Guest Blogging: The Definitive Guide

1. Key Factors While Choosing a Guest-Post Website

• DA
• Spam Score
• Niche
• Specific Niche (if any)
• Organic Traffic Worldwide
• Organic keywords Ranking in US
• Organic Traffic in US
• Link Type (DF/NF)
• Recent Post Cache Status
• Organic Traffic Status (Last 1 Year)
• Paid Ads Causing Readability Issue (Y/N)
• Links should be from the body content not from author bio
• Top Anchor text of the website should be related to theme of the website

2. Create a Guest Blogging Target Spreadsheet

• S.No
• Sites
• DA
• Blog / Publication Title
• Name Of Editor Contact Email Address / Contact Page URL
• Link To Editorial Guidelines Page (if available)
• Date Contacted
• Pitch Accepted / Declined
• Notes
• Price
• Link Type

3. Find interesting or trending topic's to pitch editor

• Find top GP sites and analyse trending topic published on that blog.
• Use Google Alerts to Monitor the Web for interesting new content.
• Use Google Trends to analyse the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. 

4. Technique to find Site's for Guest Posting

• “Add Articles” + "Kewyords"
• “Add Content” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit Article” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit Post” + "Kewyords"
• “Add Guest Post” + "Kewyords"
• “Bloggers Wanted” + "Kewyords"
• “Guest Bloggers Wanted” + "Kewyords"
• “Guest Post” + "Kewyords"
• “Guest Posts Roundup” + "Kewyords"
• “Guest Blogging Spot” + "Kewyords"
• “Write for Us” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit a Guest Post” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit Guest Post” + "Kewyords"
• “Become a Guest Blogger” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit a Guest Article” + "Kewyords"
• “Guest Post Guidelines” + "Kewyords"
• “Guest Bloggers Wanted” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit an Article” + "Kewyords"
• “Group Writing Project” + "Kewyords"
• “Want to Write for” + "Kewyords"
• “Blogs that Accept Guest Posts” + "Kewyords"
• “Blogs that Accept Guest Blogging” + "Kewyords"
• “Blogs that Accept Guest Bloggers” + "Kewyords"
• “Blogs Accepting Guest Posts” + "Kewyords"
• “Become a Contributor” + "Kewyords"
• “Contribute” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit Design News” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit News” + "Kewyords"
• “Community News” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit Tutorial” + "Kewyords"
• “Submit Blog Post” + "Kewyords"
• “Suggest a Post” + "Kewyords"
• “Suggest a Guest Post” + "Kewyords"
• “Become an Author” + "Kewyords"
• “Contribute to our Site” + "Kewyords"
• “Become a Contributor” + "Kewyords"
• “Become a Guest Writer” + "Kewyords"
• “Places I Guest Posted” + "Kewyords"
• “My Guest Posts” + "Kewyords"
• “Publish Your News” + "Kewyords"
• “Submission Guidelines” + "Kewyords"
• “Guest post by” + "Kewyords"
• “This guest post was written” + "Kewyords"
• “Guest Contributor” + "Kewyords"
• “This guest post is from” + "Kewyords"
• “This is a guest article” + "Kewyords"
• “Now Accepting Guest Posts” + "Kewyords"
• inurl:guest-posts + "Kewyords"
• “The following guest post” + "Kewyords"
• inurl:write-for-us + "Kewyords"
• inurl:guest-post-guidelines + "Kewyords"
• inurl:profiles/blog/new + "Kewyords"
• sign up + login + "Kewyords"
• Also you can find sites using Competitor Analysis. Useful Tools: Ahref, Semrush etc.

5. Templates For Outreach/Introduction

Here are some of the best subject lines –

• “Request for a Guest Post”
• “Contributing to [Blog Name]”
• “Writing for [Blog Name]”
• “Guest Post Inquiry”
• “Guest Post: Headline”
• “[Catchy Blog Headline]”
• “Become a Regular Contributor to [Blog Name]”
• "Want to be a Contributor"

Template 1 –

Hi [Name],

Good day!

I am looking for platforms/opportunities where I can share well-researched articles related to [Niche], featuring emerging technologies like [Sub Niche] and much more. I am wondering if you are open to guest posting. If so, please let me know what the next steps are. Will I send some topics here for your approval or should I proceed to send a draft for review?

Let me know if this is something that interests you. I would be happy to discuss further.

Thanks,
[Your Name]

Template 2 –

Hi [Name],

Trust you are doing great.

I have framed an article idea which I feel would be a great perfect fit for your website (domain). The article titled "Article Title" enlightening on various points.

I believe that my article idea is sufficed for all your content requirements and wouldn't be needing any corrections further. Once my authorship is approved, I will submit my piece for review with an image and tags for more authenticity and clarity.

Please let me know if you seek any changes within my article topic. I will be happy to edit it out accordingly.

