There are certain universal rules when it comes to having good SEO results happen and they are the following things:
It is these tips that I’ve used for many years, across different sites to get great results. And let me tell you, if you take your existing blog/site and adopt these 5 things, you’re going to see great results.
But while these tips are good if you have a blank site and/or are creating new content, I get questions from a lot of people who have existing sites with a lot of content that just doesn’t rank high and the the common question among this group of people is how to raise their rankings.
This article will answer that by providing 10 good SEO tips you should add/adjust to your site so it starts working the way it should and getting Google to notice and appreciate it better. If you do this right, here’s what you can expect:
Before you start using these SEO tips, I want you to have the following down:
I want every single person who reads this blog post to have the following programs and BASIC knowledge of these same programs down:
1) Have Google Analytics installed. Then when you have it installed, here’s this intro to Google Analytics so you have that basic knowledge down.
2) Have Google Webmaster Tools installed. Again, if you’re new, you can read that guide I added to this part.
3. All in One SEO Plugin (if you’re using WordPress, and you SHOULD be using WordPress).
These 3 programs are basically going to do the following things to help with SEO:
A) Google Analytics is going to help you actually see if traffic is going up or down, so you’ll know if these tips are working or not.
B) Google Webmaster tools is going to actually show the rankings for your site and if they are rising or not.
C) The All in One SEO plugin is going to help your site appear better for Google.
But this is the start, now we are about to get into the 10 good SEO tips:
Now these tips are not in an order or anything, so if you have issues using one of them, you can easily skip to others without worrying.
1) Analyze through Google analytics which pages on your site are NOT getting traffic/visitors.
You will want to target these pages, change their titles, add more content. Specifically though:
When I say change their titles, you will want to change the title to something that is targeting a good keyword that gets traffic.
Let me give you an example:
If I run a fat loss blog (it’s also a niche topic, which I identified as the first tip above), and one of my blogs title’s is “Fat Loss Day 1”, that is boring, it gets no searches in Google and thus it’s no surprise why it gets no traffic.
What I would do using through this first SEO tip is change that title, but first I’d find a keyword that is closely associated with the context of my blog post. If it’s about my fat loss experience (Which the title currently suggests), I’d find a keyword like this:
“Best fat loss foods”.
This keyword gets close to 100 searches a month. I’d then change my current title to that keyword and the title would look something like this:
“The 10 Best Fat Loss Foods I Used to Drop 10 Pounds”.
Suddenly the blog title COMES ALIVE, it targets a keyword and now moving forward, Google will re-rank it based on the new change, but at least time, it’ll have better chances for ranking for something that actually gets searched.
Note: Do not change the permalink if you do this. What are permalinks?
2) Tip 2 is writing a new blog post instead of editing the old one.
Now the first tip is only good for blog posts which have content that actually fit the title. If my original blog post that was boring had no content that I could attach a new keyword to that made sense, I wouldn’t change the blog post at all. I’d just write an entirely new one and make that new content fit the title.
In fact, I suggest to many of my readers who ask me these questions to write new, keyword focused content on their niche topic as they progress instead of rewriting or editing the existing blog posts they have. But again, this is ONLY if it makes sense and at least now you have a good yes and no example of when to do this.
3) Whether it’s existing or old content, create at least 1,500 words of it.
Make sure new posts you write have this amount and old posts which you choose to edit which don’t have that much, have it by the time you finish editing it. I have said many times that longer blog posts have better ranking potential.
4) Add external links to authority websites.
External links to good sites like Wikipedia improve your blog in the eyes of Google and tell it you are trying to give your audience better references that don’t just sell them something. More on external links.
And speaking of which, I have an SEO site, which I will link to now, that is considered an external link, but on it, I go into more details on SEO specific things. It’s called HelpingHandSEO.com. I’ll also talk a little bit more about it below.
And this action alone, not only helps THIS website by providing an external link to another page with high quality content, but also provides the site I am linking to, backlinking points to help it’s ranking.
5) Add internal links.
When your blog/website has many pages, it very often pays to link your site to another page within the same site. Say for example, I have, for the sake argument, 2 blog posts, one on topic A and the other on topic B.
Then on say topic A, I wish to reference something that I wrote on B, but rather than rewriting the whole thing all over again, I’ll just link to my topic B post and tell people to read that if they want more reference. In fact, this whole article you’re reading right now is riddled with internal links and each time you click on them and read the content of the said internal link, you are adding extra visits to those posts and it is boosting my site’s rankings.
Now I am not adding these links for no reason at all, I am adding them to help you understand this topic more. For example, above I said to get Google Analytics installed. And I provided a tutorial for that. This is an example of me providing extra good content for you to use that will help you and that is something Google likes and is another example of good SEO advice. More on internal linking.
6) Try to get people to comment on your site.
As your rankings improve and you get more traffic, it is beneficial to get that traffic to do more than just pay your site a visit, it also helps if they comment on the content they read. This adds more content to your page and is another good SEO tip that Google loves to see on sites.
I have over 7,000 comments on this site and counting and it’s because I get higher rankings with these tips and also encourage people to comment on my blog posts. More tips on getting comments.
7) Write engaging content, whether it’s new or updated on old blog posts.
Just writing content isn’t going to lead to higher rankings. People who read your stuff need to like it, actually read it, enjoy it and more. To do that, you need to upgrade from writing horrible, boring content, to engaging stuff that will keep people hooked. Here’s tips on how to get people to read your blogs.
And in addition to that, writing high quality content is what is actually going to lead that happening.
Making such necessary changes is going to greatly propel your SEO rankings.
