Website graders and SEO tools offer website owners and marketers an opportunity to learn what's happening with their site, from site speed to errors and more. But which one is best? How do you know what information matters? Today we're looking at three popular tools: Hubspot's Website Grader, SEMrush's Site Audit Tool, and Google Search Console's error reports.
One of the first search engine optimization tactics you want to implement is to create a sitemap and then submit it to Google. Let's take a look at why you want to do that and how to submit it correctly.
If you are a local business—usually meaning a brick and mortar shop or service provider with a physical location—you can benefit from claiming and updating your Google My Business Page. Google My Business profiles are almost like a second website—a second opportunity to show up in Google’s search results, yet too many businesses leave this opportunity on the table.
For as long as business owners have had a location to hang their sign, they have tried to find more and more ways to get more and more people to buy from them.
What usually happens is that businesses (even experienced marketers) will simply create a punchlist of tactics that they think are important to do — if they do they’ll get sales.
Keeping up with Google can sometimes be tricky—the search engine giant is constantly updating in an effort to improve searcher experience. They are not always forthcoming about what sorts of changes are in the works, nor do they give away any behind-the-scenes info that illuminates why or how they evaluate any one specific thing. Instead, we get the occasional blog post about core updates or changes to Ads, in addition to Q&A sessions with people like John Mueller, Google's Search Advocate, or Danny Sullivan, Search Liaison. Rarely is anything concrete, and sometimes info feels contradictory to best practices or what SEOs actually see in their work.
With more than 2 billion websites in the world and 2 trillion searches a year, Google has its work cut out for them when it comes to connecting users to the information they need. How does it manage all of that? With a complex set of algorithms, of course.
Here's what you need to know about Google's search algorithms and how they impact SEO.
Google Search Console (GSC) is one of the best free tools out there for SEO. In fact, if you only use one tool, let it be this one. That's because Google Search Console is all about organic search. GSC offers insights into impressions and traffic, and it's where you'll see issues Google has identified regarding page speed, AMP, or indexing. And, if you've received a manual penalty, you'll find that out here.
If anyone can write on any topic and post it on the internet, how can readers be assured that what they're reading is true, correct, and/or safe? If someone finds the post via a Google search, there's a good chance the search engine has made sure it's quality content.
The tools you use for web marketing and website management are important, and there are so many of them out there for you to use. Most people find a few that become favorites and typically end up paying for at least one. However, Google offers a variety of tools for free that you should absolutely check out.
SEO used to be a lot easier to do before Google’s search algorithm became as sophisticated as it is today. Couple of keywords here, a few links there, and you were sure to start ranking for some pretty competitive terms.
All that has changed. The problem, however, is that some SEO companies and “professionals” will still practice these tactics in order to see quick results. You know the type: the ones that can “guarantee” you top rankings on Google in 3 months. While these black hat tactics may still work to some degree, the risk of being penalized or de-indexed is a far greater threat to your business than taking a little extra time to rank on Google.
there are a number of ways that businesses work their ways to the top of search engines. Some of these tactics are what you would call “White Hat” SEO tactics. These go along with Google’s terms of service and take the approach of improving a website by focusing on users rather than rankings. Using these tactics can take a bit of time to get your website off the ground, but will garner you long-term results that will make it easier for your customers to find you through search engines. Just remember: "Slow and steady wins the race."
