Guest Blogging: What About It Pisses The Giant Off?

When it comes to Google and its guidelines, there is hardly anything that the giant takes lightly. So, when the chief of Google’s ‘Webspam’ came out with the statement “ guest blogging is done’, there was discontent and mummer in the blogging community. This was way back in 2014.

Later, in 2017, Google came out with another announcement. It was a warning against the misuse of guest blogging.

So What Exactly is Guest Blogging? And Why Doesn’t Google Like People Using It The Way They Have?

To find the answer, we first need to know how guest blogging works and how it is used to hoodwink Google’s algorithms.

Since the internet exploded, there were all sorts of methods utilised by companies to reach out to their target audience. Advertisement changed its form. A subtle way of marketing started evolving. Dissemination of product info through web articles became the new way of reaching the target audience. 
 

In the scenario, bloggers became the new celebrities. Internet articles talked about everything under the sun. Blogs were now being used as an SEO(Search Engine Optimisation) service. Links to websites were being used in blogs to increase the SEO rating of websites.

Why Does Google Have a Problem With It?

The real problem arises out of the misuse of guest blogging as an SEO tool. Blogs were meant for information to be shared by bloggers with their followers and increase the information available on the internet. However, with guest blogging, they were being used as tools to improve the ratings of websites and share links on Google; specific keywords were used again and again in the blogged articles, without regard for the quality or relevance of the content. This is why Google made the statement that guest blogging is done.

Is it the End of Guest Blogging?

Well, the answer is not as simple as a ‘yes or ‘no’. According to Google guidelines, there is nothing wrong with guest blogging. Then what pushed the company to warn against it? The misuse.

Using guest blogging as a means to increase your reach is easy and good. However, certain things need to be kept in mind when using it to ensure your website does not end up on Google’s radar.

So, How To Use Guest Blogging Without Pissing Google Off?

Write relevant and informative articles on your blog. Forget misusing blogs for sharing links to various websites for their benefit. Instead, focus on the content and the relevance it has to the audience being targeted; emphasise on the usefulness of this information.

The blog should add something to the existence of the web and the search engine; not be just another piece of marketing being used to take advantage of Google’s algorithm.

Check the Trustworthiness of Sites Before Getting in Bed With Them.

Check whether the sites you are writing for are relevant and trustworthy enough to warrant the effort. There are many sites out there that are not listed on Google or have very low ratings because of misuse of SEO. Enter the user name.doamainname.com on Google to see if the site is listed there. If it does, it means that they are listed and rated by Google.

Look for Curated Sites.

Sites that are curated by individuals have much better quality content, and are listed high on Google ratings. Look for such sites to get your content published. Curated sites will also help you quality check your work and make sure that whatever you produce is impeccable.

Don’t Overuse Keywords.

Keywords are good. They keep your content aligned with the areas they make additions to, making them relevant and easier to find. But, the overuse of keywords is not good. In fact, from time to time, Google and other search engines warn against the overuse of keywords as they not only relegate the content but also decrease its eligibility.

Use Anchor Text Properly.

Avoid using matching anchor words for too many links. If you use the same anchor text for far too many links, it will increase your rating but might also bring you into Google's cross-hairs. So avoid it.

Be Original.

Try not to mass produce or reproduce articles. There have been instances where campaigns of mass-produced articles have been launched to increase ratings. Don’t fall into the trap. It may get you to your short term goals but in the long term will diminish not just your credibility but also your ratings. Re-sharing an article for a different target audience after editing is acceptable, but doing it in bulks is neither ethical nor beneficial.

Use Blogging for What It is; Not For Misuse.

Use blogging and guest blogging for what it’s meant- sharing of information, and not as a tool for SEO service in India. Write articles relevant to your audience and keep the content clean and good. Also, follow the guidelines set by Google to avoid any action by the giant against you.

So, in essence, Google is not against guest blogging; even its guidelines allow it. But, what isn’t allowed is the misuse, which technically should be the case with most things but sadly isn’t. Therefore, the life of guest blogging now depends on how it is used and what Google may think is necessary to control its misuse.

How Can Your E-Commerce Website Benefit From SEO?

The internet was made to facilitate communication. It made communication easier, faster, and better. What changed the internet forever were search engines. After search engines were made, the internet was no longer a mode of simple communication. It became a library that had every answer. The work of the search engine is to provide solutions to its users with ease. A user searches for a keyword, and the search engine tries to reciprocate through the most relevant results to help the user. 

However, how does the search engine manage these results? How are they retrieved and listed? Understanding the answers to all these questions is important if you wish for your webpages to be ranked in search results.

SEO can be the key to increase sales on your e-commerce website. How? Online business functions on conversion. For example, when a visitor on your website buys a product, s/he converts from a visitor into a customer. The first step towards increasing sales is increasing the number of visitors. 

Good SEO practices will help you do that. SEO is the process of optimising your webpages in a manner that they rank in search results. How is this done? Search engines use crawlers to go through webpages and index them. Hence, if a crawler can understand your content, navigate effectively through your website, and finds the content relevant, you can expect to be indexed and ranked.

Below are answers to questions you might have regarding SEO.