8) Find good keywords.
In the first tip above, I did say to find and use highly searched keywords, but people new to this may be wondering just how to do this. Well I have some strategies to help you there:
A) Read this post on keywords in general, if you’re super new.
B) UThese 2 tips will help you blog on topics that will make you money and it’s not just about finding keywords, but always having something to write on your blog which will help it get more traffic and better SEO in general.
9) Share the site/new blog posts on social media.
Odds are, if you have a blog, you probably already have a social media account. Share it with friends, have them like it. Create a fan page if you want to and then get friends to follow it (don’t push them though).
Make sure you have a social media button on your site as well so new visitors have the option of quickly sharing it if they like the content. Here’s how to get people to follow your blog.
10) Create/take images and use keywords to identify them.
One of the great things about keywords is that they don’t only apply to the title of your blog, or it’s content, but also the media you put on it, including images. As a rule of thumb I always add one or more images on my site which also use the same keyword I am targeting in the title.
This gives it extra exposure on Google images itself and helps it rank on the regular organic search results for people, which in turn helps it attract the person to my site. Here’s a good tutorial on images.
Bonus SEO tip:
One tip I though I’d be able to fit into the above 10 but couldn’t is making YouTube videos with links to your blog. This is another form of social media sharing that actually has much more value in terms of traffic potential, especially if you are not known to a large group of people and are just starting out.
Making YouTube videos that target keywords similar to the way you use them on your blog helps them get traffic quite easily, and in some cases, faster and in larger amounts than it would to the blog, but then linking that video to your blog, will give the blog more SEO points.
I have personally seen people who use this tip correctly propel their website to 1st page rankings for numerous keywords just by simply taking existing YouTube videos they have and just providing a link to their website.
Now I also want to say one more thing:
While these 11 tips are awesome, and I do use them all the time, do note you don’t need to use all of them at once and if you’re new, trying to keep these 11 things in mind each time you blog something new can get crazy to follow after awhile and if this is the case for you and you aren’t already seeing good SEO results from this, I would strongly recommend you follow an organized program that will help you get your site successful:
If you follow that program and/or these 11 tips correctly, I guarantee you that they will be VERY good for your site’s SEO. Like I said, I’ve used them and still do.
Update: Have SEO questions? Direct them here:
Hi folks, once again let me “pitch” and mention my other site that talks about SEO. Because this subject is such a huge part of making money online, especially for me, I started a new website that provides free tips and training, as well as solutions to questions on everything SEO related. Here it is.
I ask that if you have questions on rankings, and all of those things, please ask them there.
Hi man,
I started fixing posts and I saw a number of increase in keywords. It is around 200 keywords. Anyway, I want to do the same fixing (updating the content, changing the date etc…) to a page. I can do it, right?
You can and you should do that on your posts which aren’t ranking well Furkan. The ones which aren’t, update the date and improve the content (and SEO). For ones which do rank well, don’t change the date, but still improve the content. Then in both cases, URL inspect the updated posts in Google webmaster tools, and this should help boost your site’s rankings across Google.
I know I should do that posts are not ranking well. However I am talking about pages which are not posts. I mean posts and pages are different. I am basically asking : ) can I do the same things for pages which do not rank well? (changing the date, updating the content…)
Pages and posts are the same Furkan and rank the same way on Google. So the answer is yes, you can do the EXACT same SEO strategies on articles marketed as pages such as you’d do on the ones marked as posts.
Hi Vitaliy,
Let’s say I have an article which is called “Best Football Shoes – The Buyer’s Guide”. The url is also the same.
I want to change it to “Best Football Shoes – The Complete Guide” I know the URL stays same however if I change, the url still will include the old title which is Best Football Shoes – The Buyer’s Guide. Does this create problems regarding SEO? Or can I just change the title?
Don’t worry about it, that’s fine.
Alright, thank you again man.
Hi Vitaliy,
I keep producing content and I saw an increase in keywords in SEMRush. Though my traffic is almost the same. I think I can get way more traffic if I push it more and more with my site.
I wonder if I add byline to all my blog posts, does it have positive effect on rankings?
Hi Furkan, it’s good you’re adding more content and with SEMRush showing you more keyword rankings, it means that new content is slowly getting crawled and ranking in Google, and in time, you will see this increase your overall site traffic.
As for byline, what exactly do you mean?
I mean putting information about the author at the end of the writings. There is already about section on my site however I just read it a few times that it can help with the rankings so I decided to ask you. Do I need to do that?
You can test this out and many good marketers I know do include a bio at the bottom of their content. This can help lead people to a main promotional page or even browse your site more, which can lead to better rankings. But it’s testing this out and giving it a few days that will determine if this is a good idea for your site Furkan. I’d set it up, put a prettylink on bio section to track how many people who visit your site click that bio and see if it leads to more sales.
Hi man,
I recently added content, links to a post. I changed the date and updated it. I can do that without any problem, right?
Note: Of course the url is the same.
Yep, this is fine Furkan.
Alright then man, thank you.
Hi man,
I noticed that I have 2 writings which can cause confusion in SERPS. But I am not sure…
One of them is really a long article which is about the best boxing shoes. It has a buyer’s guide, etc…
The other is best boxing boots. This one is short and only has high-top style boxing boots. I wrote them when I just first started.
Should I do anything? Or should I just leave them?
If the content of both articles is unique and covering actual different boots, then keep both. If the content is similar then remove the one with less content (it’s likely ranking less well) and if you do this, remove any links that point to it, so it won’t cause 404 errors.
