correct spelling. This means that including “trending colors” will achieve a different ranking than “trending colours” for each site. the list of these words is actually rather large, but some of the most important include all of the following:

Terminology: UK English and US English are somewhat the same, but there are some vocabulary differences that come up often. As we mentioned, football. Search ‘football teams’ in Google. In the UK you’ll get tons of content returned about Man Utd, Man City, etc.

Search it in the US and you’ll get none of that. You’ll get the New England Patriots, the New York Giants and lots of stuff about Tom Brady.

And there are lots of examples like that. In the UK the rear of a car is a boot. So we call car boot sales car boot sales and get this SERP result.

Do that in the US and you get this:

Which is very different. Change it to ‘trunk’ and things will get better. Here are some more examples:

To succeed with SEO in both the UK and the US you will need to understand how the differences affect your business, even if it is only something as small as asking for a postcode on a contact form designed for UK visitors versus a zip code for those in the US.

The same goes for content marketing. You will often need to create pieces that differ to take into account these cultural differences.

Not Using a .co.uk Domain

Years ago it was a badge of honour to display your website as a .co.uk site. But if you want to do business on both sides of the Atlantic you need a .com. No US person is going to think that a .co.uk site is going to be able to serve them. And Google won’t like it either.

In fact, the best way to go is to offer two different versions of your site within the same basic main URL and that URL should be a .com. Lots of companies are doing it and it’s a lot easier to implement from a technical standpoint than you might imagine, no matter what CMS you use. This will not only prevent confusion from visitors but also demonstrate to the search engines a real commitment to catering effectively to both audiences, which is what they are looking for.

Backlink Strategies

Backlinks are still a major factor in SEO, but in international SEO you need to ensure they are coming from the right places in terms of geography, places that will make sense to Google. For example; if you sell sneakers/trainers and want to sell to both US and UK customers you’ll need links to the US side of your site from US web properties and from UK sites to the UK side.

Getting Help With UK/US SEO

International SEO is harder in many ways than standard SEO. And, as you can now see, even for countries that technically both speak English like the UK and the US. As we mentioned, however, Pearl Lemon has had excellent SEO results in working for companies in both the UK and the US.

This is because we have a team that is diverse and while we do have an advantage that physically some members are in the UK and some are in the US, each of them has taken the time to learn about the other country, and what they might not know they ensure that they run past those that do. That’s why working with them to develop your international UK/US strategies to boost your business’ bottom line is one of the best moves you can make.

The post UK/US SEO Basics to Help You Do Business on Both Sides of The Atlantic appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

source https://pearllemon.com/uk-us-seo-basics-to-help-you-do-business-on-both-sides-of-the-atlantic/

Pearl Lemon Recognised By Clutch For Providing A Top Email Marketing Service

Pearl Lemon’s Practical Guide to ASO – App Store Optimization

At most recent count, there were 2.0 million apps being offered for download in the Apple App Store and 2.1 million Android apps in the Google Play Store. Combined, these app repositories are used by almost two thirds of all smartphone owners globally every year, and as phones get even smarter, and offer a lot more storage space, that figure will only increase.

This all means that there is a huge market for a great app, but numbers this staggering all also rather scary if you are a developer hoping to get their app noticed. How do you stand out in what is effectively a sea of apps, app icons and app descriptions? In other words how do you get your app to rank high in an app store search?

The key is making use of the latest, and most effective App Store Optimization strategies for the Google Play and iOS App Store. Aka ASO.

What is App Store Optimization?

Internet marketers use Search Engine Optimization, SEO, to help their web pages rank as high as possible in relevant Google search results. App developers use App Store Optimization, or ASO, to get their app noticed – and highly placed – in app store search results. It’s sort of App Store SEO, except, as you’ll see, it’s a rather different beast.

The one thing that is true of both SEO and ASO is that no one, and we mean no-one, really knows what the real algorithms for ranking in the searches they are trying to become visible really are. Apple and Google Play are as secretive about the most important search ranking factors as Google and Bing are about their SERPS.