Thanks,
[Your Name]

Template 3 –

Hello [Name],

I’ve been a subscriber of [Blog Name] for some time now – and I especially enjoy reading to [Blog category/section/series name] on daily basis.

I’ve been working on an idea for a post about [blog idea] – and it struck me that this would be a great fit for your audience. Recently, I’ve had several successful guest posts on major blogs including [Blog Name], [Blog Name] and [Blog Name] – which you can see here:

LINK #1

LINK #2

LINK #3

The working headline for the post is [title] although I’m open to changing it up if need be.

I feel that the post would be especially relevant to your readers because [State how it will help the readers]

The summary of post is…

[Bulleted list or paragraph summary of your blog]

Although there are many such blogs out there that covers the same thing, I haven’t seen a lot of posts that walk readers through [main key point] very well. For that reason, I think your readers would find it very useful.

What do you think? Should I write it up and send you a draft?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts,

Thanks,

[Your Name]

Template 4 –

Hi [Name],

My name is [your name] from [company]. I’ve been following your blog since 2012.

Your recent post [blog topic] really resonated with me. I thought it was something my audience would appreciate, so I shared it with my social media and email subscribers.

I wanted to get in touch with you to discuss [topic] further and see if we can work on something similar together.

If you’re interested we can set up a phone call this week to discuss starting a collaboration that would bring value to both our audiences.

Best,

[Your name]

Template 5 –

Hi [Blogger Name],

I first want to start off by saying I’m a huge fan of [Blog Name] – you may have noticed my comment from your last post. LOVE that post. I literally printed it out and have it sitting on my desk as a reference.

Anyway, I was checking out some of your other posts and noticed that you published a guest post from [Other Guest Blogger Name].

It got me thinking: I’d love to be your next guest author!

Here are a few topics that I think [Blog Name] readers would get a ton of value from:

Topic #1

Topic #2

Topic #3

To give you an idea of the quality that I bring to the table, here are a few posts that I’ve recently published:

Link #1

Link #2

Let me know what you think. : )

Best,

[Your Name]

Template 6 –

Hey [First Name],

I’m [Your Name], and I write at [Your Business Name or Website]. I’m also a regular contributor at [mention a popular blog in your space].

Anyway, I’m writing to you because I have some really interesting content ideas that I strongly feel will be perfect for [Blog Name]’s audience.

I can send you the topics I have in mind if you’re still open to new guest authors.

I appreciate the time and really looking forward to working together.

Best,

[Your Name]

Template 7 –

Hi [Name],

I went through your website and read several blogs and I feel they touch the realm of my work and expertise. I genuinely appreciate the awareness you are creating with the meaningful content on your website. I would very much like to be a part of it through guest posting.

I would like to introduce myself as an Editor with [Your Business Name]. We provide [Your Business Main Services]. I write about [Your Area and Expertise].

You can find the samples of some of my published works below –

Link #1

Link #2

Link #3

Here are a few topics that I think [Blog Name] readers would get a ton of value from:

Topic #1

Topic #2

Topic #3

In case if you don’t like the topics, we can always switch to something more suitable.

I’m excited to hear back from you!

Best,

[Your Name]

Template 8 –

Hello [Name],

I’m [Your Name] and I’m a digital marketer and technical writer for [Your Business Name]. I’m passionate about exploring and writing about innovation, technology including cloud computing, VoIP and digital marketing trends. I also manage my personal blog at [Your Personal Blog Name] where I actively share my thoughts on digital marketing, lifestyle and trending technologies.

The reason I’m reaching out is to ask if you are accepting guest post. I understand the need for unique and well-researched content, and I am also very passionate about any topic or subject that I write about. Is it still room for me to write some actionable and useful content on [Blog Name]? 🙂

I’m interested in submitting a guest post for [Blog Name] on the following topic:

[Blog Headline]

Awaiting your positive reply,

Regards,

[Your Name]

[Your Twitter/LinkedIn profile]

Template 9 –

Hi [Name],

My name is [Your Name], a startup founder from [Country]. I’d like to contribute a guest post to [Blog Name]. Here are my previous writing samples, for your reference:

Link #1

Link #2

Link #3

Here are some guest post ideas I had in mind:

Topic #1 [Summarize it in a paragraph or two]

Topic #2 [Summarize it in a paragraph or two]

If you like any of the above ideas, I’ll write up everything and send it according to [Blog Name]’s guidelines, paying special attention to the tone of the blog in general (shouldn’t be too hard, I’ve been a reader for over a year now).

What do you think? Will your other readers find these topics interesting?

Thanks for your time,

[Your Name]

Template 10 –

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

[Compliment Here]

I’m writing to submit a guest post to [Blog Name]. The post’s headline is [Catchy headline here] and the article will include:

[Article Summary/Outline]

I’ve noticed articles on this topic are particularly popular with your readers.