As I understand I can erase “best boxing boots” which has less content and use redirection plug in to redirect the link to “best boxing shoes” which have more content.
Man, now I have 2 questions.
1. I remember that I should not delete any content. So should I delete that (best boxing boots)? Will Google punish me for that?
2. I use the redirection plugin. I alredy used that for my deleted posts. Is this plugin alright?
1. If it’s not ranking well to begin with then no, it’ll only punish you if you have posts linking to the deleted posts (which will make 404 errors).
2. If it redirects and works, then it’s fine.
Alright then, I will make some changes for the main post and do as what you say. Thank you so much, man.
Anytime Furkan 🙂
Man, I think I wrote down everything related to gears. At this point, I just find some keywords which get 40 searches according to a keyword tool and write them. I basically wrote everything related to MMA and boxing gear.
But these just don’t rank high. My competitors get a lot of visits, like 2000 per day. I have more quality writing than them. I basically think that I really can’t make this site better. You mentioned about the second site but why I can’t make this site get more visitors? I mean is it impossible after this point? I really thought that this site would work. Also as I said my competitors, which write about MMA gears, get a lot of organic visitors.
Should I just give up about this site? I really relied on this site and have worked for more than two and a half years and wrote 300 articles. All I got is 100 dollars month with 65 visitors. I feel incredibly bad.
There is opportunity in this site still but you have to start going beyond MMA gear and into MMA topics to get more broad traffic in this topic. I do recommend you consider a second site because it seems like the current page may be at a point where the opportunities are capped and putting all your attention into a site that isn’t doing as well as you want might not be the best move.
For more immediate traffic, you may want to consider doing paid ads from Bing or Google (I’d go with Bing though) to get extra traffic and possibly raise the site’s profits this way.
I understand man. I will consider the second site in the future. But I will need some money so I can outsource some of the writings.
I actually spoke to Dom (Human Proof Designs) today and he had a look at my site and he said I have lots of keywords ranking near the top of page one, so I am nearly there and he said whatever I am doing is working. But he also said I need more time. So he thinks that it can happen.
As you said in the future I will open a second site. But for now, I just don’t have enough time or money to take care of two sites effectively. I think of working on this site until I have some more resources. Maybe even buy an aged site (without links etc.), which has potential, for saving some time. Obviously, I should just love the topic.
What do you think about this plan?
I would never buy an aged site because it’s almost impossible to guarantee it’s safe and has good history. I would just blog on your existing site less and put that newly acquired time, into a new site.
And speaking of Dom, he was in my area recently and we had dinner, talked a lot about business, he’s a good dude.
Hi man,
Today actually I am panicking over something. Normally my domain authority on seoreviewtools.com was 21 but today I saw that it was 15.
My organic traffic is the same and it is around 65 and keywords on Semrush did not change as well.
Should I do something?
You’re focused too much on scores from programs that don’t really matter Furkan. If you aren’t doing anything bad like black hat marketing (which I know you’re not), and you are growing your site, don’t worry. These scores can go up and down and even Google itself will fluctuate your traffic and rankings, it’s normal, but to expect your site to constantly be at a perfect, high score is not something I’d recommend you do, it will drive you nuts.
I understand man. I sometimes look at them so much. Yeah, there are some fluctuations from time to time. I understand. I will not do that.
My organic traffic is around 65 and I still make $100 dollars per month. I have 1,100 keywords in Semrush with 320 articles. I think it is going normal, right? Man, seriously thanks a lot for these answers.
With over 300 articles, you should have more traffic. Try interlinking, this should help.
I understand but I was already doing it. And I think it is not the issue as I have been doing it for a year. What else can I do?
I would look to target keywords that get higher search volumes in your niche. I would also consider starting a second site if you have time. At this point, you have more than enough experience to apply the skills to a new niche market and profit there.
Hi man, how is it going?
I have been getting a bit more visitors lately. It is around 70 now and I earn around the same.
I want to ask something quite detailed : )
Let’s say that I have a “best football shoes” article. And “cool football shoes” article.
I also have a “top youth football shoes” article. I also want to write an article on “cool youth football shoes”. Do you think I should write it?
Of course, these are not football related products and it is related to my niche : )
As far as I remember, you had a site selling boxing gear Furkan, but if like you say these topics are related to your niche, sure, write the content.
Hi man,
I wanted to ask how should I go on about the new keywords? I basically write about martial arts (boxing, MMA) gear related topics but I am basically having a really hard time finding new keywords. Can I start writing about other martial arts gear? Or how should I go about it? By the way, I still have 50 organic visitors per day. But I am optimistic about it.
Hey man, you are probably out of product review ideas, and might want to start considering writing about topics that are related to the gear, like self defense tips or something along those lines. You can explore a lot of good topics like this and find good keywords on that, then link them to the existing products you’re already selling on the site. I talk about finding more topics and keywords to explore here, it’ll help you get fresh new ideas to blog on.
Yeah, I understand what you mean (like boxing sparring tips).
But I am thinking of writing about other martial arts gear like BJJ gis. For example, how to shrink a BJJ gi then I send people to BJJ gi articles. Do you think I can go on writing about other martial arts gears (shin guards for example) like this? I already have a lot of articles which are about MMA and boxing equipment.
Of course, I will keep the topics narrowed as much as possible.
As long as you are selling this gear and can tie an article into it (like the gi example and linking it to a gi review), then it’s totally fine Furkan.
I think I didn’t ask it properly. I mean I wrote about boxing and MMA gear. Now I want to move onto BJJ gear (both informative BJJ gear posts and BJJ gear review posts). Can I move onto BJJ gears after MMA gears?
