Optimizing Your Site

- How to Optimise Content for SEO

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SEO appears to be an elusive, ever-changing puzzle, which is partly true because the algorithms used by search engines are constantly changing. 

However, essentially, the goal of search engines is to find the most relevant and helpful content to show you when you search for something.

So the fundamental rules of SEO remain the same. And we’ll use them to guide you through every step of creating and optimising content for your site.

Optimising your content for SEO involves:

  • Creating Excellent, High-Quality Content
  • Proper Use of Relevant Keywords
  • Creating Quality Links
  • Ensuring Mobile Responsiveness

Let’s discuss.

Creating Excellent, High-Quality Content

If you have authentic, high-quality content that contains and offers authentic, one-of-a-kind, information-rich articles and posts, you’re on the right track.

Google’s artificial learning algorithms prefer beneficial, natural content written for the user. And this is because that is what your audience will respond to, and thus that is what search engines will promote.

A lot of content on the internet these days is simply a rehash of existing content, which isn’t very useful. And that type of content will not help your eCommerce site stand out SEO-wise.

So here are the main things you should do to ensure excellent, high-quality content for better SEO.

Write Clear Titles and Headlines for All Pages and Posts

The most important aspect of headlines is to inform people about what they are about to read. If your headline entices users to read more, then that is a bonus but you have to keep this aspect in mind too.

You should only consider inserting keywords into headlines if they sound natural and aid in describing your content.

So to write excellent titles or headlines, these points need  to be kept in mind.

  1. Focus on ensuring clarity and understanding.
  2. See if you can write them in a way that encourages people to go and read the rest of the content.
  3. Try to use your keyword only if it serves clarity and understanding, and proper grammar.
Example:
Consider a website that’s all about cats (cat training, adoption, food, etc.).
And let’s say you’re writing a blog post about teaching a cat to let go and drop whatever it has in its mouth.
A title like “OMG drop that dead mouse!” creates a comedic connection with your audience. But “Train your cat to drop it” can be more effective as a headline.
This is because the latter title contains terms that people are more likely to search.
You can simply push the comedy and relatability into your article’s body. But be sure to lead with a more straightforward and quickly searchable headline.

Create Benefit-Driven or Story-Driven Headings

Headings are like headlines for each section of your entire content. You can find them as the ones in bold throughout this article.

They enable your audience to skim through a longer article.

Also, they allow search engines to effectively detect major themes on your website.

When you’ve finished writing an article, it would be best to go back and review it, only reading the headlines and headings. Then ask yourself “do they aid in driving and highlighting the story?”

Example:
On the “drop it” cat training blog, your headings could be the main training steps (hand the cat a toy / wait / give it a treat when it drops the toy, etc.).
The content under each heading should then explain that step in depth. 
Writing this way, it can be simple for readers to follow the article and quickly refer to the main points during training.

Be Specific With Image Titles, Captions and Alt Text

The primary purpose of image titles, captions and alt text is to assist your visitors in understanding what the image is if it fails to load or if they use a site reader.

Search engines will also use alt text to figure out what the image is about. By doing so, they can display your image in image search results.

So keep descriptions short, natural, and accurate. And as with headlines, only use keywords if they truly help explain.

Example:
cat
“A cat is excited to get a training treat” to describe the above image is better than instead of just using the keywords “cat training.”

Organise Your Content Using Clear Tags & Categories

Tags and categories are both used in WordPress and other website platforms.

Categories organise your posts into broad groups, wcould includedescribe specific details within those posts.

These elements help you sort content for search engines and your audience. They also allow your readers to easily navigate through the topics that are of interest to them.

Example:
For your cat website, categories might include “cat training, cat food and cat exercises.”
On the other hand, tags within the training category couldinclude terms like “sit, come and stay.”
Search engines reward helpful, easy-to-navigate content. So if you organise your categories and tags in a way that they help readers find information conveniently, they become automatically optimised for SEO.

Proper Use of Relevant Keywords

In the old days of SEO, you really had to put effort into using entire keywords in your titles, headings and copy. Keywords were mostly the way search engines would recognise the content of web pages.

Now, Google and other search engines are more intuitive and they can use your content’s organisation and context to understand what it is about.

Here are things you need to keep in mind when using keywords in your content for SEO.

Keep Things Natural

Use the words that people are using to discuss your topic – those that sound appropriate for your company, your readership, and your style of writing.

If you’re not sure what words people are using, search for them on forums or use online tools to find and compare trending terms.