To let you know a little bit about me, I’m a professional [name of your job]. I’ve previously written for [names of other blogs you’ve written for] and you can find samples of my work here:

Link #1

Link #2

Let me know what you think. I’m excited to hear back from you!

Best wishes,

[Your name]

Template 11 –

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

My name is [Your Name]. I discovered your website from [Source] and thought it the perfect opportunity for me to reach out to you.

I have become a fan of your work and enjoy reading your content. I specialize in (Your Niche) and I believe my writing style and yours matches perfectly.

I would love to be a contributing writer for your site/ pitch my guest post idea. I’d like to write an article entitled (Guest Post Title) as I believe it will resonate deeply with your audience and give very valuable information and a fresh point of view on the subject matter.

The article will explain [summary] and provide details on how to [summary].

I’ll be a great contributor for your blog/website because (list your best strengths and previously published work].

Thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to working with you!

All the Best,

[Your Name]

Template 12 –

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

My name is [Your Name] and I’m dropping you a line to see if you accept guest bloggers on [Name of Blog]. I write about [state your topic or what you do for which company or website] and thought an article about [Topic Idea] would be a good fit for your blog.

Here are some examples of my guest posts:

Link #1

Link #2

The post will be original and high-quality, written just for your blog (that your audience will love) and will not be posted elsewhere.

Thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to working with you!

Thanks,

[Your name]

6. Follow-up Email Templates

Here are some of the best subject lines –

• [Blogger Name], Quick Question
• Thoughts About [Your Blog Post Title]
• Any Updates? Guest Post [Title]

Template 13 –

Hey [Blogger’s Name],

Just a quick follow up in case you’ve missed my email.

If you’re short on time right now — no worries. I won’t bug you about it again.

Thanks.

[Your Name]

Template 14 –

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

This is [Your Name] checking in about the guest post pitch I emailed a couple weeks ago.

I bet you are super busy now due to [holiday, event or anything that is topical and makes sense], so I thought I’d email.

Thanks.

[Your Name]

Template 15 –

Hey [Blogger’s Name],

I didn’t hear back from you. Just wondering, did I do something wrong?

I know you’re interested in publishing high-qaulity and informative guest blogs (One or Two Existing Samples) on your site.

Thanks.

[Your Name]

7. Email Templates When Your Guest Blog is Published

Here are some of the best subject lines –

• Thank You, {Blogger’s Name}
• {Blogger’s Name} Thank you for publishing my guest blog!

Template 16 –

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

I just wanted to say a big thank you for publishing my guest post on your [Blog]. I couldn’t be happier! 🙂

I’m delighted that the readers here seem to have received the post well, and it has been a real pleasure responding to all the great comments.

I’ve also shared the blog on Twitter[ Social Media Channel Name]. Here is the link to tweet – [Link]

Wishing you the very best!

[Your Name]

Template 17 –

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

Thank you for publishing my guest post. I really appreciate that.

I hope your readers will enjoy reading the post.

Just tweeted it via [Your Twitter handle] or tweet link

I’d be happy to answer any comment regarding this article.

Thanks,

[Your Name]

Quick Sample

Sample 1:

Hello Team,

While reading a blog "Blog Name with Link" on your website. I have jotted down one article on your topic "Topic Suggestion" which is not covered yet on WebsiteName and would be a great fit for your website audience.

So, I would request if you allow me to share article on above topic. I will assure you that you will get high quality, fresh and unique content only that will help to increase readership.

Sample 2:

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

Good day!

I am looking for platforms/opportunities where I can share well-researched articles related to Niche, featuring Sub Niche and much more. I am wondering if you are open to guest posting.

Few among my high quality guest post are as follows:

• Sample 1
• Sample 2
• Sample 3
• Sample 4
• Sample 5

Here are some guest post ideas I had in mind:

• Topic #1 
• Topic #2 
• Topic #3 

Let me know if this is something that interests you. I would be happy to discuss further.

Sample 3:

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

Good day!

I am looking for platforms/opportunities where I can share well-researched articles related to Niche, featuring Sub Niche and much more. I am wondering if you are open to guest posting. If so, please let me know what the next steps are. Will I send some topics here for your approval or should I proceed to send a draft for review?

Let me know if this is something that interests you. I would be happy to discuss further.   

Sample 4:

Hi [Blogger’s Name], 

Here are some guest post ideas I had in mind:

Topic #1: ?

Topic #2: ?

If you like any of the above ideas, I’ll write up everything and send it according to Blogger's Site guidelines, paying special attention to the tone of the blog in general (shouldn’t be too hard, I’ve been a reader for over a year now).

What do you think? Will your other readers find these topics interesting?

Thanks for your time,

Sample 5:

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

Trust you are doing great.

I have been working on the below article topic which I think will do really well, and could potentially be a great fit for your site. I have jotted down a few article's keeping in mind your reader's interest. Would love to publish there (and educate your site visitors).