Yes that’s fine, eventually your niche site has to do this in order to cover more topics.
Hi man,
I know it is one of those odd questions but I marked my about me page as no index and a no follow. It does not create any issues with SEO, right?
Man, I actually work a lot and know a lot of things but sometimes could not find what to do about this stuff even though I watched a lesson about it again. So I asked you : )
By the way, my site’s loses visitors and keywords on Google but I think it is due to the recent algorithm change. So I am not worried about that as just a couple of weeks ago it reached 80-90 but now it is 45 again.
When you mark any page on your site with a no index or no follow, it just tells Google not to crawl that page. I don’t really know why you’d want to do that for an about me page, but you’d want to do that for any pages where you have bad quality SEO or copied stuff like on a privacy policy page.
My privacy page is already on no follow. It did not make sense to me either when I saw that my about me page has it. This is why I asked you 🙂 I thought that I missed it while I was watching training or something. Alright I will uncheck no follow on my about me page. Thanks man and have a good day.
No problem.
Hi Vitaliy,
Man my site still has 40-50 organic visitors I hope it will be better once everything will be settled.
I have a question regarding SEO. I have 2 amazon native ads on informational pages. The first one is at the beginning of the page. It is after the first or second paragraph and the other one is after the content. Do you think I should remove one of them? Do these affect SEO?
Affiliate links very early on MAY affect SEO, but I wouldn’t worry so much about that. If you are continuing to write content, you are doing what you need to be doing.
The problem I see is that you’re very focused on seeing immediate results and I would not fall into that trap man. You need to worry less about seeing the results of your work and more on continuing to post the kind of content that got you to 40-50 visitors a day and to double it.
Remember, rankings don’t happen right away, you are writing new content, but it will take time for this content to produce organic traffic. You can’t sit around waiting for this to happen and not be happy if it doesn’t happen fast, you need to let it run it’s course and just write more, this is what will produce the best results.
Man, I understand you and I know the process. But I wrote 300 articles in 2 years. I used to get 130 organic visitors a year ago. But things happened. And now I get only 50. I feel like that there is something missing and this is why I asked you 🙂 But I understand. I always write more content.
I know Furkan, but you need to understand that results you reach (especially at high points like you did) don’t stay. I had 500 visitors a month last year and it fell almost 2x this year and that is because many high ranking pages you have decrease because of new competition and/or topics die out in popularity, it’s a normal process within the blogging world and to stay on top, you need to keep writing new content, for new topics that are arising.
I understand better now. Always I thought that two years will be enough to reach 600 organic visitors : )
I think my topics don’t die out. My topics are gear related. For example, how to clean boxing gloves etc. But I constantly see new competition, I think that might be the reason.
I really hope to reach 550-600 visitors per day as I can make around $1,000 dollars 🙂 I make around a hundred with 55-60 visitors : )
Alright man I’ll keep on producing content.
There you go, focus on that 600 visitor goal 🙂
Hi Vitaliy,
The reason for the fluctuations was the Google algorithm update. My rankings were back for a week or so. I got around 80 visitors. But after a week, some other rankings disappeared. I am back to 40-50 organic visitors for now. But still, I have some rankings on the first page so I hope I get these rankings back : )
I have a keyword question regarding SEO.
Let’s say that I have a post which is called benefits of fitness for kids and I talk about this specific topic. However, I want to write an article which is called Fitness for Kids – The Complete Guide. In this writing, I want to talk about general fitness topics for kids. How they should do it? How should they select the gym etc… It will be about general stuff.
My keywords are quite similar to these. I will just change fitness to my niche topic. Can I select these keywords? I wonder it because they both involve fitness for kids.
Hi Furkan, I’m glad to hear your rankings are back and that I was right about it being a Google ranking fluctuation, the other rankings you said saw a downturn are probably also going through the same thing and will return after awhile.
Regarding your fitness question, just so I understand, are you asking if you can add a new article to your boxing site regarding fitness for kids since they are somewhat related?
I suppose you can do that, but you have to understand that fitness for kids is a wide range of topics, and you’d have to funnel the audience which comes to this article into your boxing site so they can buy gear, so you have to think of it from that angle.
Overall, with niche websites, eventually, you can run into an issue where it’s tough to find new topics to talk about, so in that case, yes you can expand outward into other, broader topics like the one you’re considering, but know that if it’s broad, you have to find a way to narrow it down and funnel it into your main niche’s topic for this to work, it’s not just about the traffic, you have to see how this can help grow your boxing site and if it doesn’t, I wouldn’t even bother targeting this crowd, I’d just make a new niche site on this.
I hope it will be the way as you described.
Man, I smiled. I just gave an example. I have an article which targets the benefits of boxing for kids.
And I want to target boxing for kids with my new article. I will talk about how should they select a gym, is it safe etc. Do you think can I do that? As both includes boxing for kids. I don’t want to confuse Google.
Yeah, I know I should keep it narrow so I only write boxing and MMA topics : ) I don’t plan on getting fitness or any other topic yet.
Your site is about boxing, certainly a branch of that topic would be boxing for kids. I see no issue in writing an article like this Furkan, it won’t confuse Google.
Hey man,
I know that I asked this but I really want to change 2018 writings to one which does not include a year. I just want to remove the year. I don’t care about re-ranking process etc. After all, I only have a couple of writings which include a year and I have almost 300 articles so far.
What do you recommend for this?
I think you should leave it as I suggested before Furkan, I honestly see no point in changing this, but if you really want to do this, go for it.
