We live in an age of cutthroat competition. No one’s willing to give you an inch! Being an entrepreneur in such times is challenging indeed. It’s not just about survival, but it’s about being the best! How does one remain a step ahead of his competitors? Read on for the answer to the million-dollar question.

This is the age of the internet. It rules our lives. A window to the vast world outside, it’s the best tool to reach out to people. Nothing, and I repeat, nothing can beat the internet in terms of effectiveness and reach in taking your message to people. So, it’s only stating the obvious that as an entrepreneur, you would do wise to invest in gaining access to not just your clients, but the entire worldwide market through the internet.

What is Search Engine Optimization and How Does It Work?

How does one do that? On searching for something you’re looking for, you’re flooded with information on your computer monitor. Would go through page after page of information to find what you’re looking for? Never! This is why we are to discuss Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), makes sure that your website remains on the first few pages of Google when one looks for your kind of business. That makes sure that you reach people looking for your services or products before your competitors do.

SEO is actually very important for every business out there, especially for an Affiliate Marketing Business. Ranking a site on the top of the search engine result’s page is not an easy task. You need to have the right SEO techniques in order to make it happen. If techniques alone are not enough, you should consider using SEO tools. You will find hundreds of SEO tools on the web. Your task is to find the best one so that you can derive the desired results from it.

The Best Online SEO Tools

Let’s come to how that’s done. First, we discuss the most popular and commonly used SEO tools. Here they are!

  • Bing Webmaster Tools – While Bing Webmasters Tools is good, it’s just not good enough to challenge Google Search Console. If you still want to be prominent on Bing, this tool has all you need to know about how you can do so. With a surprisingly good keyword research tool, it can give you keywords that GKP would never ever show.
  • Serpstat – This is one of the most well-known SEO tool which is used for both content marketing and PPC. In fact, it is regarded as an all-in-one digital growth tool that can help you to optimize your SEO techniques. The tool comes packed with several features. Also, it can perform a lot of important functions for you. For example: finding keyword variations, get long-tail keywords and more.
  • SEMrush – This is yet another all-in-one SEO tool that comes with a wide variety of functions. This includes crawling, keyword research, position monitoring and more. This tool is been designed to provide a business with everything they need.
  • Botify – A site auditing tool, clean and simple, it provides precise data on HTML errors, loading speed and click depth.
  • Longtail Pro – In order to use this tool, you need to be an SEO expert. With a user-friendly interface, the tool is quite straightforward and provides you with all that you need. This is not just a simple keyword research tool. It can do much more than that as it is loaded with features. Also, it is now available online as well.
  • Screaming Frog – This is one of the most effective SEO tools you will come across on the web. The tool crawls your entire website in order to create a list of your internal pages. Not just that, but the tool also keeps a track of your crawl level, length of description, internal and outbound links per-page and also the HTTP status code. The tool has its new version recently launched and is known to come with additional features.
  • Bright Local – Amazingly capable of thorough local SEO site audits, Bright Local is a gem of a tool. It helps locate duplicate or incorrect citations spread all over online. If there’s been a recent address change or if you’re only looking to check if you’re NAP citations are fine, this is the right choice.
  • Browseo – How search engines spider sees your site is revealed by this effective tool. Search engine spiders get a totally different view of websites from humans which is revealed by Browseo.
  • Clusteric – Offering many features like competitor analysis, site audits, search visibility, to name a few, Clusteric, however, is a bit awkward to use.
  • ContentKing App – Similar to most SEO audit tools, what however sets it apart is how it notifies you of any issues that may arise proactively while checking your site.
  • DareBoost – A strong tool, not only does it alert you about your site’s loading speed, but it also tells you how you can sort out those issues clearly.
  • DeepCrawl – This one’s a hell of a tool! Scanning every page of the site, it gives a detailed report listing out how many H1 tags there are on each page. Noindexd pages, broken external and internal links, it tells you all. What’s more, it can also tell you whether your Twitter Card descriptions are too long.
  • EasyRedir – All you need to do on this tool is just to enter the URLs you are looking to send people to, and this tool will give you the DNS details you can use to manage all redirects, 100%. EasyRedir makes redirecting traffic between domains a breeze!
  • Google Analytics – Really serious about SEO? Use Google Analytics. Period. The route, Acquisition-> Search Console-> Landing Pages brings you details of which pages on your site get the most clicks from Google. Check the CTR field to find the pages that get the best click-through-rate. Then, from those titles and description tags, apply elements that get a bad CTR. Then just watch your organic traffic move up.