The title for the suggested article goes as:

Topic #1: ?

Topic #2: ?

I have been enlightening on various points that a trending technology capturing the attention of millions in recent times. Please review the titles and let me know if you are interested in reviewing the article.

Looking forward to your response.

Sample 6:

Hi [Blogger’s Name], 

Just a quick follow up in case you’ve missed my email.

If you’re short on time right now — no worries. I won’t bug you about it again.

Thanks

Sample 7:

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

Thanks for the quick response.

I can provide high quality non promotional content but can't pay a single amount.

I have content ready for the below topic:

Topic #1: ?

Topic #2: ?

Let me know if you are interested to publish high quality non promotional content

Sample 8:

Hi [Blogger’s Name]

Thanks for the quick response.

As of now, I am not looking for sponsored post. I love writing and spread my knowledge to the user of SiteName (Blogging website for Sub Niche).

I will assure you that you will get high quality, fresh and unique content (800+ word) from my side.

Please let me know if it is possible for free.

Awaiting your response.

Sample 9:

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

Thank you for providing me this opportunity.

Kindly review my write-up on "Topic Name" and let me know your thoughts.

Please find the content document attached with banner image.

Sample 10:

Hello [Blogger’s Name],

Hope all is well with you.

Just following up on my previous email.

Can you please share the status of the article?

Thank you

Sample 11:

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

Hope you are doing well.

Can you please share the feedback of my article?. Its been almost [Number of  Days] that I haven't go any reply from your side.

Looking forward to hear from you soon.

Regards

Sample 12:

Hi [Blogger’s Name],

Thank you for publishing my guest post. I really appreciate that.

I hope your readers will enjoy reading the post.

Just tweeted it via [Your Twitter handle] or tweet link

I’d be happy to answer any comment regarding this article.

Quick Reference:

• Factors to consider for Increase in DA

Evolving “nofollow” – new ways to identify the nature of links

Two new link attributes that provide webmasters with additional ways to identify to Google Search the nature of particular links. These, along with nofollow, are summarized below:

• rel="sponsored": Use the sponsored attribute to identify links on your site that were created as part of advertisements, sponsorships or other compensation agreements.
• rel="ugc": UGC stands for User Generated Content, and the ugc attribute value is recommended for links within user generated content, such as comments and forum posts.
• rel="nofollow": Use this attribute for cases where you want to link to a page but don’t want to imply any type of endorsement, including passing along ranking credit to another page.

Now some important points summarized in bullet form:

• Nofollow has changed to be a hint, a hint today for ranking, a hint in March 2020 for crawling and indexing
• Rel=sponsored was added for more granular attribution of the type of link
• Rel=ugc was added for more granular attribution of the type of link
• You don't have to use those new attributes if you do not want to
• You at least need to have nofollow on sponsored links, you can also just have rel="sponsored" on those links as well
• No ranking changes expected, Google said, from this change.
• You can combine these new link attributes if you want.
• Google does not think this will result in more comment spam

Can I use more than one rel value on a link?

Yes, you can use more than one rel value on a link. For example, rel="ugc sponsored" is a perfectly valid attribute which hints that the link came from user-generated content and is sponsored. It’s also valid to use nofollow with the new attributes -- such as rel="nofollow ugc" -- if you wish to be backwards-compatible with services that don’t support the new attributes.

If I use nofollow for ads or sponsored links, do I need to change those?

No. You can keep using nofollow as a method for flagging such links to avoid possible link scheme penalties. You don't need to change any existing markup. If you have systems that append this to new links, they can continue to do so. However, we recommend switching over to rel=”sponsored” if or when it is convenient.

Do I still need to flag ad or sponsored links?

Yes. If you want to avoid a possible link scheme action, use rel=“sponsored” or rel=“nofollow” to flag these links. We prefer the use of “sponsored,” but either is fine and will be treated the same, for this purpose.

What happens if I use the wrong attribute on a link?

There’s no wrong attribute except in the case of sponsored links. If you flag a UGC link or a non-ad link as “sponsored,” we’ll see that hint but the impact -- if any at all -- would be at most that we might not count the link as a credit for another page. In this regard, it’s no different than the status quo of many UGC and non-ad links already marked as nofollow.

It is an issue going the opposite way. Any link that is clearly an ad or sponsored should use “sponsored” or “nofollow,” as described above. Using “sponsored” is preferred, but “nofollow” is acceptable.

Why should I bother using any of these new attributes?

Using the new attributes allows us to better process links for analysis of the web. That can include your own content, if people who link to you make use of these attributes.

Won’t changing to a “hint” approach encourage link spam in comments and UGC content?

Many sites that allow third-parties to contribute to content already deter link spam in a variety of ways, including moderation tools that can be integrated into many blogging platforms and human review. The link attributes of “ugc” and “nofollow” will continue to be a further deterrent. In most cases, the move to a hint model won’t change the nature of how we treat such links. We’ll generally treat them as we did with nofollow before and not consider them for ranking purposes. We will still continue to carefully assess how to use links within Search, just as we always have and as we’ve had to do for situations where no attributions were provided.