Yeah I know but I really want to do it : ) So I will just remove the year and maybe add a featured image. But I will do it only once a week. Thanks again man and have a good day.
No problem Furkan, I’m curious to know how this change will affect the traffic for it, so please keep me posted on it.
Man, I just want to be sure about something.
I recently changed my e-mail login to WordPress and I assigned the same name, which is Furkan, to this new e-mail. I did the same for gravatar and I answer the comments and write the writings with this name. This should not cause any problems right?
Totally fine Furkan, this should not cause any issues and by the way, I totally understand why you’re being paranoid about this, I used to also have similar questions like this 🙂
Yeah, I already guessed it. After all, everyone might change an e-mail. But still, I wondered :).
Some rankings came back and yesterday, I got 70 organic visitors which is good. Last week it was the average. I think it will be totally normal after a couple of days. Man, I have 2 questions about SEO.
1. I find suitable images and make them 1000 (width), 200 (height) so they can be suitable for posts and I can use them, which have this particular size, as featured images. Is this alright?
2. Before I was adding just 1 or 2 featured images and I actually noticed positive changes in search engine results after I had done it. But I started adding more featured images in that I was adding 4 or 5 featured images per week and then this fluctuation happened. I basically want to continue adding featured images to posts. But I guess I should do it less frequently. Do you think that if I update 1 post with a featured image per week, will this be okay?
Good to hear you got your rankings back man, it definitely looks like there was just some search engine fluctuation going on and this just solidifies that your site is totally fine with Google. Now onto the specific questions:
1) I have no definitive answer for this man. What I can tell you is that an image shouldn’t take up too much space in your content or on your header or widget areas. The reason why is because it impacts how people see your content and this can have them click out faster (in some cases). Generally, I set my images to under 800×300.
The point is, I’ll make the image clear enough to see, but not too big to cover up my content, that’s really the main thing I focus on. It also depends on your theme, it’s settings and what size looks good on that theme.
2) You’ll have to play around with this, but normally, don’t add too many images, and if you do, make them smaller, so people can keep reading the remainder of your content afterwards.
It is possible that adding more images, did cause people to click out of your website and thus caused the re-ranking to happen, but also keep in mind that adding any new content or changing the title of an article also does this.
The important thing is to not focus so much on every tiny little change you make to your site, as long as you aren’t engaging in anything black hat, the worst that’ll happen is, you’ll see less clicks to your affiliate pages, not so much ranking drops.
Focus on the content and using the images to make the content look better.
Hi man,
After reading your answer I thought the same.
1. Yeah, the featured images do not take any space at all. These don’t change the writing. My theme does not put featured images in writings. It just adds an image to blogroll. That is it. And 1000 (width) x 200 (height) ones look cool so I guess I can use them, right?
2. Alright, then I will add one featured image to an old blog post per week. I guess this is alright, right? I understand and my featured images don’t change the writing at all. So it does not change anything including the bounce rate etc.
Exactly man I focus on content a lot. I hope it will be better.
I’d keep the image lowered to 700 (width), that’s how I do it, aside from that, I think your other responses to each question I answered are fine.
Hi man,
Today something happened. Everything was going alright and I started getting 65 organic visitors. But today Google removed many of my posts from it’s search. When I typed my keywords, which I ranked well for, they are not on the first page.
Many of them are not even on 2, 3, 4 pages, etc…
I was writing content as usual and the only thing I did differently was that I put up some more featured images. But these did not change the post design.
Some Notes: By the way, there is no manual action on webmaster tools. I recently changed my google plus name and gravatar email to reply to the emails as I can’t reach my other e-mail. I guess these are all the things which happened.
What should I do?
Hi Furkan, it sounds like the following may be going on:
1) Google may be implementing an update in which case, many sites see a disappearance or re-indexing and re-ranking process going on, this can last a few days and you should see your rankings return, especially since you said that Webmaster Tools didn’t show any errors or penalties.
2) Your changes in the featured images may have also caused a re-index to the whole site.
Either way, I would check all your existing rankings which you know are high up in Google. See if there’s been a major drop. If there hasn’t then it’s likely the first scenario I indicated. Don’t panic just yet, rankings get updated all the time and sometimes it’ll affect many posts on your site if not the whole site itself.
Man, I forgot to mention something. I did not use a facebook fan page for a long time and it was also deleted. I understand why you think that the login e-mail (in WordPress) change and change of the name on Google plus could cause this.
I already checked that there are at least 8 rankings which are on the first page of Google. Some of them include affiliate links, some don’t. But as I said many of them are gone.
What should I do? My plan is not to add featured images but just to continue writing content and getting comments. Before this happened, the organic visitors were going up. The average was around 67 last week. But when I checked it today, I saw that there are way fewer visitors.
The fact that there’s at least 8 first page rankings is already a great sign that there wasn’t some sort of penalty happening to your site. Regarding the posts which did go down in ranking, did you do anything black hat related, meaning did you do some backlinking to them, or did you try and use some programs like content spinners? And was there any content on those said posts which was copied from other sources?
If the answer is no to all of these things, then you should be fine and odds are, it’s a temporary re-ranking process going on, which is normal with Google.
Yeah I have probably like 10 posts on the first page. No I always follow the basic and right rules like creating content and getting comments etc. : ) I only had one quote in one writing and I used the quote sign. That article is on the third spot on the first page.
Alright then I will wait and see what is happening. Thanks for the answers man and have a good day.
No problem, let me know how things go. You should be fine with quotes, but I always play it safe and do a screenshot of the quote, instead of copying it over on my site/s.
