Which Meta Tags Are Important For SEO?

Good SEO can position you in front of the potential customers who are searching for your products or services on the web, and great SEO can help those visitors become long-term customers and even brand advocates.

SEO is a practice that involves many on-page and off-page factors, and it’s critical to know how to incorporate Meta tags into each one of your web pages. Meta tags help search engines correctly crawl and index your pages, which may result in higher rankings and more exposure to the audience you're trying to reach.

Now, you might be thinking, “Wait … what's a Meta tag?”

What Are Meta Tags?

Here, I’m going to define Meta tags, pinpoint some of the most important Meta tags you need to care about, and provide directions so that you can begin incorporating Meta tags into your HTML today for SEO benefit.

SEO & Meta Tags

A Meta tag is a snippet of code you'll include in the HTML of a web page but it doesn't appear on the page itself. Meta tags help search engine crawlers understand what your page content is about and index your page, which is critical when you want to rank on SERPs for the right keywords.

Meta tags are useful from an SEO angle since they let search engines more easily crawl and index your web page's content. There are many types of Meta tags and their attributes are available to use, but how you apply them on a page will depend on your SEO strategy.

Meta Tags Example

Examples of basic yet notable Meta tags include canonical tags, meta content type, robot Meta tags, Meta descriptions, and title tags. You might use a canonical tag to communicate with search engines which page is the "original" one. Alternatively, you might use robot meta tags to confirm search engines don't index a section of the site you don't want on the SERPs, like search results pages on your site.

Let's explore some of these now.

1. Canonical Tags

If you have a single page but can be accessible with multiple formations of URLs, or different pages with similar content (such as a page with separate versions for mobile and desktop devices), search engines see these pages as duplicate versions of the same page.

For example, as a human, you know typing "www.google.com" and "google.com" will bring you to the same page - if you search for either, you'll land on Google's homepage.

But Google sees "www" and "non-www" as duplicate versions of the same page just like "HTTP" and "HTTPS". If you don't specify which page you want to be the official one, Google will choose one version as original and crawl the other versions less often.

This could mean that Google may devalue your desktop version of the homepage over its mobile counterpart by consistently crawling your mobile version of your homepage and rarely checking your desktop version or vice versa.

For this reason, it's often important to include a canonical tag, which simply tells Google, "Hey, if you find this same content elsewhere - please disregard. This is the source I want you to consider, and this is the version with which I want to appear on the SERPs".

This is particularly important for pages like your homepage - the most important page among all. To insert a canonical tag, simply put this code in your HTML:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/tenet/meta-tags" />

2. Meta Content-Type

The Meta content type allows you to specify the media type (e.g. "text/HTML") and character set for each web page - you'll want to include this on all of your web pages. Different browsers extract information differently, and different programming languages have different character sets. Using Meta content type tags ensures your pages are rendered in all browsers.

Here's an example of the code you'd use for Meta content type:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

3. Robots Meta Tags

By default, search engine bots crawl your entire site and follow internal and external hyperlinks. However, this may not align with your SEO strategy if you are looking to control how some pages appear on SERPs. In addition, a high number of outbound links may negatively affect the value (a.k.a. "link juice") passed through your links.

If you don't specify a robots meta tag, search engines will obey the default “index,follow” directive. Robots Meta tags can affect the behavior of the search engine crawling and indexing, resulting in more strategic control of how your site pages get indexed and what "link juice" a page retains.

Here are a few common robot Meta tags:

• noindex - Excludes the page from being indexed
• nofollow - Blocks Google bot from following links from this page
• nosnippet - Prevents showing any textual snippet for a page in the search results
• noarchive - Prevents Google bot from showing the Cached link of a page
• unavailable_after:[date] - Let's you specify the date you want to stop crawling and indexing a page

There are many reasons you might use a robots Meta tag. You might convey the "nofollow" command, for example, if your web page has a section for posting comments from visitors. Since you can't be sure which links are posted by readers in the comments section (which could be spam), it might be smart to tell search engine bots not to follow those links.

On the other hand, "noindex" is a popular tag for a few reasons. Let's say you're planning to relaunch a website, but you want to test the redesign on a development server that resides in a subdomain on your live website. You'll want to use the "noindex" tag to ensure Google won't show the site in search before it's ready.

You might also use "noindex" if you have a gated discount offer you don't want users to be able to find on search engines - since you want them to fill out a form to avail it.

Lastly, you might use "noindex" if your website creates imitation web pages whenever someone does a site search. Search engines might think those value-less pages are part of your website, which will hurt your SEO. It's best if you incorporate "noindex" to ensure URLs containing site search results aren't displayed on the SERPs.

To incorporate a robots Meta command, insert this code into your HTML:

<meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">

4. Title Tags

Title tags help searchers initially understand what your content is about, and they are also a major factor in helping search engines understand your content's topic. Additionally, a title tag can ensure dependability, since the title tag will showcase your web page’s subject matter, on the web browser, and in social networks.

Even if you include a <title> tag, Google, sometimes, will create a custom one for the SERPs for searchers - which can hurt your ranking. So, better if you create a compelling, click-worthy title that will intrigue readers while accurately portraying what your page is about.

Include a title tag on each of your web pages by inserting this code into your HTML:

<head>
    <title>Example Meta Title</title>
</head>

It's important to note, ALT text is technically not a tag - it's an attribute. However, you've likely heard the term "alt tag", which is why you might think ALT text is part of the Meta tag family.

Regardless of its nomenclature, ALT text is incredibly important for your overall SEO strategy, particularly since Google gives equal value to visual search. When a search engine spider crawls your page, it's going to look for the ALT text of an image as an identifier for what your web page is about - so it's critical you correctly insert text in and as an ALT attribute.

Here's a code example for ALT attribute to include in your HTML:

<img src="meta-tag.png" alt="Meta tag image">

5. Meta Keywords

Meta keywords are an element of the "meta" tag family that get added if you want to use keywords to define what a page is about. These keywords would not visible on the page but rather in the page's code, and search engines used to apply them as a ranking factor.