Like Google and Bing, the boffins behind app store algorithms do drop hints, and those interested in pursuing ASO do watch trends, patterns and numbers to determine that certain things will affect your App Store rankings more than others. This knowledge becomes ASO and by utilizing it your app could rank higher, be seen by more people, and get more downloads.

Not sure where to start? Here some important basic steps you need to take to take to improve your ASO in both the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Give Your App a Headstart With a Descriptive Title

So, what’s in an app name? A lot, especially when it comes to both user engagement and ASO. A good app name will not only identify what your app does to browsing searchers, but also improve your app store rankings.

Should you use keywords? If possible, yes. Including a keyword or two in your app’s title can help you rank at least 10% higher than if you didn’t include one. It’s a slight complication that both the Apple iOS App Store and Google Play handle titles and keywords a little differently, but in general a keyword certainly can’t hurt in either store.

Here’s how Google Trips includes their main keyword (“Travel Planner”) in their app title to improve rankings in the Google Play store (yes, it’s so competitive in there that even the Big G has to keep ASO in mind)

In both the Google Play store and the Apple App store all you are allowed is a measly 30 characters for your title, so you have to be very concise. However, because the Google Play description is rather different to that in the Apple App store title keywords are not as important, as we’ll explain next. But, the Apple Store allow one thing that Google does not: a subtitle. It’s therefore not a bad idea to create a short title and then add a subtitle with your keywords in the Apple Store. Doing so will help you both establish market share and improve your ranking, and as you’ll see next, still help your ASO.

Using ASO Keywords the Right Way

As is the case in SEO, keywords are an important factor in ASO. And just like is the case for app titles, how you handle app keywords will need to differ from the Apple App Store to Google Play.

Apple gives you 100 characters to add keywords, which is not a lot (less than a Tweet before the character cap increase) and so your keyword research needs to be good to make the most of what is very limited space.

The Google Play Store however is far more generous. They actually don’t cap you off at all, but then again there is no specific keyword field. Here you have up to 4,000 characters – all searchable – to play with. However, DO NOT be tempted to overdo things. Keyword stuffing in the Play Store will earn you the same penalties keyword stuffing in standard web search engines will.

Keyword Research

Before you actually publish your app with the keywords you have selected you will want to do some research to learn about the traffic, difficulty, and demand for those keywords, as well as how many apps are already using it.

Toi do this you should work with an app specific research tool. A standard SEO focused tool is not going to give you great results. Apptweak is a good one, as is AppAnnie.

Keywords with high traffic and a low to moderate number of apps will be best for your ASO. You will also need to take a look at what the top apps are for each keyword to get an idea of what people are looking for when they search for that term. If your app does something completely different than the top apps for that keyword, you may not have as much interest as you’d like. Tools like SensorTower can help you evaluate your keywords and much more.

Write a Great App Description

No matter which of the two app stores you are placing your app in its description is crucial to its overall success. It’s like a little landing page, so you need to treat it as such. If someone is interested enough to have clicked through this far then it’s crucial that the description can close the deal and convince the user to download your app.

In writing such a description you need to stop being its developer for the time being and start thinking like your end users. You know everything about your app, and no doubt have certain key cool things you want to point out. But most users will know very little about it, so you have to think like them.

The best app descriptions – for either store – should therefore answer all of the following questions:

• What does your app do?
  What problem does it solve?
  How will it make the buyer’s life easier?
  Why is it worth downloading?
  (If it’s a paid app) Why is worth spending money on?

Be persuasive yet succinct. Save the more extensive write-up and how-to guide for your app’s website, or in-app onboarding process.

Visually, you’ll need to include useful visuals and screenshots that look good and are relevant to what your potential customers are looking for. These should showcase the key parts of your app, making it look enticing to encourage downloads and, in turn, boost ranking.

A good example of how to create visuals that represent the benefits of your app can be seen in Sleep as Android‘s app page:

See how they highlight the key benefits of using the app alongside screenshots of the app itself? This should help improve your conversion rate considerably.

