What’s more important than consuming all that information is to focus on just the good information – just the accurate information that is relevant to creating a great blog. And when we do that, we realize that actually, it is a lot easier than you probably think.

• The Mistake – Mistaken or misguided SEO is all about trying to hack Google. It’s all about trying to trick Google into thinking your site is a top authority, by building specific links and by posting keywords. It’s highly technical because it is based on algorithms and ‘systems’ thinking.
• And sometimes this works! But then Google gets wind of whatever new technique is all the rage, it plugs that loophole and the related site gets penalized.
• So instead focus on the same thing that Google is focused on: the user. Stop writing ‘for’ the search engines and write ‘for’ the readers. When you do this, you are doing what Google wants you to do. Google wants to provide useful and entertaining information for its users. And if you get this right, then eventually Google is going to reward you with future updates.

• The Most Important Trick – Write long, high-quality blog posts. If you do this, you will get people to your site naturally and they will link to your site because they want to share the excellent content they are seeing.
• At the same time, you also do need to build those links. The thing we do need to take from SEO strategies is that the best links are the ones that come from the most highly regarded websites. These sites are invariably the ones that Google trusts – and if you want to see which sites Google trusts you can just take a look at the sites it features in its news section. Other popular sites are those that have a .edu TLD or a .gov.
• Finally, big brands will also invariably be trusted by Google. If you can get links from those sites, they will boost the credibility of your site by a huge margin. If you can’t, you need to get links from sites that have links from those sites.

Put these tips into practice to see the best return on your blog posting and marketing efforts.

The post Bloggers: Good Search Engine Optimization is Key appeared first on Second Self Virtual Assistance.

Getting maximum website traffic doesn’t mean you have to completely remake your website. Great content and a winning marketing strategy will only get you so far. A poorly designed website will restrict your success.

Google believes in high-quality website design and function. Their standards ensure its visitors have the best possible experience with their searches. If your website is slow and poorly designed, visitors will leave quickly and Google won’t give you a high ranking.

How do you manage your website so it brings more traffic and ranks higher in the search engine? Here are 5 tips for maximum website traffic:

Compress Images – To lower your website’s load times, compress your images. WordPress websites can use plugins such as Smush and WP Optimize. These plugins will shrink the file sizes of your images which will, in turn, speed up the amount of time it takes for your pages to load.

Remove Unused Plugins – Does your website include plugins that you aren’t currently using? Getting rid of these unused plugins is another way to improve your site’s speed. Unused and plugins that are not updated are a magnet for hackers. Download only the plugins you’ll use and get rid of the rest.

Build Your Brand – Brand your website with your personal or company logo. Use your brand’s colors and font throughout your site. A strong brand helps communicate to your visitors what your website is all about. It also helps Google see that you are a serious business person.

Create Internal Links – Internal links help Google organize your content and improve indexing. Your visitors will stay on your site longer as they smoothly move from one page to another. Internal links have a very positive impact on your SEO.

Lead Your Visitors – Show your visitors what you want them to do next. Visual clues will lead your visitors to the action you want them to take. For example, if you’re working on lead generation, lead your visitors to the “thing of value” that you want them to sign up for.

Using these five tips for maximum website traffic will get you started on the road to more visitors and better search engine ranking.

BONUS ALERT! Get your free 101 Free Website Traffic Ideas. It’s ready for your immediate download!

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To make your site as successful as possible, you need to know how to add “Google Juice”, commonly known as SEO (search engine optimization) to your blog posts and articles.

What does an SEO blog post or article look like? It’s written with search engine optimization at the forefront. This doesn’t mean keyword stuffing. It means a balance between being good for Google’s algorithm and makes sense for your readers. While both are important, the reader should always be considered first.

Google wants to provide quality information to its users. In doing the same for your readers, you will ultimately have the same goals as Google. And, Google is more likely to promote your articles and posts.

Below is an example of how a well-optimized website can rank on Google. When real estate support services is typed in a Google search, the paid ads come up first. The website listed third has been “selected” by Google to be first in their organic searches. That means the site is deemed most helpful to anyone searching that term.

Steps You Need to Take

• Research and Implement Keywords – Choose the keywords you want to use in your post. Use a free keyword research tool like Wordtracker. The keyword you enter will tell you how many times your keyword has been researched, what phrases were used in the search, suggested keywords, and other helpful information. Choosing a word because it’s popular and yet fails to actually answer your reader’s question will lead to a disappointed reader and a higher bounce rate. (Leaving the article immediately.)