Note: While it doesn't hurt to use them nowadays, Meta keywords are no longer relevant for any SEO strategies. In 2009, Google announced that it no longer consider Meta keywords as a ranking factor due to massive spam with this tag by SEOs worldwide.

6. Meta Descriptions

A meta description is another integral member of the Meta tag family - simply put, a Meta description is a snippet of text a user can view on a search engine results page. A Meta description tells the searchers what they'll find if they click on an organic listing displaying on the SERPs - which, if done correctly, can significantly increase click-through rate (CTR).

The tag doesn't impact on ranking directly, but it's nonetheless an important element of SEO strategy - a good Meta description can encourage viewers to explore your content, and if the Meta description accurately portrays your page content in addition to supporting the title tag, the searcher is more likely to visit and stay on the page. Click-through rates do influence search engine ranking, so optimizing Meta description is essential for SEO.

Here's an example of the code you'd use to insert as a Meta description into your web page's HTML:

<head>
    <meta name="description" content="This is an example sentence of my meta description.">
</head>

Meta Description vs. Meta Tag

These two often get mixed since they both contain the word "meta". Note that the Meta description tag is just one example of Meta tags, it’s a subcategory of Meta tags. Meta tags are used to help primarily search engines figure out the content of your site, but Meta descriptions are used to invite a user to interact with your content. On the contrary, sometimes it is okay to not include Meta descriptions for selective pages since search engines like Google won't all the time use your Meta description as Google’s algorithm doesn't think the existing Meta description matches a searcher’s query and creates a custom snippet from the target page that better matches a query.

How To Write Meta Tags For SEO?

I think of exactly what to include in this topic because we often hear about spamming through Meta tags in SEO. Note that, to work with Meta tags, you should have knowledge at least about HTML. Nowadays, most of the sites are built on CMS (content management system), and they all have an easy user interface to DIY Meta tags optimization as per your need. So, let’s learn how to write Meta tags.

1. Understand that not all Meta tags are handwritten. Some are just codes.

After reading this post so far, you've learned that there are several categories of Meta tags are available to use. Some Meta tags require human intervention at the page level in terms of customization and creative while others just code snippets that you can simply copy and paste throughout the site.

2. Create and save a file to use for copy/pasting those codes.

For the cases in which you don't need to write or customize any Meta tags, it's useful to have the preset coding in easy reach anytime you're creating a new page.


3. Use the canonical tag properly.

If the page has duplicate content or if there are multiple versions of a page on your site, you'll need to use canonical tags to specify the original source for that content. For any duplicate content, you can refer to your canonical code structure from your saved file to use it as such.

4. Use the robots noindex tag properly.

If you don't want the page to show up in SERPs, due to any reason, the noindex tag will signal to search engines not to index that particular page.

Like canonical tag, refer to your robots meta tag code in your saved file and then, paste it into your HTML header of the page in need.

5. Use the robots nofollow tag properly.

If you don't want web spiders to follow links on a page, you can do this with the nofollow tag. The nofollow tag is also useful for distributing "link juice" in a strategic way throughout the site. If you don't want search bots to follow any links on a page, pull this code from your saved file insert it in the HTML header.

6. Create a short catchy headline to use in your title tag.

At least some portion of your title tag should be unique for each page you create because it essentially defines the page. The title tag appears in the SERPs, in the browser, and on social media. For that reason, it should be written for your target audience, not for search engines predominantly. Some things to keep in mind as you write:

• What benefit are you providing to them?
• What solution do they find if they visit the page?
• What values you are adding compared to others?
• How can you present the most valuable information while enticing them to click?

A rule of thumb is to include your page's primary keyword as close to the beginning of the headline as possible.

7. Write a compelling Meta description that supports your title tag and further entices readers.

Since the Meta description also is visible on SERPs, this is an additional opportunity that essentially advertises your offer. The goal here is to expand on the title/headline with enough elaboration while also keeping it short and concise for enticing them to click. Here are some points to consider:

• Use your secondary keywords in the Meta description to make it more relevant to a searcher’s query, catching their eyes
• Briefly talk about the benefits and features, giving the reader ideas about what you'll be delivering
• Add CTA (call-to-action) to make them want to explore more.

8. Add ALT text that is keyword-optimized and descriptive to any embedded multimedia content on the page.

ALT text describes the relevancy of multimedia elements for search engine crawlers and screen readers. With that in mind, you should:

• Don’t spam and include information about the image or context of the image in terms of the surrounded text of that image as concisely as possible
• Include a targeted keyword to make the image more relevant from an SEO perspective

Meta Tags That Google Recognizes

Google recognizes the following Meta tags (a comprehensive list):

• <meta name="description" content="A description of the page" />
• <meta name="robots" content="..., ..." />
• <meta name="keywords" content="..., ..." />
• <meta name="revisit-after" content="..." />
• <meta name="generator" content="...." />
• <meta name="googlebot" content="..." />
• <meta name="mssmarttagspreventparsing" content="..." />
• <meta name="no-cache" content="..." />
• <meta name="google" content="notranslate" />
• <meta name="google-site-verification" content="..." />
• <meta name="verify-v1" content="..." />
• <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="...; charset=..." />
• <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="...;url=..." />

Note that, all the Meta tags reside within the header section of the HTML document. Google specifically can read both HTML and XHTML-style Meta tags, regardless of the programming language used to write code on the page.

With the exception of "google-site-verification", letter case sensitivity is commonly not significant in writing the Meta tags. As said, this is a comprehensive list of usable Meta tags, and you should feel free to use other Meta tags if they are essential to your site’s SEO. Just make sure, you have included Meta tags correctly and remember that Google may ignore some Meta tags that its algorithm doesn't recognize.

How To Use Meta Tags in CMS?

Every CMS has a unique means of editing its HTML, CSS, and Meta information. Let’s review the steps for the top three most popular CMSs in the market right now.

How to use Meta tags with HubSpot?