Example:
For your cat website, you may consider using the keyword “cat training” because it feels natural.
But could “cat obedience” be better for search?
With a quick look at Google Trends, you can see that “cat training” is a more popular search term.
Its interest over time has been at a steady high compared to the steady low of cat obedience. It means people use the keyword cat training way more often than the other when they are looking for answers or information.
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You may want to use the following platforms.

When you find the proper keywords to use, avoid keyword stuffing in your content.

Keyword stuffing is the deliberate repetitive use of keywords in an attempt to boost SEO. But it doesn’t work because Google and other search engines can quickly sense if your content is only spamming keywords without the backing of relevant, quality content.

So see to it that you use keywords very naturally and ensure that you don’t use the same terms again and again. Mix things up with synonyms if you have to.

Remember that if your words sound unnatural, they will turn off your readers too.

Use a Descriptive Website Name and Taglines

Remember that everything, right down to the name and tagline of your website, is searchable.

So including keywords in your website name and taglines can help, especially if your domain name doesn’t use keywords.

Example:
pet cats
Looking at the site name, it can be simple for readers to know what your business is about. Also, with the tagline, your business model is summarised and made clear.

Creating Quality Links

Your links are highly significant to your SEO.

Links essentially help label your content and create some sort of organisation for your website. So you have to put a focus on ensuring that you name yours right.

Also, you need to put an effort into getting other internet sources to link to your content or get backlinks. The more quality backlinks you get, the more Google and other search engines will judge your content to be reliable and thus worthy of ranking higher.

Here are vital points you need to consider about your links.

Use Custom Permalinks

When it comes to how your permalinks are generated, WordPress provides a few options.

image

Go to Settings > Permalinks and configure how you want URLs to include details such as your post title.

Customizing the URLs in this way (using your post title) improves the searchability of your URLs.

If you want to completely customize them, you can do so as well.

But as a warning, remember that if you have existing pages that are receiving traffic, changing their URLs may have an impact on your SEO ranking.

Strategically Create Your Internal Linking

Internal links move visitors from one page of your website to another. 

Example:
hirarchy
This diagram illustrates a simple interlinking between pages. 
The home page can lead people to two categories, “Cat Food” and “Cat Accessories.” And they have subcategories to further categories and so on.

Internal links can be added within a post or article.

It is common practice to include a link within an article. But because they can disturb your reading, you should only use those that are purposeful and relevant.

Example:
An article on your site may include the statement “You need cat vitamins to ensure that your pet is healthy all throughout training.” 
So you might want to use the word “cat vitamins” as an anchor text to lead the reader to an article about cat vitamins or directly to your Cat Vitamins product page.

One excellent practice for interlinking articles is to use the SILO method as illustrated below.

Example:
page rank

Utlising the SILO method involves creating smaller articles to link back to bigger articles so that the latter ranks well in terms of SEO.

And as a bonus, implementing an organised structure for your blogs like this makes it easier for your readers to navigate your content.

Build Credible External Links

External links bring people from a page on your website to somewhere else on the internet that’s not on your website or vice versa.

They are links that take a user either away from your domain or direct them to your domain. 

  • They can be inbound external links, meaning there’s an anchor text or button on someone else’s web page that, when clicked, brings the user to a page on your website.
  • They can also be outbound external links, meaning that there’s an anchor text or button on your web page that, when clicked, brings the user to somewhere else on the internet that’s not on your website.

So obviously, you want more inbound external links or backlinks.

The more people are pointing to and engaging with your content, the more Google and other search engines will find that your content is reliable.

But outbound links can also help SEO indirectly.

You can verify sources with outbound links, leading readers to realise that your content is trying to help them.

The more help they feel they get, the more they may further engage with your content. And greater traffic tells Google and other search engines that your content is reliable and value adding to the reader.

Remember that all viewers of your website most probably initially went onto a search engine because they were looking for something and had a need they wanted met. 

Ensuring Mobile Responsiveness

In total, 7.26 billion people own a smart or feature phone, accounting for 91.54% of the world’s population. And you can be sure that your web pages and posts are not only going to be seen in desktop mode.

So you need to ensure that your website is entirely mobile-friendly, and not just for your readers’ convenience.

Google explained in 2018 that mobile-first indexing indexes the URL of your site’s mobile-friendly version.

Google displays the mobile URL to mobile users and the desktop URL to desktop users if your website has separate mobile and desktop URLs. 

Whatever the case may be, the indexed content will be the mobile version.

Use a Responsive Theme

A responsive theme reorganises your website for different screen sizes, ensuring that visitors viewing your website on their phone or tablet see your full content in an easily readable format.