Hi Vitaliy, how are you man?
Lately, SEMRush found 150 keywords however my traffic stayed the same. But I guess it is positive that I have more keywords.
I want to ask something. I have a keyword, something like best running shoes 2018. And I am on the first page of google for best running shoes. But no one searches this term as best running shoes 2018. People search for it as best running shoes. And it is a complete article and the products are still selling.
I just want to change the headline to something like “best running shoes 2018” to “best running shoes”. What do you suggest for me?
If you’re going to change a title (don’t change the permalink) there’s a few things I suggest:
1) Make sure the keyword is actually not getting traffic or sales. To do this, use Google analytics and look at the behavior of your visitors over a 1-2 month period, see if there’s people visiting that page, I believe for a keyword like the one you mentioned, there should be.
2) If for some reason it’s not, don’t change it to something boring like the alternative you mentioned, you need to spice it up. Best running shoes is just plain, add something more to it if you’re going to make the change. Give people a reason to click if they see if on Google!
Now regarding SEMRush, when you say it found 150 keywords, what do you mean?
Did it find 150 more keywords your site appears for?
Is it 150 more keywords to write about?
I would like to know the details so I can help you draw the right conclusions from this. Also that program (SEMRush) is not really useful in my opinion, I’d much rather suggest you use Webmaster Tools and let Google itself tell you what you’re ranking for. Just my thoughts…
Hi man,
1. It gets a good amount of traffic. But it has a year in it which is 2018. But people don’t search the term with the year. I want to take off the year as people will not click on it next year. I am ranking for something like Best Running Shoes.
My article’s name is something like 5 best running shoes in 2018. Shortly, I want to change this article’s title (5 Best Running Shoes in 2018) to 5 Best Running Shoes but as I said this article gets traffic. However, this article is complete and basically there is nothing to add to it.
Semrush found 150 more keywords my site appears for. I hope it will continue finding more keywords : )
I would honestly stick to using Webmaster tools instead of SEMRush, they’ll tell you the same stuff. But about the article, either way, since it’s is getting traffic, leave it as is, changing the title will make it reindex on Google and if it’s making sales, you’ll lose out for a little bit while it re-ranks.
I’d honestly just leave it alone and do another top 5 list of whatever product category you are selling on the site Furkan. When 2019 rolls around, do a best running shoes for that year, as it’ll probably update by then. In fact, if and once you do this, link the old 2018 article to it, which will send it some link juice and help it rank faster.
Hi,
I always use Webmaster tools. I just wanted you to give a brief summary with Semrush. Man I really don’t care about reindexing of those 2018 articles. I have 4 of them and the year does not mean anything. And I don’t sell much from these articles yet so I just want to change them to something which doesn’t involve the year. I hope I explained this well 🙂
What do you recommend for this particular issue?
Since the articles aren’t making sales, I would disregard them, and write new content. Like I suggested before, link these existing articles to the new ones you write Furkan.
Hi man,
So I saw a little bit of increase. My organic visitors were around 45 and now it is around 57. It is not much but it is better than nothing 🙂 I consistently have made $80-100 dollars for a year and I really want to get it to $1,000 🙂
I have a lot of articles now. I think it is around 290 and before I wrote a lot of articles which were around 1,000 words. There were also 2000-3000 word articles but the articles are mostly 1000 words. I think these articles are just fine but should I increase some of the 1000 word articles or should I just get comments to them?
PS: I have been writing articles, which have at least 1,500 words, for a couple of months too.
Great to hear from you Furkan, I’m glad to see there is an improvement in your traffic and sales are growing from what I see based on your comment. Having said that, here’s how I would go about the question you asked me:
I would isolate the existing content/articles you have that are chasing a high volume keyword and if their ranking isn’t high yet, to add more content to those articles and try to get more comments on them.
Other than that, keep repeating what you’re currently doing to increase the traffic to your site.
Last month I had only 4 conversions on Amazon. This month it is around 10 🙂 Sales are kinda seasonal. Sometimes it is better, sometimes it is normal. And I hope traffic will grow way more 🙂
I actually updated the articles, but these don’t rank well. As you said, I will add more content to them.
1. But should I just add content on the beginning of the article or can I add wherever it is suitable?
2. I will just try getting comments on the articles, which are 1000 words.
Do you think are these two plans good?
1. I would only add content in the beginning of the article IF it doesn’t already include your keyword in it (add it if it doesn’t), otherwise, just add more content and images across the existing page wherever it makes sense to.
2. Yes get more comments and encourage them throughout your content so it improves the odds of it happening.
1. Alright. I always did the regular things like having the keyword at the beginning and at the end. The posts have all the things for SEO including internal, external authoritative links etc…
Alright I will add content to the necessary places.
2. Alright. I will try getting more comments on 1,000 word posts. These are basic product reviews and my competition generally has shorter articles for these.
Thanks for the answers as always man and have a good day.
No problem Furkan, as always, keep me posted on your progress, it’s already growing so its a matter of repetition in doing the same things we already discussed.
Man, I know I asked a lot of questions but this one is really vital.
I did not use the featured image at all. Because it covers some space at the beginning and I did not like it. And someone told me that I should definitely use it. I think that it is a really stupid mistake considering the amount of work I put in. And when I have a look at my websites in my niche, they all have a picture, which is a featured image, at the beginning of the posts.
Anyway, I have 290 articles right now. How should I do this? The featured image will cover some of the beginning of the page and I will use it in smaller pictures so people don’t have to scroll a lot. But my concern is that if I put featured images on a lot of posts, it might not be good for Google. According to your experience, how frequently should I put featured image on? Let’s say if I put featured images to 10 posts per week, would that be good?