When do these attributes and changes go into effect?

All the link attributes, sponsored, ugc and nofollow, now work today as hints for us to incorporate for ranking purposes. For crawling and indexing purposes, nofollow will become a hint as of March 1, 2020. Those depending on nofollow solely to block a page from being indexed (which was never recommended) should use one of the much more robust mechanisms listed

SEO Tactics

How to check if you’re indexed in Google

• Go to Google, then search for site:yourwebsite.com

• If you want to check the index status of a specific URL, use the same site:yourwebsite.com/web-page-slug

How to get indexed by Google

• Go to Google Search Console
• Navigate to the URL inspection tool
• Paste the URL you’d like Google to index into the search bar.
• Wait for Google to check the URL
• Click the “Request indexing” button

Tactic's that is useful for website crawl by Search Engine

• Remove crawl blocks in your robots.txt file

User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: / 

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

• Remove rogue noindex tags

Method 1: meta tag
<meta name=“robots” content=“noindex”>
<meta name=“googlebot” content=“noindex”>

Method 2: X‐Robots‐Tag

• Include the page in your sitemap
• Remove rogue canonical tags
• Check that the page isn’t orphaned
• Fix nofollow internal links
• Add “powerful” internal links
• Make sure the page is valuable and unique
• Remove low‐quality pages (to optimize “crawl budget”)
• Build high‐quality backlinks

Block pages from being indexed by search engines

How to rank for 1000's of keywords without link building

• Content Gap: Creating content on the topic which competitor's rank or drive traffic.
• Land and Expand Strategy: Find the pages and keywords that you are currently ranking & then find out other keywords on which we can rank.
• Content cluster: Create master pages and then rank for competitive keywords.

Increase Organic CTR - EASY way to get more traffic

Titles with [brackets] and (parentheses) got 38% more clicks than titles without brackets and parentheses.

• Example1:

A Look Inside Mashable’s Evolution [Interview]

According to the authors of the study, brackets give potential readers a “clear picture of what lies behind the headline”.

So when you let people know that your content is a video, infographic, blog post, or interview, they’re MUCH more likely to click.

• Example2:

E-commerce SEO: The Definitive Guide

To this:

E-commerce SEO (Advanced Guide + Step-By-Step Case Study)

• Example3:

White Tennis Shoes For Men

To this:

White Tennis Shoes For Men [Free Shipping]

Bunch of Examples to use this:

• [X% Off]
• (Updated)
• [Infographic]
• (And Why It Matters)
• [New Research]
• (Case Study)
• [Interview]
• (New Guide)
• [+Checklist]
• (With Examples)
• [Video]
• (Trusted by X Clients)
• [Flowchart]
• [Visual Guide]
• (No Fees)
• [Template]

How to rank on Google without writing content

• Rank on google through podcast
• Rank on google through videos
• Use guest bloggers on the site
• Optimize your old content
• Create tools

Check for fake traffic and malware

• Look at the “Valid” URLs in the Search Console Coverage report, URL-specific reports in Google Analytics (under Behavior -> Site Content -> All Pages). 
• Audience -> Technology -> Network (change primary dimension to “hostname”) to check for content that doesn’t belong on the site or hostnames that aren’t real.
• Referral spam can show up on valid hostnames, too, so also check Acquisition -> All Traffic -> Source/Medium for traffic sources with very little or no time on page and pages per visit.
• Looking at Audience -> Geo -> Location and Language can also help identify spikes in traffic from bots or referral spam from locations and languages that don’t normally visit the site that much.
• Also perform a “site:yourdomain.com” search in Google and dig deep into the deepest pages of search results.

6 Steps to Find Your True Ranking Factors

• Step 1: Make an Observation
• Step 2: Do Your Research
• Step 3: Form a Hypothesis
• Step 4: Conduct an Experiment
• Step 5: Analyze Your Data
• Step 6: Report on Your Results

SEO Techniques to Drive Huge Traffic

• Optimize for RankBrain
• Research for keywords
• Continue updating the old content
• Gain quality backlinks
• Longer the content, the higher the ranking
• Find broken links opportunities on Wikipedia:

There are 2 kind of Wikipedia you can get i.e. Citation needed and Dead link.

1. Citation needed links means that the one, who edited a Wikipedia article, mentioned statistics and facts without linking them to a source.
2. Dead links are those links that were earlier connected to but no longer exist for whatever reason. 

Use the below mentioned search terms:

Site: wikipedia.org “Keyword phrase” “dead link”.