Responsive Theme

It also means that your visitors, whether on a laptop or a phone, will recognise your content and know where to find things.

If visitors find it difficult to navigate your site on their device, they will quickly leave and return to their search results.

And, because search engines want to promote useful websites, if guests bounce quickly from your site back to their search, the search engine will take note, which can harm your website’s ranking.

More Tips

Enable Crawlers

Make sure the box labelled “Search Engine Visibility” is not checked under Settings > Reading.

Checking that box actually checks “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” and prevents search engines from indexing your site.

Use SEO plugins

SEO plugins can make it simple for you to optimise your website’s content.

You can use:

These plugins can provide you with intuitive data and give you notifications or hints about what your content may be lacking in terms of SEO.

Optimising Your Content for SEO Increases More Than Just Traffic

Content is the most important aspect of SEO because it is the first thing that search engines will see when they crawl your site.

So make sure you write content that is informative, useful and authentic and do the technical work that ensures your pages and posts are crawled and indexed.

Optimised content will get you traffic that you can convert. The more of these you have, the bigger your revenue.

Champ Biala

Champ Biala

Author

CHAMP BIALA is the Head of Content for KAMG and a seasoned writer. Past experiences in education, video production and music allows him to create varied content for multiple business types. He provides content for firms across Asia, the US, the UK and Canada when he is not organising beach festivals in the Philippines.

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Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 08, 2022

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

We use Your Personal data to provide and improve the Service. By using the Service, You agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Interpretation and Definitions

Interpretation

The words of which the initial letter is capitalized have meanings defined under the following conditions. The following definitions shall have the same meaning regardless of whether they appear in singular or in plural.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Privacy Policy:

  • Account means a unique account created for You to access our Service or parts of our Service.

  • Company (referred to as either “the Company”, “We”, “Us” or “Our” in this Agreement) refers to Kas Andz Marketing Group, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN.

  • Cookies are small files that are placed on Your computer, mobile device or any other device by a website, containing the details of Your browsing history on that website among its many uses.

  • Country refers to: United Kingdom

  • Device means any device that can access the Service such as a computer, a cellphone or a digital tablet.

  • Personal Data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable individual.

  • Service refers to the Website.

  • Service Provider means any natural or legal person who processes the data on behalf of the Company. It refers to third-party companies or individuals employed by the Company to facilitate the Service, to provide the Service on behalf of the Company, to perform services related to the Service or to assist the Company in analyzing how the Service is used.

  • Usage Data refers to data collected automatically, either generated by the use of the Service or from the Service infrastructure itself (for example, the duration of a page visit).

  • Website refers to Kas Andz Marketing Group, accessible from kasandz.

  • You means the individual accessing or using the Service, or the company, or other legal entity on behalf of which such individual is accessing or using the Service, as applicable.

Collecting and Using Your Personal Data

Types of Data Collected

Personal Data

While using Our Service, We may ask You to provide Us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify You. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:

  • Email address

  • First name and last name

  • Phone number

  • Address, State, Province, ZIP/Postal code, City

  • Usage Data

Usage Data

Usage Data is collected automatically when using the Service.

Usage Data may include information such as Your Device’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that You visit, the time and date of Your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

When You access the Service by or through a mobile device, We may collect certain information automatically, including, but not limited to, the type of mobile device You use, Your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of Your mobile device, Your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser You use, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.

We may also collect information that Your browser sends whenever You visit our Service or when You access the Service by or through a mobile device.

Tracking Technologies and Cookies

We use Cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on Our Service and store certain information. Tracking technologies used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze Our Service. The technologies We use may include:

  • Cookies or Browser Cookies. A cookie is a small file placed on Your Device. You can instruct Your browser to refuse all Cookies or to indicate when a Cookie is being sent. However, if You do not accept Cookies, You may not be able to use some parts of our Service. Unless you have adjusted Your browser setting so that it will refuse Cookies, our Service may use Cookies.
  • Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Service may use local stored objects (or Flash Cookies) to collect and store information about Your preferences or Your activity on our Service. Flash Cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as those used for Browser Cookies. For more information on how You can delete Flash Cookies, please read “Where can I change the settings for disabling, or deleting local shared objects?” available at flash player.
  • Web Beacons. Certain sections of our Service and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of a certain section and verifying system and server integrity).

Cookies can be “Persistent” or “Session” Cookies. Persistent Cookies remain on Your personal computer or mobile device when You go offline, while Session Cookies are deleted as soon as You close Your web browser. Learn more about cookies on the Free Privacy Policy website article.