How to Effectively Include Keywords in Your Content

• Keyword density should be 0.5 – 2″ for every 50 to 200 words
• Use keywords naturally in your articles
• Include keywords in the opening paragraph, the last paragraph, and in your headers.
• Add keywords to your alt tags and meta descriptions (images)
• Maintain your website. Be sure it loads quickly, is well designed, and is mobile-friendly.

Use these simple tips to add Google Juice to your blog posts and other content. Your articles will be found easier by readers because Google is able to find them in a search.

Can’t find time to write your blog posts? We’ve got you covered. Just complete the form below and we’ll give you a call.

The post Adding Google Juice to Your Blog Posts appeared first on Second Self Virtual Assistance.

There are tons of articles written about how to get traffic to your website. That’s a start. But getting those visitors to return to your website is equally, if not more, important.

Repeat traffic helps with ad impressions, metrics, and search engine ranking. It’s worth even more when it comes to sales and conversions. Repeat visitors are more likely to come back to your website because they find value in your brand.

Quality and Value

The key to quality and high-value content is good content marketing. It’s likely your visitors will find your website by searching on Google. If their experience on your website is positive, they will start recognizing the brand and know where to find you on their return visit.

Well-optimized website content will score high in the search engine rankings. This helps bring visitors to your site through search terms.

Voice Activated Searches

According to SEJ Search Engine Journal, leading research firms are predicting that somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of all searches will be conducted via voice by 2020.

To optimize your website for voice-activated searches:

• Optimize your business listing
• Speed up your website
• Focus on asking and answering questions
• Test your search on various devices and see what results are generated

Tips to Follow

Use these quick tips to help gain repeat traffic:

• Develop a strong and recognizable brand
• Frequently and consistently post quality content.
• Include your brand in the SEO title
• Create a sense of community
• Incentivize return visits
• Encourage your social media following to visit your website

When it comes to social media be seen everywhere. Have a strong brand on every platform and post to all of them as frequently as you can. Social media provides a way to stay in touch with your visitors even after they’ve left your site. It’s a great way to continually draw them back to your website.

By doing these things, your visitors will remember your site, find it easily, and return often.

Another interesting post:

Google Voice Search: A Game Changer

The post Repeat Traffic: How to Get Visitors to Return to Your Website appeared first on Second Self Virtual Assistance.

Content development walks a fine line between making sense to your readers and getting good SEO ranking from Google.  Your readers want valuable content that is easy to follow and understand.  Google wants optimized content that can be intelligently indexed.

Content that satisfies your reader is enjoyable and provides content they can understand.  When your reader is happy with your content, they will return again and again to see what else you have to offer.  This builds their trust and your authority.

Content that is written for search engines can be risky.  You may write an article that the search engines like.  However, you could lose your readership by writing it in a way that doesn’t make sense to them.

Can your content satisfy both your readers and Google at the same time?

I think you can.  Years ago, in order to write content that ranked better in the search engines, writers stuffed their articles with keywords and phrases. This repetition made Google’s algorithms happy.  It was a great way to get a higher ranking in the search engines.  It did, however, sacrifice the reader’s enjoyment of the article or post.  Many times it sounded more like gibberish than intelligent information.  In the end, it did little to build a reader’s trust.

Google caught on to the keyword manipulation and updated their algorithms.  They also threw a lot of otherwise good articles into the Google dungeon.  It was a long crawl back up.

Looking at Google search now, you will notice that when you type in your search term, synonymous words show up below the search box.  They basically suggest content they think you’re looking for.  When writing your articles, use related search terms naturally throughout.  This will help your articles to flow with logical sentences and more than likely give you a better ranking.

The Take-Away

Google is looking for high quality content.  The articles with keywords and related keywords get the highest search engine ranking.  They want to ensure that when a keyword or phrase is typed into their search box, only the best articles show up first.

As a content developer, your goal is to write articles that fit into Google’s algorithm while making them enjoyable and informative for your readers.

The post Can Your Content Satisfy Your Readers and Google at the Same Time? appeared first on Second Self Virtual Assistance.

Knowing where your traffic is coming from is vital to increasing it.  There are tons of tools online that will show you where your website traffic is coming from, what they looked at and how long they stayed on your site.  To learn more about your entire digital marketing campaigns, Google still remains the best resource.

3 Free Google Tools to Track Your Website Traffic

Google Analytics – This is the most recognizable of Google tools.  It gives you a detailed analysis of your website.  Analyze where your traffic is coming from, what keywords are used to find your site and what pages your visitors are most interested in.

Google Analytics is easy to install and provides a wealth of information for marketing your business.  The dashboard has been improved to give you an “at a glance” picture of how your site is performing.