And should I do it less or more?
I don’t really use featured images on my posts Furkan, at best when I write a new post, I write a paragraph introducing people to the topic and trying to catch their attention, then I’ll add some sort of image underneath that paragraph to help them visually, then throughout the post, I will add images scarcely, meaning not too often.
Now I don’t know if this is what you meant or if you mean a featured image underneath your MAIN header on your site. If it’s this, then I personally wouldn’t do it if it takes up a lot of space. From what I do know regarding the SEO implications of this, if the image is too big and takes time to load for people, it can make them leave, which can affect stay times and thus result in a lower user experience, so the less loading and distractions there are before people reach your content, the better.
I understand what you mean. But there is featured image section on the right side while we are writing content in WordPress. I am talking about that. This adds an image beside my content snippet on my blog roll. I think you use that one because when I look at your blog roll there are images of the posts. I hope I explained it right : ) Should I select an image there? When I select an image, it also automatically adds a picture to the top of my content.
Sounds like it’s either a default aspect of your WordPress theme or it could be a widget you can edit/remove. Either way, I like to keep the right areas blank unless there’s something universal I am promoting. You will have to test this out and play around with no having a featured image vs having one and seeing how this impacts sales.
I understand man. I will do that and see how it goes.
Let me know how the changes work out when the traffic/sales info comes in a few weeks after changing it! I look forward to seeing these ideas result in massive growth for your site Furkan!
1. I understand I think I will do the updating for the posts which are on the 8th or 9th pages. However these posts really suck. I wrote them when I just started blogging. I will put content at the beginning and add a couple of products, etc… Basically I will add at least 1,500 words. Do you think it is alright? And can I do this for 10 or more posts?
2. I also always write newer posts with different targeted keywords. So there is always one like “best running shoes for women” and another blog targets “best running shoes for men”. Do you mean that in the second paragraph of your suggestion? Man seriously thanks for these answers. For example I never knew about this re-indexing thing and I am sure I made that mistake a year ago.
1) Yeah, if those posts are THAT far down in Google’s results, you can liberally change them up and see how it improves the ranking, especially if the post is chasing a GOOD keyword. If it’s not, I would ignore it and just focus on writing newer content. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to try and fix every post so it ranks high, it just won’t happen every time and that’s just how this game works.
2) You can and should separate your blog posts when you review products for men and woman (which you’re doing now), but you can always write another post like it, targeting the same keyword, but for a new year. For example, if you did a blog post on the best shoes in 2018 for women, you can do another one next year for 2019. Make sense?
No problem man, I’m happy to help and hope these tips help you get more traffic.
Yeah, unfortunately, they are that far down and I have not realized why. But these are good keywords and I am sure they can bring some traffic. But not all of them are down some of them have first page rankings. Alright, then I will do it.
Now I understand it way better. Alright even though I generally don’t use the year in titles, I understand what you mean. I will do that.
Oh yeah definitely take advantage of that “yearly” keyword thing. People look up different products for different niches with the existing year next to it. For example: Top diets in 2018, expect a “top diets in 2019” to surface next year and the year after that, this is totally normal and you can leverage these new keywords each and every year.
As for the pages which are appearing low on Google’s search results, yeah a good keyword will typically carry with it a lot of competing sites that push yours down, but you can improve that ranking via the things we talked about, so I would focus on that and maybe get a few comments on those posts too, that’ll help.
In any case, try not to spend TOO much time trying to raise every post/page you can which isn’t doing well, there will be cases where this issue will not be resolved and you have to move onto other keywords, write other, brand new content and focus on that.
Hi,
Alright then I will do it. I’m actually thinking of changing 2018 to 2019, make a few changes and update. I only have one important keyword which includes the year.
I already get comments regularly however I think I may even need more. I will change the old posts which really suck. And I will do it once a month. I understand what you meant. I always write new articles which have 40 or more searches depending on the competition. Of course more searches is better : ) Thanks for the answers man again and have a good day.
I’d leave the current post/s you have which talk about the best products for 2018 as they are, don’t change it to 2019. Instead, when 2019 rolls around, write a new article targeting the best products for that year and in your 2018 article, link to the 2019 one, that will send it some link juice and help it rank faster.
These SEO tips are very helpful. I have heard that writing longer posts help your site rank better and with end up giving you more traffic. I try to make sure most of my posts are a minimum of 1,000 words. But after your advise I will shoot for more like 1500. Thanks for the wonderful advise. Hopefully, it will propel my site rankings.
This is mainly true Wendy, but it’s not just longer content, it has to be good, keyword targeted content, then it will do well.
I think that writing longer posts is quite effective as well and I also benefited from this. But I wrote some articles which just can’t be more than a thousand words. If I write more than 1,500 words it will be boring and repetitive. What do you recommend for that?
Hi Furkan, just because the content is longer does not mean that’s more boring, you just have to change the way you’re looking at this. I’ve read stories, personal experiences and other types of blogs which had 1,000’s of words. I would recommend you expand your content writing and be more personal, it’ll add more, do more for you with SEO and the reader’s trust and improve the quality of the content.
Alright man I will do it. Many of my writings are above 1,500 words. However there are ones like a product review etc… that are not so I will expand those writings.
Yeah this will help make them rank better Furkan. Try to find new things to discuss on your existing product review. If you do things like a pros and cons, and add bullet points in those sections, discuss them further to expand the content.