• Go to your website pages or landing pages under the marketing tab
• From the list of your pages, select to edit the one you're looking to add tags to
• At the top of the page editor, click the Settings menu and find "Additional code snippets" under the "Additional Options"
• Enter your desired Meta tags into the header HTML box
• Save and exit

How to use Meta tags with Wix?

• In your website dashboard screen, click on the "Edit Site" button
• In the hovering menu on the left panel, find the Menus & Pages menu
• Hover over the page you want to work on, press the Show More icon, and select Settings from the menu
• Scroll through the tabs to the Advanced SEO button to get to your SEO features
• Enter your Meta tags into the Custom Meta Tags field

How to use Meta tags with WordPress?

WordPress is a little tricky than the above two, some may think but with the inception of the plugin, it becomes easier. Plugins are useful tools especially for those who do not have a web development background.

Each plugin is a bit different, so it's important to do your research and find one that suits your website best.

These are the top three SEO plugins to use for your website:

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is widely used and considered one of the best SEO plugins available right now. It provides space to add Metadata inside the CMS at the bottom of every page and blog post.

The SEO Framework

A little less feature-heavy than Yoast SEO, but this plugin prioritizes Meta tag information above all else. Its interface is pretty simple, making it easy to use for those who aren't professional developers.

All In One SEO Pack

This plugin generates Meta tags automatically and you can edit them however and whenever you like, which is a helpful feature for those who might forget to check their Meta before going live.

Most of their default settings are set to enhance on-page SEO performance by the moment the plugin is installed and activated, but you can customize them however you wish.

Conclusion

Meta tags have such an impact on your site's SEO, so make sure your web pages are well-aligned with your SEO strategy by keeping up-to-date on Meta tag best practices and how they work with search engine bots.

Now that you know what Meta tags are and how to implement them on your website, you can start an SEO audit. Your pages will now be much more easily crawled and accurately indexed by all the ethical search engines like Google. Keep in mind, however, that Meta tags are only one part of the optimizing process for organic search. There are many other SEO factors that could affect your performance in terms of ranking, traffic, and ROI (return on investment).

The Ground Rules Of Link Building

Are you building links the right way? Or are you still following out-of-date practices? Let’s explore which link-building tactics matter most today and which are not anymore.

It's no secret that backlinks (read relevant backlinks from quality sources) are one of the top three ranking factors in Google and can greatly influence your website’s traffic. But there is mass confusion around what's okay to do as far as building links and what's not. I believe this handy guide will be useful for you all.

The good practices

So what are the compulsories? Let’s start with -

I. Regulate the value of a link by determining its relevancy, authority and the benefit it will bring to your site.

II. Complete the incomplete/inaccurate local listings as these types of citations broadcast to Google that this business has consistent NAP info across the web. Which in return gives you extra mileage over others.

III. Search for unlinked brand mentions. One of the best ways you can get a link is by figuring out who is citing you but not linking to it. Then the job is to reach out to the source and look for contacts to get a link from unlinked brand mention.

IV. Retrieving broken links is also a great way to recover some of your non-functional links easily. Definitely, a great thing to do if any of those broken links are now pointing towards a 404 page on your site and you can stop wasting the value of the links by placing a 301 redirection on such pages.

The best practices

Some of the futuristic approaches not many are considering seriously -

V. HARO (Help a Reporter Out). This is kind of a sophisticated way of building links. Reporters will connect with you about any questions or information they're seeking for a news article via this service. It's like digital public relations. It’s a great way to get a citation in their write-ups.

VI. Sponsor or participate in events. Find your local space and grab opportunities that could enter you as a sponsor or as a participant. This gives you an opportunity to get a link from those event sites in addition to mass outreach.

VII. Guest blogging. There's nothing wrong with outreach, especially when done well. I know that by finding out the right sources and pitching emails for guest posting in general, the response rate is painfully low. But you can get the real benefit if you're a little bit more strategic about it or if you outreach to the right people with the right offer at the right time. There's a ton of opportunities available to tap in, so definitely try this out. You mustn't do guest posts always just for a link. I think there is a ton of value in guest posting. So use it sparingly.

VIII. Linkbait. This is another tried and tested way when it comes to link building. Create great content and people will naturally attract you. It's an awesome way to earn links. Common types of linkbait content include debatable content, data, guides, and newsworthy pieces.

The bad practices

All right. So what to avoid? The bad practices in today's time are -

I. Don't spam on anchor text. Asking for specific anchor text is good but they should fit in properly. That's going to look more natural. All the ethical search engines are going to consider it to be more organic, and it will help your site in the long run. Anything other than these is definitely big no-no's.

II. Don't buy or sell links. You can buy or sell links through a link exchange program. Any reciprocal links which are non-thematically associated with each other and built upon unfair trade is another big no-no. Link schemes, private link networks, and private blog networks are some classic examples. It looks so, so spammy, and you need to avoid this.

III. Hidden links. Surprisingly, many still think that invisible links are useful, keeping background and text’s color similar to make links invisible to humans. They are totally hidden, but crawlers would still recognize them. Don't do that. That's a useless tactic nowadays. Give proper recognition to the intelligence of today’s smart web spiders.

IV. Low-quality directory links. Simply better you check DA and PA before even considering any directory for your submission.

V. Footer links to spam. Site-wide worthless footer links or top-level navigation links, looks really, really spammy. Avoid doing this.

VI. Spam through blog commenting. Again, it's just like any of these others. It looks spammy. It's not going to achieve anything. So, avoid this too. However, real blog commenting is still worthy to continue in terms of user-generated content.

VII. Link exchange. This tactic does not work anymore, but there are some opportunities that still exist to gain links naturally and more authoritatively if you can build it organically and thematically. But, personally, I do not think, creating and maintaining a link resource page in any modern website is any more feasible.

VIII. Focusing on quantity over quality. When it comes to building backlinks, quality is far more important than quantity. Rather than focusing on how many links you can collect, you should focus your strategy on collecting the right types of backlinks and maintaining a high-quality and updated backlinks profile.