Google Webmaster Tools – Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics make a great combo.  In addition to identifying where your traffic is coming from, webmaster tools also provides a clearer picture of your site’s health, site optimization and site settings.

Google provides tutorials for Google Webmaster Tools.

Google Trends – Google Trends is another great tool for finding traffic sources and staying on top of trending keywords.  This helps you decide which trending keywords will fit your website or social media networking sites.  Google Trends will show you if the keywords you’re using are getting traffic.

Why do I prefer Google tools?  

#1 reason is that it’s a Google product.  They know what they’re looking for in order for your site to rank higher in the search engines.

#2 reason is that they offer free tutorials to teach us how to use their tools to rank higher in the search engines.

#3 reason is that most of their tools are free.  There are many services that will help you with your SEO for a fee.  Google does this without charge.

Try these 3 free Google tools.  See how they improve your marketing performance and website traffic.

Get even more ideas for getting website traffic by downloading my free e-list of 101 Free Website Traffic Ideas.

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Question:  What tools do you use to increase your site’s performance and ranking?

The post Do You Know Where Your Traffic is Coming From? appeared first on Second Self Virtual Assistance.

Social media is a great tool for increasing traffic to your website.  Time and strategy play an important part in your success.  Putting a plan in place and then consistently working your plan will increase your presence, building a solid foundation of trusting followers.

Those of us who are of a certain age remember the  shampoo commercial in the ’70’s.  The idea behind it was that you would be so happy with their product that you would tell one person, who would tell another person and so on.  You can give a lot of life to your website using social media. Building your social presence will have one person telling another person who will tell someone else. The only thing you need to do is to consistently invest the time.

Here’s Some Important Ways to Increase Website Traffic Using Social Media

Utilize all Facebook Options – Along with sharing posts and pictures on your Facebook page, check often for new options and improvements.  At least once a week, check your page to see what you can do to improve your visibility and drive visitors to your website.  Add your Facebook feed to your Twitter account.

Twitter is Your Town Crier – The Twitter feed moves fast.  So, post there often; several times a day is absolutely acceptable.  Posting the same thing more than once a day is also an acceptable practice.  Add your Twitter feed to your website.

Don’t Forget to Pin – Pinterest is a social networking platform based on the exchange of information through images.  Grow your audience by creating boards and adding pins.  Be social by linking and sharing other people’s pins.  This is a great place to post listings, virtual tours and blog post links.  The secret to your success on Pinterest is to use a keyword-rich description and link back to your website, listing or post.

Is Google+ Going Anywhere? – Google+ provides a great potential for reaching a large audience by linking your published content back to your website pages and posts.  There have been longtime rumors that G+ is on its way out.   In September 2016, Google+ had 375 million monthly users with 30% of them using a mobile app to access it.  40% of users are marketing a product or service and 70% of all brands have a presence there.  I don’t think they’re going anywhere right now.  The potential for getting more website traffic growth can be phenomenal.

Utilizing these social media platforms with good content which is optimized and linked back to your website will help increase traffic.  It also builds relationships and trust with your followers.  Give at least one social media platform your full attention and see what happens.

The post Easily Get More Eyeballs on Your Website Using Social Media appeared first on Second Self Virtual Assistance.

Finding the Best Domain Name for Your Real Estate Business

As a Realtor®, you should own a branded website.  Choosing a domain name for that site  is more important than you might think.  It helps you build your brand, promotes trust and legitimacy while gaining better search engine ranking.  Deciding on the best domain name for your business requires research and strategy.

Important Steps Before Choosing a Domain

• Write down keywords relative to your target area; Los Angeles, Bay Area, etc.

• Decide on keywords that are applicable to your site; real estate, home search, home sales, luxury homes, apartment rentals, beach homes, etc.

• Build your brand.  Find a domain name that matches your brand name.  For instance, if your brand name is XYZ Real Estate, try to purchase a domain with XYZ Real Estate in it.

Your Domain May Not be Available

It may not always be possible to find the exact domain name you want.  If your chosen domain name is taken, see if there’s a reasonable alternative using hyphenated text.  Search engines will still be able to “see” your keywords.  Hyphens do have a downside, though. They’re harder to remember and easier for visitors to forget to use.

Another Alternative

If .com is taken, check to see if  another extension is available such as .net, .info, .online, .properties, etc.  Using an extension other than .com could help you stand out.  Internet users will naturally add .com to a URL.  So, be sure to stress the alternative extension to be sure the correct one is used.

Checking for Availability

Go to a site like GoDaddy or Second Self Hosting (shameless plug).  Type your chosen domain in the search box.  You will be told whether or not the domain name is available.  If it’s not available, try using a different extension or keyword.  Add a descriptive word such as “resource” or “experienced”.

