Category: SEO

When it comes to search engine optimization, the first thing that many of us tend to think of is good old text. Keywords, subheadings, using backlinks, they all relate to the text that we’re using on our websites each day. However, video can be just as (if not more important) than text for your website’s SEO. 

Think about the most visited websites in the entire world. Google is, of course, the top dog since it’s the most popular search engine in the world, but its subsidiary YouTube is the second most visited page on the planet. That’s because, more and more, people are looking to get their content in the form of shorter videos. This is another reason why apps like Vine or TikTok became popular in the first place, as well.

Adding videos to your website creates organic growth that boosts your SEO rankings tenfold. Not only will your website be more prominently featured on the catch-all page for Google searches, but you’ll also pop up in the videos tab when someone’s looking to get their content that way.  

Many might be apprehensive to make short-form videos for their website despite the improved search engine optimization. However, analytics say that those who watch one video are more likely to not only stay on the website longer but even more likely to make a purchase. Apprehension can also come from the desire to make videos. Many believe that it’s too time-consuming and can be expensive, but videos can be made quickly, cheaply, and easily to help boost your SEO.

There’s plenty of free video editing software to be found, and you can create as many videos as you want. Some websites are even making videos for every single one of their pages or blog posts, even if it’s just something simple like using text-to-speech because of the impact videos have on SEO. At the end of the day, you never have to step in front of a camera or come up with a detailed script while still getting videos on your site.

The big thing that you’ll have to look out for when adding videos to your website is the impact it has on loading times. In some cases, videos can severely increase these times, which leads to a knock against your SEO. Make sure you’re using Google Analytics to keep an eye on these load times, and the webmaster tool they have available also gives you pointers on how to upload videos to reduce these load times.

The next important aspect of using your video content for SEO is to make sure you have the right thumbnail. You’re much more likely to click on a video that has a clear thumbnail with text and a still image compared to a screen capture that was automatically taken and can show blurriness. Make your thumbnail look as professional as possible, and adding your website’s name or logo to the thumbnail goes a long way in creating brand recognition and search engine optimization.

It was no accident that Google acquired YouTube, as videos make up a big part of the search engine algorithm. When you’re browsing on YouTube, most of the suggestions that you’ll end up getting have professional-looking thumbnails. There was a time when YouTube created a thumbnail for you, but thankfully you can upload whatever image you want to be that thumbnail for every video.

Finally, don’t be afraid to use outside help. Making videos can be simple, but making ones that will catch the eyes of millions via search engines isn’t so easy. A professional can make sure that your videos have all of the content you need, while also looking world-class to help attract attention. While it might not be your first thought, even enlisting the help of influences can help drive web traffic tremendously.

When it comes to writing content, the one thing you want to avoid above all else is plagiarism. In some countries, plagiarism is considered a serious crime that can even result in jail time. While that’s not the case in most of the world, it can still hurt your website to the point where you’re hardly getting any web traffic.

Search engine optimization is the biggest driver of web traffic. Is there a direct link between plagiarism on a website and a decline in search engine results appearing for web browsers? There are a lot of varying factors, and we’re going to take a look at some of those, as well as how your website can be impacted.

Not All Plagiarism is Equal

When we think of plagiarism, we tend to think about copying and pasting someone’s work. That, of course, is the most blatant form of plagiarism and will have your website to lose credibility and its place in search engine results almost instantly. Then, there are those that want to be as careful as possible and never use someone’s quotations. However, quotations can be a very useful tool, and it’s not plagiarism if you’re giving credit to the person who said the quote.

Naturally, there is going to be some overlap in content, especially when it comes to keywords. If you’re operating a website that sells lawnmowers in, say, Kansas City, Missouri, you’re going to have the same keywords pop up as someone that does the same. Having “best Kansas City lawnmower business” while another website has the same is not plagiarism, it’s simply two businesses using SEO keywords.

Call to Action

When you’re performing search engine optimization on your website, one thing that should always be present is a call to action. This is where you have a hyperlink toward the top or bottom of a post, leading to a page where potential customers can contact you or find out more information. 