So hopefully, this helps you define your own link-building guideline. One last thing I would like to mention here is: To disavow or to not disavow? I have read so many discussions for and against this. Does the disavow file work? Does it not? What are your experiences? Please let me know through the comments.

Thank you so much for your time. I will see you all soon. Bye for now!

How Can I Save My Facebook Ads Money?

Build your Facebook ad campaigns tactically so that allows you to save money and book profits optimally.

9 secrets to save money that allow you to run profitable Facebook Ads

Even experienced campaign managers are continuing to struggle with understanding the right way to go about running paid Facebook campaigns successfully. And the most unfortunate part is that even it doesn’t take much, many ad account managers are reluctant to take necessary measures timely.

If you can be diligent about keeping track of your ad expenses, you will save yourself a whole lot of stress worrying over your business bank account’s future.

Here are nine ingenious ways you can begin shaving a few extra cash and letting your Facebook ad campaigns start to grow:

1. Set a periodic P&L check-up routine

This is secret number one.

The day you paid Facebook for running ads, set an automatic reminder to calculate P&L.

Impose this as rule on yourself and let your campaigns run gainfully.

You will definitely have some extra cash in your savings account from following this tactic.

2. Pause your non-performing campaigns

One of the worst habits you can have is to leave the non-performing ad campaigns ON when you’re not monitoring them proactively.

It’s a no-brainer.

You take the time to get your advertising cost down to the lowest possible, you set up automatic payments, and then you never have to sweat about them again.

3. Use Facebook Analytics to identify your pain point, and then cut it

One of the best tools out there for digital advertising is Facebook Analytics. You can connect your bank accounts and credit cards with your campaigns to start working very easily but then this tool will help you understand where and how people are interacting with your business so you can always run campaigns profitably.

At the end of each day/week/month/quarter, you’ll get a pretty good sense of where your ad spending is going.

When you do this, you’ll quickly realize that you are cutting that unnecessary spending as your campaigns are now more profitable thanks to the ad optimization decision you made based on data.

Then continue with your ad performance analysis and optimization work to save money each month in your bank account.

The bank balance will automatically grow which you may reserve for contingency.

4. Hire an ad consultant instead of a digital marketing agency

Depending on the budget you have, you may hire an individual instead of an entire army.

The only time I would suggest you hire an agency right away when you are completely unable to look after your campaigns.

It’s amazing how much money you save when you hire a consultant and manage campaigns for yourself instead of hiring an agency. The average agency bill for managing social media accounts is much higher naturally due to their establishment cost. You can get the same output from an individual professional at an affordable rate.

Again, track how much you spend as a consultancy fee, what is the ROI, and accordingly decide on hiring an efficient agency if at all required.

5. Look for discounts offered by Facebook as part of their promotion plan

If you have a limited ad budget, and especially if you’re trying to save money, search for offers you can use to save a few bucks.

Depending on your industry type, these could be redeemed for advertising on Facebook and/or Instagram.

Save the costly ad dollars for special occasions.

6. Do experiments and take calculative risks

Ever heard of A/B testing or multivariate testing?

Testing your ad copies and landing pages saves way more money than advertisers give credit. Things like A/B testing, multivariate testing, will help you reduce your campaign cost by improving your goal conversions.

So instead of using the standard ad format every time or so, try out some data-driven experiments for better results.

7. Take the help of the Facebook Ads Guide

There are certainly times when it’s easiest (and fairly cost-effective) to just take the help of free resources published by Facebook for online advertisers.

Especially if you’re keen on saving money as fast as possible, this is one of the best ways to start.

When you’re new, you really only have a few ideas about the nitty-gritty of Facebook ads - how it works actually? You can start by reading the guides on how to advertise on Facebook, created by Facebook’s own team to help novice marketers across the world. Some very helpful insights, as I’ve said, can be derived by reviewing Facebook’s ad library.

Even you can think about contacting the customer support time to get some quick yet smart solution which ultimately helps you save money on your campaigns.

8. If you’re going to advertise online, do homework

This is probably one of the basic things I’m talking about but often overlooked by many.

Search the web for competitors before you start with Facebook Ads if possible. It’s a super easy and extremely useful tactic to know where the market is.

This is one of the benefits of the digital age when it comes to campaign management. There are so many tools, websites, and services out there dedicated to helping you do research on the market. If you’re hesitant in any particular area, chances are you just need to do a quick search and something will come up to help you. Use Facebook search as a guide to see where your competitors are and what methods they are applying.

9. Do not, under any circumstance, forget to set campaign end-date

This is more of a best practice, but it’s also a Cardinal rule.

Do not, ever, for any reason, forget to set campaign end-date, in addition, to refrain yourself from go for an automated bidding option.

I’m not completely against of automated Facebook bidding strategy but with starting a business (not my particular way of running ads, but it’s a strategy many employ, and do so because they have to), go with manual bidding. With due respect to all the salient benefits, an automated bidding strategy will make it so unnecessarily difficult for you to begin building a sound financial foundation for ad campaigns at least initially.

So, set deadlines for everything. Spend within your means, and save as much as you can.

You’ll thank yourself later.

7 Common SEO Myths Debunked Once & For All

There’s always a lot of advice are available on the web about SEO.

Some of it is very helpful, some of it not.

The difficulty is then in selection.

It can be hard to identify what information is based on facts and what is just a misinterpretation of Google statements.

The challenge is the internet is available to everyone but knowledge of SEO is not. So myths automatically are prospering.

Some real-life scenarios:

A client will tell you about with confidence of running Google ads to influence keywords’ rank organically.

Your boss will question you for not keeping the page’s Meta titles to 580 pixels.

Your developer will prohibit you to implement GTM on site for the sake of site speed issue

Your designer will convince you that if it looks good on your computer, everything is fine

Your content editor will calm you by saying typos are some minor errors and is not hampering the brand’s goodwill

How SEO myths form?

The issue is, no one knows exactly how the search engines work.