Choosing the correct domain name for your business is very important.  It describes your brand, your area and the relative nature of what your business is about.  It also can make huge difference in your search engine ranking.

The post How to Find the Best Domain Name for Your Real Estate Business appeared first on Second Self Virtual Assistance.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is not a sexy topic.  It can be downright boring and confusing. Whatever “position” you take, a lot of it has to do with SEO terminology.  If you understand what the basic terminology means, it will help you gain a fuller understanding of how to use it to your benefit.

Here’s some sexy-free, just the facts, search engine optimization terms.

• Organic Traffic – Basically, organic traffic is the traffic your site gets when someone types your search term into a Google search.  Go to your Google Analytics account.  You’ll be able to click on the Acquisition Overview.  This graphic will show you where your traffic is coming from.

• Title Tag – This is the title of your page.  The title should be consistent with your the page’s content.  When you’re on the page, it will appear at the top bar of your browser.  It’s also how your page will be seen in the search engines.

• Meta Description – Meta tags are the snippet of keyword-rich text, under 160 characters, that describes your page content. Search engines use this information to learn what the page is about.  In the graphic above, it’s the description text in grey under the URL.

• Image Tags – Often referred to as an “alt” or alternative tag, they’re used to describe an image.  Search engines don’t read images.  By adding an alt tag to the image, the search engines will be able to read what that image is about.  To better understand, mouse over an image on a post or page.  The alt tag is the text that pops up to describe the image.

• Hyperlinks – Hyperlinks are either attached to text or images.  When clicked, it will lead you to an outside page or website or to another post or page within your own site.

This is an example of  hyperlinked text.  An image can be hyperlinked in much the same way.

An internal link takes you from one post or page within your site.  An external link takes you to a site outside of your website.  It’s always best to have your hyperlinked text or image open in a new window when it leads to another website.

• Spiders – Spiders are the robots (or bots) that are used to locate and index your site’s pages and posts.  As the software scans your site, it follows links from one page to the another and indexes pages as it goes.  Checking your text and image links on a consistent basis is imperative to better search engine ranking.  Use a broken link checker plugin so you can be notified when a broken link has been found.

• Keywords – Keyword density is how often your keyword appears on a page or post in relation to how many words are on the page.  If it appears too much, the search engines will consider it “keyword stuffing”.  In a minimum 300 word page or post, using your keyword 3 times is good.

These are just seven of the terms you’ll find in search engine optimization.  By knowing what they are and how they affect your search engine ranking, you’ll be better able to optimize your posts and pages.

The post Sexy-Free Search Engine Optimization appeared first on Second Self Virtual Assistance.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

One of the easiest ways to increase your web traffic is to decrease your bounce rate.  Google defines a bounce rate as one of the most misunderstood metrics in Google analytics.  Here’s their definition:

Bounce rate is the percentage of single page visits (or web sessions). It is the number of visits in which a person leaves your website from the landing page without browsing any further.

One of the factors Google looks at when deciding your site’s position in the search engine rankings is bounce rate.  A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are entering a page, usually your homepage, and exiting quickly.  According to TechWyse, search engines rate your bounce rate as follows:

• Awful – 80%-100%
• Bad – 55% to 80%
• Average – 40% – 55%
• Good – 26% – 40%
• Very Good – 0% – 25%

You want people to be able to find what they’re looking for quickly.  However, you also want them to stay on your site as long as possible.  To keep people on your site – and lower your bounce rate – you want to keep them engaged in your content.

Here’s a few things you can do to decrease your site’s bounce rate:

• Pop-Ups –  Many people find pop-ups annoying and will leave any site that has them.  If your pop-up covers the visitor’s computer screen, they may not realize they can click out of it.  Remove all distractions.

• Navigation – Create easy-to-follow intuitive navigation.  Name the tabs on your menu with names that make sense.  Use keywords when appropriate.  Segment the information on your website.  Choose clearly defined topics and build your pages and navigation accordingly.  For instance, if you’re setting up a Property Search menu, only pages related to that topic should be included in that drop down menu.

• Web Design – A clean, uncluttered website makes it easier for people to find what they’re interested in.  Page load speed is important.  Google has a PageSpeed Insights tool analyzing your site’s speed and showing you how to fix issues.  Make sure your site is mobile-friendly.  Use text links.  Add descriptive alt text and links to graphics and photos.

Search engine ranking includes many important factors.  Your bounce rate is one of them.  Do everything you can to decrease your bounce rate.

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