Hey man 🙂 I will update the blog posts and here is my plan:
The targeted keyword will not change. For example, if the title is “best running shoes for women 2018”. I will change the title to “5 best running shoes for women” and change the writing. For example, I will delete some paragraphs and add some paragraphs. The post will be more than 1,500 words and finally click update 🙂 I know that url should not change etc…
Do you think that it is alright?
The title idea is fine, but do it for blog posts which aren’t getting good traffic. If you do this for traffic generating blogs, it will cause them to re-index. And yes, as long the URL (Permalink) stays the same, it’s fine.
Regarding content, I’d keep the current content on blogs you wish to update. Just add content to them, don’t erase other things, as it’ll cause yet another re-index to happen, it’ll be better if you update your blog posts with newer, fresher content but put it at the top and let the audience know there’s an update.
Also worth considering is just writing an entirely new blog post on another keyword with it’s own separate content.
Hey this was a really good article, i did find these tips helpful. My second site which has been live for over 6 months is lacking in traffic big time! I really need to improve that but my main site which is my make money niche is bringing in some organic traffic now but not a lot. I do need to go back and change some titles like you said. It seems like i don’t get any comments by sharing my posts. Once in a while i might get a random comment that I think came from a organic search, but I still got a lot of work to do thanks.
Sharing your content with just anyone including friends will not generate comments from them Justin, you need to keep focusing on getting more and more content out there and attracting more audiences which will lead to more chances of that larger audience commenting on your posts, since they will be traffic that is interested in your site’s topics. Here’s some tips I provide on getting more comments.
Hi Vitaly, good point regarding seo rankings, it does make a difference when you write not only providing value for the reader and maybe solving a problem they have, but to actually make sure sure they find your website in the first place! Keeping the 5 points you discuss can be a good framework to work with.
Hi Vaughn, yes you are right, but once you write that good content, and use those low competition keywords, you will get the rankings to get the traffic.
I am still new to blogging and trying to rank in google. You have several good tips that I will be trying to implement when I write. I bookmarked this to reference later. Are google analytics and webmaster necessary for someone that has just started? I usually have difficulty writing 1,000 words, any tips on improving my word count?
They aren’t necessary, but I would advise getting them on your page if you are at least somewhat serious about rankings, as these tools will help the process move forward.
As for content and word count, usually telling a story or sharing an experience helps expand the word count. The more descriptive you are, the longer it’ll be, plus knowing the topic well enough to connect with the reader.
I am trying to improve my current Google rankings, so this article is a helpful read. Just a few questions;
1) It’s kind of challenging to write long articles. Every time I finish writing, my count is only (barely) 1,000. How do you hit over that number?
2) In regards to creating external links, is it viable to link to a company’s official website (if you are doing a review about them) vs linking to Wikipedia?
Thanks.
Hi Cathy, here are my answers:
1) Add personal stories to help extend your content, this often helps me put in an extra few hundred words.
2) Yes you can do this, it’s part of relevancy and helps.
Hi Vitaliy,
Thank you for sharing. I always find your content helpful and for this reason, I love your site 🙂 I never considered before that I should use keywords on my images. Now I’ll be more aware of how to use the alt text on photos. Do you think that 1,000 words of content aren’t enough for SEO? For the moment I manage to write 1,200 or more…
Thank you so much Marta! For your question, 1,200 is good and I’d even aim for 1,500 or more (this is why). Also in terms of images and SEO, there’s a reason why if you type a keyword into Google and head over to the related images, that certain ones pop up: it’s because their name is the keyword 🙂
Thank you for these valuable tips. I am fairly new to having my own website. I am understanding keywords a little better now but having a hard time finding short tail ones. I am in the MMO niche. I also checked out the intro to Google Analytics which was very useful in helping me understand what to look at and it’s purpose.
Adding the keyword to an image was something I didn’t know as well and will definitely come in handy. When you say write a new post instead or editing an old, can we use the same keyword to write a better post?
I have one “make money working from home online” that isn’t doing very well. Should I create a new post around that title or no? I was under the impression we can’t use “make money” in more than one post unless we have a large amount of post on our site.
You have given me much appreciated help in your tips. I look forward to hearing back from you.
Lee Ann
Hi Lee, this is totally fine to do as long as your new post has new content. If you follow this approach, you can even link the old article to the new one you create and just mention that there is an update. Let me give you an example:
If I write an article on say 5 ways to make money online, and it doesn’t rank well, then decide to write a new article on say the same topic, but 10 and not 5 ways, then i can link the old article to the new one and give it some extra juice. I’ve done this before and it works, particularly better though if your original article was getting traffic, but either way, it will be fine, again as long as the content on the new article is unique.
Also one last thing I want to say is regarding your article title which you said isn’t doing well. There’s a few problems I see, one of which is the title that doesn’t really make sense. I would try one of strategies I listed and changing it to something easier to read. This is also a keyword which has a lot competition and I take it your site doesn’t quite have the giant authority it needs to rank higher for these types of terms. These reasons would logically explain why that post isn’t getting higher in the rankings, but it doesn’t mean it won’t get better though.
Hi Vitaliy,
You’ve really provided some useful tips in order to get content ranked. I’ve got an existing website but am struggling to get ranked on the first few pages of google for my keywords. I’m going to implement your strategies going forward.
I have one question for you. Suppose someone follows these steps correctly for a new blog post on their website, how long would it take them to get indexed in Google?
Thanks for sharing,
Tej
Hi Tej, it depends on the authority of the site. An index generally happens within a few days for newer sites and hours for well established ones. Ranking high however can take a lot longer.