These are great SEO tools to have at your disposal, but you have to be careful. Ones that are simply copied and pasted from your other posts could potentially hurt your SEO, but in a way that you might not think. If you use the exact same paragraph every time, there’s likely no penalty, but tweaking it just a little bit a few times can be a negative. Try to come up with a call to action that’s natural every single time and try to use it in a sentence that doesn’t look out of place.

Paraphrasing is Your Friend

As we mentioned earlier, having overlapping content is going to happen no matter how much you try to avoid it. Your website can only talk about so many things, and there are likely several other web pages at the very least talking about the same things. Because of this, it’s important to paraphrase when posting instead of plagiarising completely. While there are tools that can do this for you automatically, you’ll feel much better when coming up with your own words on your website.

You Could Lose Money

In most cases, plagiarising someone’s content will simply get you knocked down the search engine results rankings. However, there are some situations in which you could actually be sued, especially if the work was copyrighted. That’s another big reason to avoid plagiarism, but there’s another way that plagiarism could cost you money that’s even worse.

If your work isn’t copyrighted, someone could just as easily take it as their own. Because of this, there have been a lot of larger websites that have ripped off content from smaller web pages and passed it along as their own. Knowing that there’s very limited legal action that you can take and seeing your web page drop down the rankings even though you didn’t do anything wrong can be demoralizing. 

Almost everybody has looked for a specific phrase or topic in a search engine and clicked on the first result that popped up. Because of this, there has been a massive push by all websites to focus on SEO, or search engine optimization. Your website may be the best at what it does, but it might not be the first result on Google, Bing, etc.

To make sure that you’re getting the web traffic that you deserve, it’s important to make sure that you’re using the right tools for the job. Thankfully, there are plenty of SEO tools to increase traffic, drive business and get your website to the top of the search results. Here are the ones that you should start using right away.

5. Keyword Hero

Perhaps above all, the most important aspect of search engine optimization is making sure that you have the proper keyword usage on your website. Even if you think you’re covering all of your bases, there may be some ways to boost your website’s SEO with keywords even further. That’s where tools like Keyword Hero come in.

Keyword Hero gathers data and places it into a learning algorithm to optimize the keywords on your page so that they perform better in search engine results. A lot of businesses might be apprehensive because they believe that the updated keywords may negate their previous SEO work, but it won’t affect it, thankfully.

4. Bing Webmaster Tools

A search engine itself, Bing has a system called Webmaster Tools that allow website owners to tweak their search engine optimization to match what their engine is looking for when it comes to search results. Bing Webmaster Tools rely on four important categories, starting with backlinks and keyword research. 

From there, you can get an SEO report that shows where your website could use improvement and error correction. It’s a great tool for those on the go who want to scan their site quickly to make instant changes.

3. SEMRush

SEMRush is a catch-all subscription tool that allows you to get a broad look at how your website performs. SEMRush offers analytics for all of your competitors, while also looking at keywords, organic traffic, backlinks, and more. 

The keyword tool may be the most appealing part of SEMRush, as you’re able to automatically insert keywords where they could fit naturally, and you’ll also get a score as to how well your current keywords are being used and your website’s readability. It can be quite the “rush” to see how your website moves up the search engine rankings, as there’s a tool that tracks your position.

2. Google Analytics

Just like Bing, Google has its own analytics tool that helps you to climb the rankings of its own search engine. Naturally, Google has all of the information regarding Google searches that some other SEO tools might not have. Because of this, Google shows you exactly what you can tweak to make sure that your website is popping up on the front page of searches.

Google Analytics measures how many people are visiting your site each day, the conversion rate, revenue, and the average time of each browsing session, just to name a few of its perks. This is also one of the easier SEO tools to use, too, making it even more appealing.

1. Ahrefs

Though not the biggest name in SEO, Ahrefs is used by some of the biggest companies in the world. Ahrefs offers an audit for your website to see how the SEO is performing, and then matches it up against competitors and puts you into a ranking similar to SEMRush. 

From there, you can see what suggested content you should add to enhance SEO performance, and insert new keywords to your website. Like Google, Ahrefs has an easy user interface to navigate and is perfect for people of all SEO experience.