Reasons Your Website Isn’t Showing Up On Google (and How to Fix It)

• Your website is too new

Example:

1. site:yourwebsite.com
2. site:yourwebsite.com/a-page-you-want-to-show-up-in-google/

•  You’re blocking search engines from indexing your pages

Example:

1. Disallow: /blog/

• You’re blocking search engines from crawling your pages

Example:

1. Disallow: /
2. User-agent: * User-agent: Googlebot
3. Disallow: /blog/

• You don’t have enough high-quality backlinks
• Your page is lacking “authority”

There are two ways to boost the authority of a web page:

1. Build more backlinks;
2. Add more internal links.

• Your website is lacking “authority”
• Your web page doesn’t align with “search intent”
• You have duplicate content issues
• You have a Google penalty

There are two types of Google penalties.

• Manual
• Algorithmic

Tips to Optimize your Website to Rank in Mobile Search

• Website Design
• Page Speed
• Site Structure
• Local SEO

Google evaluate links through a handful of patents:

• Boilerplate: links found in boilerplate site elements like the footer and sidebars are less valuable than one found in the body.
• Reasonable Surfer: links found higher up the page carry more weight.
• PageRank: links from popular pages carry more weight than from pages with few links themselves.

Bounce rate grading system:

• 25% or lower: Something is probably broken
• 26-40%: Excellent
• 41-55%: Average
• 56-70%: Higher than normal, but could make sense depending on the website
• 70% or higher: Bad and/or something is probably broken

Reasons Your Website Can Have a High Bounce Rate

• Slow-to-Load Page
• Self-Sufficient Content
• Disproportional Contribution by a Few Pages
• Misleading Title Tag and/or Meta Description
• Blank Page or Technical Error
• Bad Link from Another Website
• Affiliate Landing Page or Single-Page Site
• Low-Quality or Under Optimized Content
• Bad or Obnoxious UX
• The Page Isn’t Mobile-Friendly

Pro Tips for Reducing Your Bounce Rate

• Make Sure Your Content Lives Up to the Hype

Also, make your content readable:

1. Break up your text with lots of white space.
2. Add supporting images.
3. Use short sentences.
4. Spellcheck is your friend.

• Keep Critical Elements Above the Fold
• Speed Up Your Site
• Minimize Non-Essential Elements
• Help People Get Where They Want to Be Faster

CTR breakdown for Google’s first page organic results (Aug 2019):

• Spot #1 - 31.73%
• Spot #2 - 24.71%
• Spot #3 - 18.66%
• Spot #4 - 13.60%
• Spot #5 - 9.51%
• Spot #6 - 6.23%
• Spot #7 - 4.15%
• Spot #8 - 3.12%
• Spot #9 - 2.97%
• Spot #10 - 3.09%

Voice Search SEO: How To (Step-by-Step Guide)

• Add Conversational Text
• Target Question Phrases
• Aim for Featured Snippets
• Work on Titles and Descriptions
• Focus on Local SEO

Content Marketing Formula

• Step #1: Optimize your headline
• Step #2: Add 3 internal links
• Step #3: Share your content on the social web carefully
• Step #4: Message everyone you link out to
• Step #5: Send an email blast
• Step #6: Send a push notification

Highly important components of technical and on-site SEO

• Crawl/indexability
• Site speed
• Site structure/architecture (and strong internal linking)
• Schema 
• Canonicals
• Proper redirects
• Mobile-friendliness
• Good meta content

What currently matters most in the world of SEO are these two things

• High-Quality Content & Strategy
• Site Authority

Most Complex SEO Problems

• Problem 1: Improper Indexing of Your Pages
• Problem 2: Keyword Cannibalization
• Problem 3: Wrong Page Structuring for Its Target Topic
• Problem 4: Incoherent Internal Linking
• Problem 5: Low Page Speed, Especially on Mobile

Difference between changing content and updating content

• Changing content does not make it more up to date. It’s simply rearranging words.
• Updating content means making it up to date. That results in content that is relevant in a topic that is changing.

Possible Reasons Why Your Site Traffic Dropped

1. You’re Tracking the Wrong Rankings
2. Lost Links
3. Broken Redirects
4. Manual Actions
5. Algorithm Changes
6. Natural Changes in Search
7. UX Changes in Google
8. Geolocation Discrepancies
9. Competitor Improvements
10. Page Speed
11. Server Issues
12. Other Web Vitals
13. Internal Navigation
14. Bad Quality Link Penalties
15. Recent Website Changes & Redesign
16. Simple Technical Issues
17. Server Overload
18. Meta Information
19. Source of Traffic
20. Time on Site
21. Duplicate Content
22. You’re Using Old Clickbait Techniques

Advanced SEO Techniques to Double Your Search Traffic

• Complete An SEO Audit On Your Website

Check #1: Do all your website’s pages have SEO meta titles and descriptions?

Check #2: Is each page on your website optimized for SEO keywords?

Check #3: Is your URL structure optimized for search engines?

Check #4. Is each page and blog post formatted properly?