We use both Session and Persistent Cookies for the purposes set out below:

  • Necessary / Essential Cookies

    Type: Session Cookies

    Administered by: Us

    Purpose: These Cookies are essential to provide You with services available through the Website and to enable You to use some of its features. They help to authenticate users and prevent fraudulent use of user accounts. Without these Cookies, the services that You have asked for cannot be provided, and We only use these Cookies to provide You with those services.

  • Cookies Policy / Notice Acceptance Cookies

    Type: Persistent Cookies

    Administered by: Us

    Purpose: These Cookies identify if users have accepted the use of cookies on the Website.

  • Functionality Cookies

    Type: Persistent Cookies

    Administered by: Us

    Purpose: These Cookies allow us to remember choices You make when You use the Website, such as remembering your login details or language preference. The purpose of these Cookies is to provide You with a more personal experience and to avoid You having to re-enter your preferences every time You use the Website.

For more information about the cookies we use and your choices regarding cookies, please visit our Cookies Policy or the Cookies section of our Privacy Policy.

Use of Your Personal Data

The Company may use Personal Data for the following purposes:

  • To provide and maintain our Service, including to monitor the usage of our Service.

  • To manage Your Account: to manage Your registration as a user of the Service. The Personal Data You provide can give You access to different functionalities of the Service that are available to You as a registered user.

  • For the performance of a contract: the development, compliance and undertaking of the purchase contract for the products, items or services You have purchased or of any other contract with Us through the Service.

  • To contact You: To contact You by email, telephone calls, SMS, or other equivalent forms of electronic communication, such as a mobile application’s push notifications regarding updates or informative communications related to the functionalities, products or contracted services, including the security updates, when necessary or reasonable for their implementation.

  • To provide You with news, special offers and general information about other goods, services and events which we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about unless You have opted not to receive such information.

  • To manage Your requests: To attend and manage Your requests to Us.

  • For business transfers: We may use Your information to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Us about our Service users is among the assets transferred.

  • For other purposes: We may use Your information for other purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns and to evaluate and improve our Service, products, services, marketing and your experience.

We may share Your personal information in the following situations:

  • With Service Providers: We may share Your personal information with Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our Service, to contact You.
  • For business transfers: We may share or transfer Your personal information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of Company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of Our business to another company.
  • With Affiliates: We may share Your information with Our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy. Affiliates include Our parent company and any other subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that We control or that are under common control with Us.
  • With business partners: We may share Your information with Our business partners to offer You certain products, services or promotions.
  • With other users: when You share personal information or otherwise interact in the public areas with other users, such information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside.
  • With Your consent: We may disclose Your personal information for any other purpose with Your consent.

Retention of Your Personal Data

The Company will retain Your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. We will retain and use Your Personal Data to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes, and enforce our legal agreements and policies.

The Company will also retain Usage Data for internal analysis purposes. Usage Data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of Our Service, or We are legally obligated to retain this data for longer time periods.

Transfer of Your Personal Data

Your information, including Personal Data, is processed at the Company’s operating offices and in any other places where the parties involved in the processing are located. It means that this information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of Your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from Your jurisdiction.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by Your submission of such information represents Your agreement to that transfer.

The Company will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that Your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of Your Personal Data will take place to an organization or a country unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of Your data and other personal information.

Disclosure of Your Personal Data

Business Transactions

If the Company is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, Your Personal Data may be transferred. We will provide notice before Your Personal Data is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Law enforcement

Under certain circumstances, the Company may be required to disclose Your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g. a court or a government agency).

Other legal requirements

The Company may disclose Your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

  • Comply with a legal obligation
  • Protect and defend the rights or property of the Company
  • Prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the Service
  • Protect the personal safety of Users of the Service or the public
  • Protect against legal liability

Security of Your Personal Data

The security of Your Personal Data is important to Us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While We strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect Your Personal Data, We cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Children’s Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13. If You are a parent or guardian and You are aware that Your child has provided Us with Personal Data, please contact Us. If We become aware that We have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, We take steps to remove that information from Our servers.

If We need to rely on consent as a legal basis for processing Your information and Your country requires consent from a parent, We may require Your parent’s consent before We collect and use that information.

Links to Other Websites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by Us. If You click on a third party link, You will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise You to review the Privacy Policy of every site You visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update Our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify You of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

We will let You know via email and/or a prominent notice on Our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact us:

  • By email: team@kasandz.com