Due to this, a lot of SEO work starts as a test, experiment, and educated guesswork.

When you are learning about SEO it can be difficult to try out all of the claims you are hearing.

That’s when the SEO myths begin to spread out.

Why SEO myths form?

The reasons are -

• Start considering Google search engine as almighty
• Relying on untested theories
• Giving too much importance to minor adjustments
• Following the out of date advice
• Misinterpreting advice from a Google representative
• Creating myths on your own to cheat from the fear of failure

There could be other factors at play.

How to avoid SEO myths and misinformation online?

Spotting SEO myths and act accordingly can save you from experiencing lost revenue and a whole lot of time.

So -

Do the test: Measure whether making a change across many pages will be worth the time and resource before you commit to doing so.

Be confident: Someone may not have had success with a method when they have tried due to any reason but it doesn’t mean it won’t help you since the context of applying the same method is different and can bring a different result.

And remember: Google often tested new features before a mass rollout. So before you jump for the latest SEO advice that is being spread around as a result of a change by Google, wait to see if it is going to last.

7 Common SEO Myths

Let’s talk about the reality behind some of the myths now.

1. The Google Sandbox

The Sandbox effect is a name given to a thought of the way Google ranks web pages in its index. It is the subject of much argument—its actuality has been written about since 2004 but not established, with several disagreements to the contrary.

2. Duplicate Content Penalty

Google tried to put an end to the myths around duplicate content years ago. Susan Moska posted on the Google Webmaster blog in 2008: Let's put this to bed once and for all, folks: There's no such thing as a “duplicate content penalty.” At least, not in the way most people mean when they say that.

3. PPC Advertising Helps Rankings

Again according to a Google post, PPC ads like Google Ads are paid online advertisements which appear next to relevant searches and other sources of content on the SERP. Running a Google Ads campaign does not help your SEO rankings, despite some myths and claims. However, PPC ads can be useful in reaching out to a broader audience online.

4. Domain Age Is A Ranking Factor

Google's John Mueller confirmed that domain age is not a ranking signal, tweeting, “… domain age helps nothing.” Site age, on the other hand, has more ranking relevance. Very new websites - less than six months old - have trouble ranking.

By the way, many have confusion about the difference between domain and site. A domain is basically the name of a website, a website is what people see and interact with when they get there through a URL which is how to find a website on the internet. In other words, when you book a domain, you have bought the name for your site, but you still need to develop the website itself.

5. Tabbed Content Affects Rankings

Long ago, tabbed content created simply by using JavaScript or any other programming languages was not indexable to search engines as they don't crawl the web pages for ranking JavaScript code, and therefore text inside the code is considered as part of the code and was ignored.

But time flies, search engines are now smart enough to understand JScript codes better and developers are too become smarter for finding ways to manage tabbed content without losing its importance for proper indexing and better ranking a webpage.

6. Google Uses Google Analytics Data In Rankings

Does Google Use Google Analytics for ranking a website or page? Google could not be clearer on this: Google does not use Analytics data for ranking purposes. There is no foolproof evidence to support the idea that Google uses Analytics for penalizing sites or ranking sites on the SERP.

7. Google Cares About Domain Authority

“Domain Authority is not a ranking factor used by Google in determining search rankings and has no effect on the SERPs..” - according to a spokesperson from the Google Webmaster team.

Conclusion

Lastly, some myths have their origins in causation and correlation and others have not.

Now you know how to react to an SEO idea that you can’t say for sure is truth or myth.

What We Can Learn From Famous Print Ads?

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been on an analysis of print advertising. Although print ads are far less glamorous than social media or Facebook Ads nowadays, they were frontrunners of the advertising industry for many years.

And noteworthy print ads are RARE. If you pick up a magazine at your local library or book store, you’ll find pages after pages of ads. They all have a catchy yet self-explanatory photo, a highlighted tag line, some bright colors (some are in black and white), and (if it’s really good), maybe even an offer (a.k.a. call to action).

This is how basically advertising is done. But unfortunately, most of the time it doesn’t work.

There’s an idea that just because you are advertising, it means that it's working or generating revenue. That’s simply not true.

Take the example of Gillette razors. They are part of the Proctor and Gamble family of brands and spend millions of dollars on ads over the years. Yet for the past couple of years, they’ve been losing market share notably at least in the US. And one of the brands growing is the Dollar Shave Club - which started with a video.

Simply put, spending on ads doesn’t always work. So what does work? What are the secrets of the famous print ad? And how do we use that learning in making successful digital ads?

Length

Some of the best print ads of all time are 300+ words. They are interesting to read. They tell stories and weave together storylines.

More than anything: they give you a solution. How often have you read an ad and felt smarter, wiser, or more informed? The best ads make you feel like you are missing something. And that motivates you to take action - explore the information you have gained through the ad to solve your problem.

Maybe you’ve heard that “nobody reads your content” or “no one visits your website”. But if you’re great at writing crisp yet useful content in terms of providing the right solution to the right audience at the right time, the small percentage of people who read it are exactly the people you want to connect with.

Story

In addition to length, these ads say something. It might be easy to write “nine reasons why..” or “five great tips..” like ad headlines. Or the most commonly used term “free” in ads. And these will often get clicked. But they rarely sell well.

Instead, stories get read.

When readers pick up a magazine or newspaper, they’ll certainly skim most of it. But they’ll read the things that are interesting to them. That’s how we operate - our brain operates. News sites get more traffic than ever as they tell/present stories interestingly than ever. You should do the same.

No law says an ad needs to look like an ad irrespective of certain character limitations we have to follow while crafting ads in digital space. However fundamentally, every successful ad (and the linked landing page) needs to tell a story to get clicks and ultimately sell anything.

Headlines

Headlines are the most significant part of a good ad. I won’t spend much time talking about them here, but if you make one part of your ad awesome, it should be the headline(s).

Simplicity

Most successful ad agencies from the last few years have focused on four elements: Headline, text, photo, caption. That’s it.

