All posts by Rawat

SEO

7 SEO MISTAKES THAT WILL HURT YOUR WEBSITE’S RANKINGS

There is a lot of pressure to develop the best site to beat the competition with newer websites sprouting every day, and strong brands dominating the internet as regards domain authority.

If you feel stranded on whether or not to pursue SEO, consider analyzing your competitors to find out how much keenness they lay on optimization which renders them number one on SERP for most search terms.

The goal is to iron out the few errors you might be making in SEO which have an impact on your website’s ranking on search engines. Here are some of the top seven mistakes to resolve:

1.      Improper use of keywords

Optimizing your web pages for the wrong keywords means that you do not satisfy the conveyed need as depicted in people’s searches. What happens when you optimize for wrong keywords is that you experience a high bounce rate, which communicates to search engines that the audiences did not find your content relevant in their searches.  Keywords are meant to help you respond to customer needs, and if you are not doing this, you are hurting your rankings.

Overusing keywords in a piece of work is as well a common mistake that hurts your SERP. Keyword stuffing shows a poorly researched copy. You do not want to come across as though you are trying too hard, therefore, give a natural flow in befitting keywords in your content.

2.      Duplicate content

Duplicate content is one of the most common mistakes among website owners. The problem with it is that it confuses search engines over which website or web page to index for the duplicate work. You want a particular piece of work to be credited to your website, and with the help of Serpbook.com, rank high on SERP.

Duplication does not only imply having similar content to those on other websites, but also within your content. Audit your site to ascertain that multiple web pages on your website do not coincide as to matters content.

Equally, watch out that your content does not accord to any other piece of work online, lest you land into plagiarism and copyright issues. The solution is to tweak popular niche topics in a unique approach.

3.      Lack of visualization

The traffic flow and click-through rates your content receives will boost your ranking on SERP. This is a century of visual fondness, where people are drawn to things that appeal to them aesthetically. If your web pages are not visually appealing enough, you may be losing out on a vast audience reach.Since wall of words can be boring to read through, visualization comes in handy to break down your content in more digestible segments.

Using images, memes, pictures and photographs, infographics, GIFs and videos, are among the ways to take your content visual. You can as well use blocked formats and quotes in portions of your content, coupled with a difference in font type and size, to give your copy a refined edge that will draw people to your work.

4.      Low word count

Most website owners are oblivious to the importance of word count in content generation. Search engines rely on written text to understand what a web page is about and this applies to audiences too.As you transition towards visualization, you may find that incorporating images, infographics and video will pay off. However, the word count in a piece of work matters. The appropriate number of words recommended for use in a copy is 1000 words, which are enough to convey the message and solve people’s queries.

5.      Low user engagement

Optimizing for search engines is great, but optimizing for audiences first is better. The entire point of ranking top is so you can gratify your target audience. Focusing on user engagement allows you to gain a loyal audience base and rank for it.

A high user engagement translates to more click-through rates and massive traffic flow, which is incredible for SERP. Include a comment section on your website as the first step to increasing interaction with your audience. Other ways are creating user-generated content, engaging on social media, introducing giveaways and sweepstakes, among others. Remember, a happy audience is a happy Google.

6.      Failing to submit your website to Google

There is a reason why Google Search Console is a favorite SEO tool. While it is true that Google will eventually find your web pages and index them for search results, you can speed up the process. Signing up for Google Search Console is free and comes with benefits.

Submitting to Google lets you exercise more control over what how you want Google to index your site, and which content to display in search results.

7.      Using dubious links

Link-building is essential in SEO, but, when wrongly done, can have negative impacts on your rankings. Some website owners buy links from web spammers, only to satisfy the link-building requirement.

However, this is a disservice to your site because Google has changed its algorithm and can now detect low-quality links, which might render you penalized and lower your position on SERP. Be steady with the websites you link on your content. You want to build a healthy link structure and enhance a positive, credible reputation.

An SEO campaign may be easy to make, but difficult to implement. In any case, once you make an effort to rectify these common SEO mistakes, you can rest assured that your SEO efforts are paying off.

Web Development

HOW TO MONETISE YOUR HOBBY BLOG

So, you’ve been running a successful hobby blog for some time now. It gets visitors, it gets engagement and you’re happy with the way things are going. Now, there’s only one thing more you need: some way to earn money from your efforts. If you’re considering monetising your blog, then you need to take into account your traffic levels and the options you have before you for making money from your hobby blog.

As such, there are a number of ways that you can work to monetise your blog, including:

Adsense

One of the easiest ways to start monetising your blog is through something known as Google AdSense. The search giant sells a number of different ‘clicks’ to advertisers and marketers. This can be the first result for a given keyword or even the appearance of ads on certain websites, this is called pay per click (PPC) advertising. And Google will pay you to be one of the websites that hosts these ads, so long as people genuinely click through from your site.

It’s a fairly simple concept, but can be a great way to make money from your hobby blog. All you have to do is apply for an AdSense account and you will be given a code, this can then be installed on your site (via a widget if you have WordPress) to show the ads. The whole process is fairly simple and can have you earning money from your blog in days.

Add a Donate Button

Asking your readers to donate directly might seem like a bold thing to do, but plenty of privately run blogs employ this method of fundraising–’buy me a coffee’. Hosting your own blog costs money, no matter how you host it, so asking for something to support this yearly cost can be completely understandable. You may not make much from this method, but perhaps enough to cover running costs potentially. The more traffic your blog gets the likelier this becomes.

A button is by no means an instant way to make lots of money, but it can be a great way to secure some level of funds.

Sell a Service

If ad space or asking for donations doesn’t fit with your blog, then you could always try selling something outright. On a writing blog, for example, it makes sense to then sell your writing as a service. The same idea can apply to a number of different blog types, like with a technology blog you could advertise your app developer services. You just have to work out the best service to fit your hobby blog in particular.

And if a service isn’t quite the right fit, then you may be able to sell other things via your blog. Products or even advertising things like your very own ebook (on the topic of your hobby blog) are also a viable way to make money via the blog. Not only can you make the banners for these on your site, but you can dedicate full pages/blogs to try to plug these to your readers. When first trying to monetise, this can be one of the easiest ways to do so.

Affiliate Marketing

One of the most lucrative ways for you to start earning money via your blog is through affiliate marketing. This is fairly simple, as all you have to do is advertise a product on your blog. If people then buy this product via your blog, you will earn some of the profits from this venture.

The commissions from affiliate marketing vary widely, from product to product. So you may find your earnings restricted from the topic or context of your blog. If you don’t want to go out and find your own affiliates, then there are plenty of programs you can join–such as Amazon Associates.
If you have a decent-sized following, then this can certainly be a great way to successfully way to earn a profit via your hobby blog.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, monetising your hobby blog can depend on a number of factors. Your niche, the size of traffic on your site and even the tone of your blog can all have an effect. But, overall, monetizing your blog isn’t necessarily the hardship that you might expect it to be. Your hobby blog can easily become a small earner for a little bit of extra pocket money, if nothing else. Just make sure you choose the best monetization method to suit it!