What to Do With Pages With No Unique Content?

There are a few pages that contain little information other than a picture. This makes it difficult for the search engine to understand what the page is about. Remember, the most important factor is that the users and search engine crawlers should understand what the content is about. 

In this case, the possible solution is to add content to the most popular product pages. This will increase the chances of getting the best pages ranked on search results.

However, it is not possible to produce text for 100,00 different products. In this case, what one can do is strengthen the product categories. If you are successful in strengthening the product’s parent category and improve internal linking through breadcrumbs, the results should be satisfactory. 

The key is to have a simple and efficient architecture. One more solution is to use user-generated content. This will rectify the possibility of content duplication; it will also boost sales conversion.

How to User-Generated Content?

The two direct benefits of user-generated content are better conversion rates and content uniqueness. User-generated content can be incorporated by building a community of happy users. This can be done by publishing reviews and sharing blog posts from happy customers. Another solution is to integrate social media with product pages. They provide ‘social proof’. 

This type of content will testify that people are happy with the product. If used smartly, user-generated content can turn the tide quite easily. It is upon your skill and creativity on how and where to use it. It’s important not to be afraid of honest opinions about your products and services.

How to Handle Category Pages?

Category pages are to be treated like individual home pages. It is essential to add useful and specific content on category pages. Generic content will not yield the best results. Add ons like guest blogging, content marketing, and even paid ads can work well. However, the preferable option is social media. 

One needs to have a strategy while using social media. Think of relevant and specific tags. One more solution is using search-friendly URLs. This technique yields better results, but the search engine is being provided with strong hints on what the webpage is about.

How to Present Product Descriptions from Manufacturers?

The problem is that duplicated content doesn’t work. It has a negative impact on SEO. Now, how do we present manufacturer specifications then? This cannot be done through rewriting as the products can be too many. One way of doing this is by inviting users to produce content. Enable the comments and let users share their views and stories. 

The aim is to personalise the content in accordance with the objective of solving problems. While generating content, the key is to remember that people do not like dull and technical descriptions. It is emotion and feeling that drives people. Hence, bring your product descriptions to life by narratives.

What is the Relation Between SEO and Web Design?

Web design for an e-commerce website is different from other websites. One needs a web designer who specialises in e-commerce websites. It is imperative to plan before you launch your website, not afterwards. Work on your wire-frames and design the process- make attractive category templates and have product pages promote them with internal links. This can prove to be quite effective.

We need to remember that SEO for e-commerce is different from traditional SEO. For e-commerce SEO, one needs a consultant who is skilled in multiple disciplines. One who has an understanding of human psychology, conversion rate optimisation, analytics, web design & development, social media marketing, communication, copywriting, economy, usability, and user experience. Yes, that is needed!It is because SEO specialists need to have a deep insight and understanding of commerce as well as the human mind.

Do you require EcommerceSEO services in India? If you do, we at Recenturesoft provide the most effective solutions. For more information, visit our website.

How Email Marketing Can Help Your Business

 Most people think that email marketing is dead, right? The answer is No. Email marketing is still very much useful. Yes, the ways to use email marketing to aid your business have changed drastically over the years, but the essence is the same that is, to let people know more about your business.

Let us talk about how you can use email marketing in the present time to grow your business.

The Ways Emails Help in Your Marketing are as Follows:

You Can Create More Social Leads:

When you use email as a source to market your services, it creates more leads as more and more people visit your sites. Once you know your genuine audience, send them emails requesting to share your services on different social media sites. It is predicted that Google ranks those website better that have more social shares. Even though it is not a fact yet, but the results sure doe prove it. Your SEO will get an extra boost with social media shares and mentions that can only be requested with emails.

Bounce Rate Can be Reduced:

Bounce rate is defined as the percentage of traffic that views your site just once and then closes it, without clicking or seeing any other page or service on your website. Google looks for the bounce rate for a website while ranking it on the search engine result. The more the bounce rate the worse it will rank on Google.

By creating a mailing list of loyal visitors, you can increase your site's ranking by decreasing the bounce rate. The loyalists will definitely click and take a look at other pages on your website and hence decrease the bounce rate for your website.

You Can Get Better Opinions:

You can ask your customers to review and rate your sites, sending them requesting emails. This is one of the best ways to keep your reviews genuine and positive if you are looking for long term values.

Helps You With Your Content Planning:

The reviews hence generated can be used to develop content according to the customers. It will bring a revolution in your content strategy, and hence will direct your business and services in accordance with the customers’ wants and needs.

Product Marketing Or Service Marketing:

You can directly generate leads on the mails by offering an unmatched service or sale. The products will sell more if the marketing is done correctly and will definitely increase your search engine ranking. Besides all this, you can create emails to market the old products that are not selling well or have performed poorly in the past.

Email marketing is not an old school of forgotten trades; it has just changed its course of things happening in the present. It directly doesn't link to your website's ranking, but it is always helpful in generating organic traffic.

To know more on how to rank better in Google search, you can always contact us at Recenturesoft Infotech Private Ltd. We have evolved ourselves in providing unrivalled SEO Service Company in India and online marketing techniques.
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