It’s tempting to make your advertising as flamboyant and complicated as possible.

Or to use puns or jokes.

This is seldom a good idea. Keep it simple stupid (KISS principle).

Black on White is Normal

It’s almost always better to print black text on white background from a UX perspective. It’s the way human brains are wired. No one prints white on black unless they want people not to read it. That means, study and adopt the common traits from your niche whenever is required to optimize your landing pages’ color definition.

Follow the Rules

I’m always looking for ways to be better, more efficient, and to find new ways to be better at digital marketing and ads.

But when I work with a client’s ad dollars and marketing budget, I want to find things that work - day in and day out.

We usually compete with giants in the advertising and marketing industry. It’s time to take some ROI-focused approach.

Good luck,
Partha

What To Look For During A CRO Audit?

As a digital marketer, my job responsibility is simple: produce results. You too. You’re likely familiar with questions like, “How many leads did this generate?” or “How much revenue did this produce?” etc. Unfortunately, most online marketers stumble over their answers because they aren’t able to support their efforts with hard data – numbers. Yes.

In light of that, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is a web marketer’s one-stop solution. It gives us a way to experiment, analyze, and optimize ideas, then produces real results that are easily measured using tools like Google Analytics or through a marketing automation platform like HubSpot or Salesforce.

If you aren’t familiar with the world of CRO, this is the right place to start. Follow these guidelines to learn how to conduct a CRO audit, and soon you’ll be improving results and influencing ROI.

What Is A CRO Audit?

A CRO audit is a comprehensive website gap analysis to discover why visitors on your website aren’t converting. Following the audit, you make modifications based on what you have found and track your experiments while you increase the conversion rate. It sounds complex but simply put, there are a number of easily traceable reasons to figure out why your visitors are leaving your website or not performing the action you desire.

The CRO Checklist

One of the best ways is, you’ll need to do a top-to-bottom analysis of your website. Let’s use this checklist to get started.

Gather Information

• First, take note of your current overall goal conversion rate. For example, what is your visit-to-lead ratio? And what is your lead-to-customer ratio? These are the two most important metrics to keep in mind throughout the auditing.
• Take note of your top five most popular landing pages. These are where you should initially give attention because they represent the bulk of your website traffic.
• Establish the goal of each selected page. The goal could be to simply learn more about your company, or it could be to fill out your “Contact Us” form. Don’t move on until you make sure that every webpage has a goal.
• Next, collect data. How many page views is each of these five selected website pages getting? What is the bounce rate? What is the percentage of new traffic? How much time is being spent on each page? How many are currently hitting your goal (what is your current goal conversion rate)?
• As you complete the breakdown of data at the page level, queries should start arising in your head. You may find out indications like, that visitors are only scrolling through the top 20 percent of your page or primarily visiting your website via mobile device. Try to recognize where the friction is. What is the reason any number of visitors aren’t hitting your goal?

Test Your Theory

Prepared with data and information, now you can start testing. Based on the goal of the landing page and the current behavior of your page visitors, make changes to your website pages that influence the conversions.

• Majority of the website visitors coming from mobile or not? Make sure every section of the landing page is optimized for that platform. Use forms smartly to shorten the forms on landing pages when viewed from a mobile device.
• Are visitors only scrolling through 1/3rd of your page? Rearrange of sections or move CTAs higher up. Allow your visitors to take action as per your goal above the fold.
• Which landing pages are getting the most attention in terms of views? Try repositioning your forms on these pages to increase your conversion rate. Also, try presenting the forms as concisely and gracefully as possible.
• Are you asking for too much information from the visitors? Use progressive profiling techniques to collect data gradually and strategically from the visitors throughout their journey.
• Is the headline of the page confusing your visitors? Rephrase it out in more enticing language.
• Do visitors feel an emotional attachment to your offer? Modify the action verbs used in your CTA copy and landing page content.
• Have you tried different CTAs? Use a few designs and try links instead of buttons in some cases.
• Is your form inappropriately stood? Try moving it above the fold or transforming it to a sticky form.
• What do your images say about the landing page? Use images logically, making sure they are high quality and aligned with the message.
• Have you tried swapping your content? Use language that resonates with your buyer persona or target audience.
• Are your visitors using the site the way you planned it to be used? With Google Analytics, you can track the path (i.e., conversion funnel) your visitors took through your website.
• What are visitors actually clicking on within your site? Remove or replace the sections of your website that aren’t engaging or creating friction in the buyer’s journey.
• What pieces of content are performing the best or presenting your USP or representing your value proposition nicely? Feature these first in your landing page wireframe.
• How far are visitors scrolling down your page? Update sections of your website where they became disengaged without deteriorating the website’s structure and functionality.
• How many opportunities are you giving your visitors to convert? Try increasing conversion chances, or even decreasing (refrain from overdoing it), if the call to action isn’t clear.

Analyze Results

Soon after implementing some of these hypotheses, you’ll have more data with a clear direction at your disposal. Then, you can use a variety of tools during your CRO audit to continue to analyze, tweak, and improve the performance of your landing pages or the entire website.

One of the best available tools for conducting, analyzing, and optimizing the test results is Google Analytics. Its free version will be more than enough for many like me. Now, there’s no need for me to dig deep all that Google Analytics can do, but keep in mind that this tool isn’t just important for forming a website’s benchmarks at the start of a CRO project’s initial stage. It’s also just as important once the user data allows you to see how website visitors are behaving and converting on your site. Google Analytics is just as important once you understand why users are acting in a specific manner on your site’s landing page. That context we like to get from another type of research at the final stage of the CRO project.

One of the common CRO mistakes to avoid is relying only on A/B testing predominantly. Although A/B testing is certainly necessary and very much effective on top of acceptable to many quite easily, it’s only one piece of the CRO jigsaw puzzle. You should also consider usability testing, customer journey mapping, personalization and segmentation tools, event-triggered emails, copy optimization, and sundries of multivariate testing. If you focus too much on A/B testing, you will actually limit the possibilities of your website in terms of reaching the optimum level of CRO.