Check #5: Do all your images have keywords in their ALT tags?

Check #6: Are you using links in your content?

• Learn What Your Users Want
• Create SEO Optimized Landing Pages

Step 1: Use Long Tail Keywords

Step 2: Use Compelling Copy to Share Useful Information

Step 3: Use a Professional Design

Step 4: Build Links

• Make Your Website is Mobile-Friendly
• Grow Your Traffic With Infographics

Step #1: Get Your Stats

Step #2: Create the Infographic

Step #3: Write a Blog Post Based on Your Infographic

Step #4: Submit Your Infographic to Directories

• Optimize Content for RankBrain
• Write at Least 1,447 Words
• Write a Roundup Post

Step #1: Pick a Topic and a Good Question

Step #2: Make a List of Experts and Reach Out

Step #3: Write and Publish the Post

• Post Valuable Content on Social
• Use Advanced SEO Internal Deep Linking
• Send Link Juice to Lower-Ranked Pages
• Link to External Sites with High Domain Authority
• Snag Broken Link Opportunities on Wikipedia to Build Links
• Find and Use Competitors’ SEO Keywords
• Use Multiple Keywords in SEO Page Titles
• Monitor Google Search Console Stats
• Update Old Content
• Revamp Old Articles With More Organic Traffic Potential

19 Most Common SEO Errors That Hurt Your Rankings

Accessibility & Indexation

• Duplicate Content
• Forgotten Noindex Tags
• Using iFrames
• Low Word Count
• Flash

AMP

• Deprecated Elements
• CSS & JavaScript Errors

HTTP Status Code

• Server Status Code 4xx
• Server Status Code 5xx

HTTPS Certificate & Server Parameters

• Mixed Content
• Insecure Password Input
• Common Name Mismatch

Links & Redirects

• Orphaned Pages
• Links to Redirected Pages
• Links From Bad Pages

Page Speed

• Not Using Browser Caching
• Not Enabling Compression

Hreflang Attributes

• Hreflang Page Source Conflicts
• Invalid Hreflang Values

Content Planning

Content Topic

• Competitors Topics Research - Articles that have gathered lot of comments and social shares on competitors site
• Online Communities - Checking the online communities for topics which are unanswered or topics that are trending (Reddit and Quora)
• Tools To Explore Recent Topics - Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Alerts
• Research Post (Statistics) - Posting More original and research post which can be used as a resource for other websites.

Choosing a keyword around that content

• Choosing a keyword around that topics (Long Tail Keywords or Money Keyword) on the basis of following factors 

1. Search volume 
2. Competition 

• Generating Secondary Keywords around the topic to include at H2 and H3 Tags (We can use the tools like Answer the public to discover the questions asked around the topic and include them in our content. It will help us in appearing in the rich snippets ) 

1. Google and YouTube Suggest 
2. Image Search "Tags" 
3. Answer The Public

All aspects of On- Page Seo

• Plagiarism Check
• Include your keyword in Meta titles and descriptions/Optimize your title tag for CTR
• Keyword Density on the Content
• URL structure
• Broken up with heading and subheadings (h1 and h2 tags)
• Bolding or italicizing important points
• Optimized with a call to action
• Add internal links to other pages on your site (link juice to lower ranked pages)
• Image have keywords in their ALT tags
• Page Speed
• Page look in AMP
• Link to external sites with high Domain Authority
• Schema
• Yoast SEO factors
• Format your content for readability

Google Ranking Factors

1. Relevance of overall page content
2. Quality of linking sites & pages
3. Use of query-relevant words & phrases
4. Domain's perceived expertise, authority, & trust
5. Mobile friendliness
6. Exact match keyword use
7. Quantity & diversity of linking websites
8. Content's accuracy w/ accepted facts
9. Link authority of host domain
10. Page's perceived expertise, authority, and trust
11. Use of query-relevant entities in page content
12. Load speed
13. Usage data, e.g. pogo-sticking, engagement, etc.
14. Freshness of publication
15. Anchor text of links pointing to the page
16. Location, frequency, & distance of related words
17. Total amount of on-page content
18. Use of unique, relevant images
19. Site accessibility factors
20. Anchor text of links to other pages on the domain
21. Keyword use in the URL
22. Unlinked mentions of the site/brand
23. Age of the website
24. Use of Google AMP
25. Use of external links on the page
26. Keyword in the Domain Name

Offpage Task

• Share the content on all the Social Channel
• Use Quora
• Submit infographics
• Join HARO
• Publish a press release (if needed)
• Comment on other influential blogs
• Mention your sources on all the social channel
• Scoop.it
• Use BuzzBundle
• Post in LinkedIn Groups
• Post to StumbleUpon
• Broken link opportunities
• Guest Post / Article Submission
• Profile Creation
• Social Bookmarking (Only High DA)
• Web 2.0
• Forum's Posting