Oh, and make sure those screenshots are HIGH QUALITY. People, on average, take 5-7 seconds to decide if they are actually going to download the app they just read about, so great imagery is almost always going to help sway that decision.

Consider Adding an App Preview Video

85% of the worldwide internet audience watches videos online at least sometimes, and close to half of that content is now consumed on mobile. You can harness the power of video for your app to give prospective users a better insight into what it can offer them.

When making such a video, some people will not have audio turned up. Therefore you need to add text overlays to explain the sections or features that you’re showcasing. And don’t bother with fancy little demonstrations of people using your app. That’s so 2009, no one cares anymore, they want to see what the app does, and that’s it. Here’s a good example of an app preview video that works really well, for a practical app that does not even have a lot of fancy imagery:

 

Put Your App in the Right Category

Placing your app in the proper category on both the Apple App Store and on Google Play is not only helpful for users who are browsing apps by category, but it is also best practice for helping your app to rank well.

If you feel like your app fits into more than one category, there are 3 ways to approach the problem:

• First, and most obviously, you’ll want to pick the category that best describes your app.
• Next, check just how many apps are in each category; choosing the least competitive category gives your app a better chance of ranking closer to the top.
• Finally, look at the estimated app worth (EAW) of the apps near the top of those categories. Put your app in the one with the lower numbers may be to your advantage as well.

It’s also important to remember that putting your app in a category that’s wrong can lead to trouble. Apple reviews all submitted apps before publishing them to the App Store, and adding your app to the wrong category for App Store Optimization purposes will probably mean it gets rejected.

As for Google Play, users can report violations for review. If you have a major error, like adding sports app in the beauty category, because it seemed easier to rank for, it’s only a matter of time before someone points that out.

Your Icon is Everything

Knowing how to design an engaging app icon is hugely important. You only get one tiny little image to show app store audiences why your app is worth their time for consideration, so choose carefully!

If possible test several different icons before launch. Just because you love the icon that is first choice does not mean that your target audience will. And make sure that you own ALL the rights to any imagery you do use.

For example, if you have an app that relates to a licensed character – and there are a lot of those – don’t make the mistake of ‘borrowing’ any of the official imagery without permission. Even if it somehow slips past the approval process it’s likely to be discovered quickly and you’ll not only get the boot from the app stores but could end up looking at a lawsuit as well.

Why is the icon so important? You could argue the injustice of judging a book by its cover (or an app by its icon), but at the end of the day, that’s what most people do, so yours has to be good! 

Get Those Reviews!

Great ratings and reviews, both in terms of quality and quantity, have a huge impact on your App Store Optimization efforts. It’s in your best interest to get as many as you can. There are a number of ways to do this; in app pop-ups, in app incentives (just be careful that they do not violate the review policies of either store) word of mouth, social media promotion and more. However you do it though, reviews are a very important ASO ranking factor so you need to put time and effort into getting them.

Got some bad reviews? Answer them, and in as positive a way as you can. Users do appreciate when developers are responsive and listen to their concerns, so a bad review can actually turn into a big plus. This video, from Apple themselves, features some successful developers who have made reviews, good and bad, their best friends.

Watch Your ASO Analytics

Yes, you should watch your ASO analytics as closely as you would SEO analytics for your website. There are some great tools out there for doing that, including all of the following:

• 
• APPlyzer
  AppAnnie
  Appfigures
  AppRankCorner
  Appstatics

You should also act on these analytics to help you reevaluate your ASO campaign on a regular basis. App users blow hot and cold. They are fickle and they often follow trends. Keep tweaking your ASO and you’ll give you app a much better chance of not only getting downloaded but also remaining on the user’s phone.

These are just the basics of ASO. Like SEO this is an ever changing discipline. Search algorithms change. Best practices change (especially as smartphones keep evolving) If you are serious about your app, making the investment in help with your App Store Optimization from ASO experts could be one of the best investments in it you make.

The post Pearl Lemon’s Practical Guide to ASO – App Store Optimization appeared first on Pearl Lemon.

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