Final Thoughts

Lastly, remember to be a little patient. It usually takes weeks (or in some cases months) before you start seeing the output of your CRO effort, but when you do, it will be beneficial. If you’re interested in learning more about CRO, subscribe to our blog.

Why Would Your SEO Not Be Working?

The reasons why SEO isn’t working for you range from impractical expectations to internal business factors to inappropriate resource allocations. Look into 10 of them here.

Introduction:

There are now only a few developing businesses that don’t bother about their web presence.

SEO is a process that takes more time and effort than almost all the paid media channels.

That doesn’t mean it’s insignificant. It hurts me when I hear sayings like “SEO isn’t working for us” or “SEO doesn’t profitable for us” or any kind of skepticism about the value of SEO.

There are at least 10 reasons why SEO hasn’t work.

Most of the time when SEO fails, it’s due to one or more internal reasons ranging from impractical hopes and beliefs or inborn challenges within the company or organization rather than external factors.

These are just pure realities that might hurt a bit if you can relate.

These are basic necessities to recognize before shutting down SEO operation or if you are unsure it will work for you or not.

1. Impractical hopes and beliefs	If we’re considering SEO as the magical source that will meet all of our goal conversions instantaneously, we need to rethink as, like media channels and other digital marketing disciplines, SEO should be planned and systematic. Search for industry-standard, competitor data, and audience (keyword) research to define and design the SEO road map.
2. Stop trying too early	One thing we all have to remember that SEO doesn’t guarantee anything in short term. Algorithm updates, website’s health and history, backlink profile, and the competitive landscape all make an impact on ROI through SEO and making it difficult and unpredictable. Most business owners hate the unpredictable nature of SEO outcomes when it comes to timing for results. With so many unknowns, the known thing that makes SEO campaigns flop though is giving up too soon. In general, the more competitive the market, the more time you need. Likewise, the more issues you have when you start SEO, the more time you need to wait for producing ROI.
3. Directionless decision-makers	When SEO doesn’t work, it’s often because it is without direction. Strategy means doing research, setting goals, planning out a process, measuring the outcome, and having mechanisms built in that allow to take actions to implement the intended strategy is called tactics. So, strategies and tactics must work cohesively for achieving success.
4. Old-fashioned practices	It’s understandable why even seasoned SEO professionals need periodic updates for their methods and understanding of the SEO profession. The risk of outdated or ineffective practices comes with having someone add SEO to their responsibilities, those that cost measly, or those that haven’t done SEO in the recent past.
5. Lack of demand in the market	I mentioned that most of the time it’s hard to find a case where SEO can’t help a business. That’s not always 100% true. Or, at the very least, I can definitely attest that there are times where it shouldn’t be one of the leading or highest priority channels in the marketing mix. When a company’s target audience isn’t searching for what they offer, that’s a warning sign that SEO won’t work. It isn’t a case where SEO efforts can’t get the site ranked for certain keywords – it’s about the fact that those rankings won’t matter in terms of driving traffic and/or leads and sales. Some examples include products or services that are ultra-technical, have zero awareness, or in selling models that are private and aren’t conducted publicly on the web. SEO is an inbound channel. We have to have people actively coming to a search engine, do a search, find us, and click through to see it work. When there’s no opportunity (or desire) for that, then investing in SEO and working to optimize can be a pointless exercise.
6. Heavy competition	Google search results use to appear with the different layouts and types of content in the SERPs based on search intent and keyword, and organic search results are just one portion of the SERP. SEO expectations need to be filtered by considering how competitive the market is and what feature-set SERPs are displaying against the focus keyword terms and phrases. If organic results are pushed way down the SERP below ads, images, local listings, and other content created by your direct and indirect competitors, the traffic potential for a number one organic search ranking is less than it would be for a page where organic results are above the fold near the top. Rankings don’t support traffic and conversions in such cases. SEO may not work despite the top organic position if SERP features are working against us.
7. IT support issues	I know many system engineers personally. Some of the professionals sometimes don’t understand or like SEO requests. Cloud security, server functionality, and domain configuration data are often seemingly considered unnecessary requests from the SEO team even after providing necessary justification. SEO doesn’t work when the IT infrastructure or support doesn’t work. When SEO isn’t even an option for prioritization by the IT team, the situation becomes worse. If technical site issues can’t be touched, updated, or fixed, things like indexing and site speed can suffer before we even start talking about on-page factors and CMS needs.
8. UX and UI issues	Especially for conversion-focused SEO campaigns, UX and UI can often make or break the opportunity. It’s one thing to get rankings and then targeted traffic. It’s another if that traffic doesn’t convert. You can have the best rankings and alignment with keyword research, supportive content, and apt promotion on the web. However, if the UX and UI is a weak point and people can’t navigate to where you need them to, then SEO will be judged as a failure. Just like the IT team, often the designers are reluctant to address requests that come from the SEOs. Maybe they refrain from reworking on an image. That’s why involving SEO at the time of site design and development is critical.
9. Poor team configuration	Team structure often a hidden issue for poor performance. Whether it’s tied to skill sets, experience, priorities, or commitment of the resources, the team (or individual) responsible for SEO success combined with others that need to support it. Early in my career, I was an individual SEO contributor in an organization. That has changed a lot - which is a positive thing. However, many organizations still run SEO operations with an undervalued or understrength team. If there’s no real commitment and prioritization by all involved, then SEO success is in jeopardy. We need people within or around the team for content, IT, UX, and other levels of support.
10. Lack of investment/budget	SEO traffic is free! This is an utterly false statement. While no direct media dollars are required, internal or external resources are needed to be hired. That means, either pay an agency for outsourced work and/or invest in software/tools to manage SEO for a large/complex site, in addition to the costs of setting up an internal team; so SEO definitely has a price. Many organizations and business leaders still feel hesitant to invest sufficient money for SEO from their marketing budget. Not a fully funded SEO effort with direct and indirect costs cannot keep SEO working. Proper investment of money and resource needs are both critical.