So these are some of the most popular SEO tools you can use. Almost all the effective SEO tools are paid. If you want to establish your site, paying for an SEO tool shouldn’t be a problem for you.

Having your site on the first page of Google isn’t just about using the SEO tools. Let’s suppose you happen to be a hairdresser in Chicago. How would one look for your business? He types in hairdressers in Chicago, and your site appears right at the top on the first page of Google. It’s the phrase ‘hairdressers in Chicago’ that form the keywords. To put it simply, keywords are those that one would be most likely to type in while searching for your kind of business.

SEO Keywords Tools

Now, the question is, how do you find the right set of words, the most effective phrase? Relax! We have tools for that too! With the help of these tools, you can find effective keywords and phrases easily. Here are the top 10 of those tools which you can use.

  • Soovle – Gathered from YouTube, Bing, Amazon, Google and more, Soovle brings you suggested keyword ideas all in one place making sure that you can find untapped keywords your competition has no inkling of.
  • Google Search Console – Not being a traditional keyword search tool, it still has features that make finding superb keywords absolutely facile.

What is the feature? It’s a unique Performance Report. This brings out details of which page gets the maximum number of clicks from Google upon typing certain keywords. This feature can be used in keyword research by using it to find the “Opportunity Keywords”. These keywords are those that help your site rank between number 8 and number 20 on Google.

  • Ahrefs Keywords Explorer – This tool certainly helps you make smarter keyword decisions. The recently rolled out new and improved “Keywords Explorer” is just lovely, giving you superb in-depth information about every keyword. While you do get the expected data, you also get a breakdown of the first-page competition with details of how many searchers click on a particular result.
  • SECockpit – This tool is meant for SEO pros. As in all other keyword tools, you give this one too a seed keyword which provides you with a list of results. But, what sets this tool apart is the built-in features that give you immense depth on organic competition, search trends and traffic estimates. While laymen can indeed use its benefits, this tool is actually targeted at those who are seasoned SEO pros.
  • Google Keyword Planner – This tool lets you explore Google’s huge stock of keywords. While being the Plain Jane among the keyword search tools, why should one use this at all? For the mere reason, that data comes from Google’s stock of keywords.
  • KeywordTool.io – Offering a large database, what is it that makes KeywodTool unique? Well, first, it brings a lot of keyword suggestions. Second, it offers an option to easily filter, drill down or expand results to find just the right set of keywords.
  • Moz Keyword Explorer – This tool does an awesome job of coming up with “lateral” keyword suggestions. As in most other tools, you get a list of keywords that are closely related. But Moz is smart and a smooth operator. It offers you suggestions that are an out-of-the-box, suggestions that are unlikely to be found anywhere else.
  • Keywords Everywhere – Being a free keyword search tool, it shows keyword data on top of ten websites that include eBay, Amazon and Answers the Public. So, you won’t need to copy and paste keywords into the Google Keyword Planner, an otherwise cumbersome task. Excellent, don’t you think?
  • Keyword Snatcher – This lets you find as many as two thousand keywords with one single search. Looking for a lot of keyword ideas? This one is the one for you! You know, you can generate at least two thousand keywords from just one seed keyword.
  • Jaaxy – Jaaxy is an immensely effective tool, effective as it gives you lots of different keywords that you wouldn’t really find in other tools.

What is Jaaxy Keyword Tool? And, Why Jaaxy is a Good Keyword Tool?

What makes Jaaxy so good? Not only does Jaaxy give you a huge database of keywords, but it also helps you with useful data on every keyword it comes up with including potential traffic, competition and search volume.

The best feature in Jaaxy is the QSR or the “Quoted Search Result”. This tells you how many other websites are trying to find a rank for an exact term. It’s obvious that the chance of ranking high depends on the number being low. At $50 a month, this tool is a big bang for money!

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Content Optimization in SEO

Search Engine Optimization also involves what we call content optimization. Firmly entrenched as a powerhouse in digital marketing, content marketing is the new mantra. It has successfully proved its worthiness in growing a business’ customer base and audience while being integrated with other data-driven principles like SEO. What was once a trend is now an established practice?

What is Content Optimization? It’s a process of making a webpage along with its content optimized, making it more eye-catching, useful and interactive. It fixes and improves technical performance, like the speed of the page and the content copy, helping it ranks higher on search engines.

It goes without saying that higher business translates into generating higher attention in your targeted market. The trend is to push for more great content by publishers across verticals at a steadily growing rate. For content to be great it has to optimize to the maximum. Optimizing content to make it far more competitive in terms of search has greatly caught on these days.