Google News XML Sitemap

Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:n="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">

  <url>

    <loc>http://example.com/</loc>

    <n:news>

      <n:publication>

        <n:name>News paper, blog or similar name</n:name>

        <n:language>en</n:language>

      </n:publication>

      <n:publication_date>2008-12-30T00:00:00+00:00</n:publication_date>

      <n:keywords>2008,news,xml,sitemap,example,keywords,generated</n:keywords>

      <n:title>News Article Title</n:title>

    </n:news>

  </url>

</urlset>

Guidelines:

• Include URLs for articles published in the last 2 days. You can remove articles older than 2 days from the News sitemap, but they remain in the News index for the regular 30-day period.
• Update your News sitemap with fresh articles as they're published. Google News crawls News sitemaps as often as it crawls the rest of your site.
• Add 1,000 URLs or less. If you want to include more, break these URLs into multiple sitemaps and use a sitemap index file to manage them. Use the XML format provided in the sitemap protocol. Do not list more than 50,000 sitemaps in your sitemap file. These limits help ensure that your web server isn't serving large files to Google News.
• Do not create a News sitemap for each update. Instead, update your current sitemap with your new article URLs.

Capture full screenshot using Chrome DevTools

• Open inspect element using Ctrl+Shft+I.
• Toggle device toolbar using Ctrl+Shft+M to enter responsive mode and Select the screen size and set zoom level to 100%.
• Refresh the page so that layout takes it's place using Ctrl+Shft+R.
• Press Ctrl+Shft+P and enter "screenshot" in textbox and select the "Capture full size screenshot"

• File will be downloaded.

PageSpeed Insights

1. First Contentful Paint

First Contentful Paint marks the time at which the first text or image is painted.

Ref: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/audits/first-contentful-paint

2. First Meaningful Paint

First Meaningful Paint measures when the primary content of a page is visible.

Ref: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/audits/first-meaningful-paint

3. Speed Index

Speed Index shows how quickly the contents of a page are visibly populated.

Ref: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/audits/speed-index

4. Time to Interactive

Time to Interactive is the amount of time in which it takes for the content on your page to become functional and ready for the user to interact with once the content has stabilized.

Ref: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/audits/time-to-interactive

5. First CPU Idle

First CPU Idle marks the first time at which the page's main thread is quiet enough to handle input.

Ref: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/audits/first-cpu-idle

6. First Input Delay (FID) 

First Input Delay (FID) is a metric that tracks the delay between the time a user can attempt to interact with a part of the site, and the time that the interface is able to respond to that interaction

Ref: https://web.dev/fid/

Introduction Email

Sub: Welcome to Techmagnate - SEO Campaign [Website] 

Dear [Client Name], 

Welcome to Techmagnate and thank you for partnering with us! 

I want to take a moment to introduce the team. My name is [Account Manager’s Name] and I am the Account Manager assigned to your project & shall be your central point of contact for SEO activities, so please feel free to reach out to me for any questions. 

[Business Development Executive or Manager’s Name], our [Business Development Head or Executive], has shared the details of your project requirements with me, and I wanted to let you know that we have begun working for your website on [Start Date]. 

Abhinav, (Head of SEO Operations) at Techmagnate (also copied here). He will be the escalation point in case of any project performance updates/issues. 

We have initiated the process for preliminary keyword research and analysis and we will share the list with you by [Keywords Research Date]. 

In the meantime, please accept the invitation for Project Management tool (Basecamp), our Project Management tool, regarding SEO activities, and create a log-in for yourself to find reports, updates, & related conversation. We will be using this tool for all the future communication related to SEO activities. 

Please give us access to Google Analytics and Google webmasters Tools accounts for [Website] (if already setup), on analytics@techmagnate.com (admin access) and gwt18@raventools.com (restricted access). 

Thank you, once again, for placing your trust with Techmagnate. We're looking forward to building a long and fruitful relationship.

Voice Search

3 characteristics of voice search

• Voice queries contain conversational words and are longer.

How can you leverage this characteristic?

You need to think how your audience speaks about your business, products, and services.

As I mentioned, most long-tail keyword tools will return text-based queries. They will pull LSI keywords and alphabetical variations.

For voice search optimization, I recommend starting your research with a tool called Answer the Public.

• 22% of voice queries are for local content.

How can you leverage this characteristic?

1. The phrases people use to describe the neighborhood around your location
2. “Near me” in your title tags, meta description, internal links, and anchor text
3. Landmarks around your business location
4. The titles of local institutions that are relevant to your business

• Users want immediate results.

How can you leverage this characteristic?

Your business listing should have a healthy number of positive reviews. Also, update your office hours, contact details, physical address, and the like.

Strategy to implement

#1: Use structured data
#2: Claim your Google My Business listing
#3: Get mobile-friendly
#4: Create blog posts answering your customers’ questions


More Info: 

• Source 1
• Source 2