Conclusion:

We all want all of our digital marketing efforts to work.

SEO is no exception.

Whether there are one or more issues or challenges that stand in our way, being aware of the reasons why SEO doesn’t work is key.

SEO is an investment at many levels, especially in a multi-layered organization. Knowing where to resolve encounters or what can sink it before even SEO starts, or after efforts are underway, can have a deep impact on making it work and unlocking the potential opportunities for reaching overall marketing and business goals through it.

How to Choose the Best Suitable diagram

(Photo by Lukas from Pexels)

In my previous post Diagrammatic Presentation of Data we have discussed different types of diagrams. Now a question may arise in your mind is that how we come to know that which is the suitable diagram in a given situation? Let see how we can answer this.

The choice would primarily depend upon few factors, such as:

1. The Nature of the Data
2. The type of people for whom the diagram is to be made
3. Simple bar diagrams should be used when changes in totals are required to be represented
4. Sub-divided bar diagrams are more useful when changes in totals as well as in components figures are required to be represented
5. Multiple bar diagrams should be used where changes in the absolute values of the component figures are to be emphasized and the overall total is of no importance
6. The multiple and sub-divided bar diagrams are used for not more than four or five components. For more than five components pie diagrams will be the best choice
7. Percentage bar diagrams are better choices when changes in the relative size of component figures are to be displayed
8. The pictogram is admirably suited to the publications of articles in newspapers and magazines or in reports 

Summary

How to Choose the Best Suitable diagram? To answer this question absolutely depends on case to case basis. I tried to give you the best way of representation of data using different types of diagrams.

As always, if you have a question or a suggestion related to the topic covered in this article, please add it as a comment so other readers can benefit from the discussion.

Diagrammatic Presentation of Data

(Photo by Fauxels from Pexels)

If data are presented in the form of diagram, it attracts the reader and it is easy to represent a table data. Diagrammatic presentation helps in quick understanding of data. 

In today's post I will discuss one-dimensional, two-dimensional, pie diagrams, pictogram and cartogram. 

First let us see what are the significance and general rules for constructing the diagrams...

Significance of Diagrammatic Presentation of Data
1. Easy Understanding	2. Attractive Look	3. Greater Memorizing Effect	4. Comparison of Data

	Components of Diagrams
	1. Title of the Diagram	5. Index of Diagram
	2. Size of the Diagram	6. Neat and Clean Diagram
	3. Scale of the Diagram	7. Simple Diagram
	4. Footnotes

Diagrams are categorized under the following heads...

1. One Dimensional Diagrams or Bar Diagrams
1. Simple Bar Diagram
2. Subdivided Bar Diagram
3. Multiple Bar Diagram
4. Percentage Bar Diagram
5. Deviation Bar Diagram
6. Broken Bar Diagram
2. Two Dimensional Diagrams
1. Rectangles
2. Squares
3. Circles
3. Pie Diagrams
4. Pictogram
5. Cartogram

1. One Dimensional Diagrams or Bar Diagrams

Bar diagrams are the most commonly used diagrams. Note: for large number of observations lines may be drawn instead of bars to save space.

Simple Bar Diagram -> If someone has to represent the data based on one variable, then the simple bar diagram can be used. 

Fiscal Year	Average Participation
2010	40,302
2011	44,709
2012	46,609
2013	47,636
2014	46,664
2015	45,767
2016	44,220
2017	42,317
2018	40,776
2019	35,703

This dataset (from Kaggle) focuses on public assistance programs in the United States that provide food, namely SNAP and WIC

The simple bar diagram of the above data is given below:

Subdivided Bar Diagram -> If various components of a variable are to be represented in a single diagram then subdivided bar diagrams are used. Note: If the number of components are more than 10 or 12, the subdivided bar diagrams are not used due to overloaded with information and cannot be compared and understood. 

Cost of grocery items (in INR) month wise	April 2021	May 2021	June 2021
Mustard oil 1 ltr	154	167	177
Atta 5 kg	128	132	137
Gobind Bhog Rice 5 kg	297	304	329
Almond 1 kg	155	167	170
Juice	130	142	147

The data is taken randomly

On the basis of above table required subdivided bar diagram is given below:

Multiple Bar Diagram -> In multiple bar diagrams two or more groups of interrelated data are presented. 

Multiple bar diagram of the above data is given below:

Percentage Bar Diagram -> Subdivided bar diagram drawn on the basis of the percentage of the total is known as percentage bar diagram. 

Percentage diagram of the above data is given below:

Deviation Bar Diagram -> For representing net profits, net loss, net exports, net imports, etc.., the deviation bar diagram is used.

Year	Sale(in %)	Net Profits(in %)
2019	5%	15%
2020	8%	19%
2021	10%	-6%

Deviation bar diagram of the above data is given below:

Broken Bar Diagram -> If large variation exists in the values of certain type of data, i.e. some values are very small and some are very large, then in order to gain space for the smaller bars of the data, the large bar(s) may be presented as broken bar.

2. Two Dimensional Diagrams

In one dimensional diagrams only length of the bar is important and comparison of bars are done on the basis of their length only, while in two dimensional diagrams both length and width of the bars are considered. 

3. Pie Diagrams

Pie diagram (Pie Chart) is used when the requirement of the situation is to know the relationship between whole of the thing and its parts.

Cost of grocery items (in INR) month wise	April 2021
Mustard oil 1 ltr	154
Atta 5 kg	128
Gobind Bhog Rice 5 kg	297
Almond 1 kg	155
Juice	130

Pie diagram of the above data is given below:

For Pictogram and Cartogram we use infographics.

Summary

In this post we have covered diagrammatic presentation of data. We discussed One Dimensional Diagrams or Bar Diagrams, Two Dimensional Diagrams, Pie Diagrams and how to draw different types of diagrams.

To know - How to choose the best suitable diagram read my this post.

As always, if you have a question or a suggestion related to the topic covered in this article, please add it as a comment so other readers can benefit from the discussion.