Content Optimization is, therefore, the practice of improving the beauty and performance of a site and its pages so that it may give users a unique value through on-page SEO, user experience, design, content editing and more.

Continuing further, it should be stressed that length matters a great deal when it comes to having your site on the top on Google. SEO experts have for long wondered and debated about what the ideal blog post length should be. Among the many factors that should be taken into account while deciding on what should be the ideal length for your articles, the two most important factors to be considered are-

  • What is the target audience?
  • How long should the post be to make sure that it includes all relevant information without appearing boring to the reader?

Content Writing in SEO – Length Is Strength

With the attention span of each passing generation getting shorter and shorter, it’s a common notion that the shorter the article, the more engaging it is for the readers. But no, it really isn’t so. While it’s true that short and concise content goes a long way in keeping readers engaged, such content is more often than not, lacking in content and substance. They may not be as informative as they should have been. Shorter articles don’t necessarily make high-quality, resourceful and educational content. The stress should, therefore, be on quality, rather than quantity. The intention should be to make the articles engaging and informative, not being obsessed with an aim to keep it short.

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SEO: Add A Table Of Contents

For successful SEO, adding a table of contents is of utmost importance. Not only does Google value it, but it also improves navigability and organization.

It goes without saying that a table of contents in a book comes before everything else. But in terms of a website, should the table of contents come before the first heading of a post, or should it come after the first image and Heading 1 title and paragraph? That way, you would see the image first, read the headline 1 title and then the introduction, and then the table of contents would give a bird’s eye view of the rest.

This makes sense the most like the image, title, and the introduction are supposed to grab attention before they lose interest.

Role of Rich Snippets in SEO

Now we come to using rich snippets to raise the number of clicks. No clicks, no sales. It’s as simple as that. And to win the click, you need to get noticed. Snippets are the lines of black text that come with every search result listing. Describing the page’s relevance to the phrases used as the search query, the words that match the query are shown in bold.

As we find paid ads, image results and other eye-catching elements competing for attention, rich snippets make that special something that grabs attention and brings the click.

Rich snippets serve the purpose of helping your website stand out in a crowd. Just as a candidate from among many grabs a job with that extra something working in his favor, rich snippets are that extra something for your website helping you win clicks from a crowd of other websites.

Affiliate Links and SEO – Avoid Common Affiliate Penalties

Lastly, while working on SEO, you should be careful not to be penalized by Google. Google happens to be uncompromising in its endeavor to give internet users rich content, the best of writers and accurate information. There are times when Google is found to take issues with your site. While a penalty might be deserved, you probably want to do so about it.

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Now, what is a Google penalty? While changing its ranking methodology since December 2000, Google introduced its toolbar extension. Thus, came a sea change creating the SEO industry as we know it today.

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With Google continuing to modify the quality of its search results, it began to eliminate poor content and elevate the good. Google penalty refers to this process of elimination. To get you on the right track, we make you aware of the most common reasons for Google taking issue with your site.

  • Duplicate Content – for obvious reasons, Google wouldn’t think twice before removing your site if it’s found to have lifted content from any other source. Plagiarism is a strict no-no. To ensure the uniqueness of your site, so use Copyscape. If Copyscape is not enough for you, you can also find another powerful plagiarism checker on the web. If you wish to rank your site on the top, you need to make sure that you put up only unique and quality content on your site.
  • Buying Links – if you’ve been buying bad links, you’re sure to be penalized. This is seen as an attempt to manipulate page rank and dealt with very strictly by Google. Therefore, make it a point to invest only in good and useful links. Before buying any link, make sure you check its details.
  • Links in Any Other Language – this might seem unfair but nevertheless, having links on your site in any other language could invite a Google penalty as Google firmly believes that net users strongly prefer content in one language. You see Google has its own way of judging your content and site. You simply cannot change the rules and thus, it’s better to follow them. If you have your site in English, you should use a link in English, and the same goes for every other language.
  • Hidden Links – while you might not really have any wrong intentions, it’s wise to make sure that you have no links that aren’t prominent enough. Take care to see that there is no link that is of the same color as the background of your site. Now that you know about it, make sure that you don’t have any hidden links on your site.

So, to conclude, we remind you that the internet today is the most effective and large platform to help your business reach out to the market. And, to be effective on the net, it’s called just that your business appears on the first few pages of Google. In the fast-paced world of today, would anyone care to go through page after page of Google after typing in the keyword to look for what he needs? Nope. So get your site on the first pages of Google to rake in the moolah! Go ahead. There’s no stopping you now!