Search Engine Optimization | BANTECH

How effective is Google Authorship?

by Gargi Banerjee | Jun 17, 2014 | Search Engine Optimization

(6 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

Says Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, “Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results.” So its official – Google Authorship is one step towards Google’s trust signals of a website (content). What it essentially does is link the content of a webpage with its author. So when you publish a piece of content on the page, you can link it to the author’s Google+ profile. The author in turn has to authenticate the content as his own, and a link is established. Influential writers, experts in their domain, can add credibility to a website by contributing content about their specific subjects. The search engine (Google) gives preference to search results with content that are linked to established writers. Google Authorship is a great way of refining search result to return more appropriate and high quality information to a certain query. But then there are flip sides to this when we are looking at it from the context of start ups, small and medium sized companies adopting Google Authorship to enhance the rank of their content. – First and foremost, not all content producers are really established authors at the start. In fact, how do we measure who is an ‘expert’ author? The answer to this cannot be given in one simple sentence. Expertise is relative, and there is no upper limit to gaining expertise in a subject. So writers have to build on their portfolio over a period of time, religiously publishing well researched and well referenced...

SEO factors for 2014 – Moving Beyond Content

by Gargi Banerjee | Jun 5, 2014 | Search Engine Optimization

(6 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

So content is all we have been focusing on lately, have we? Content sure has taken the center-stage in today’s SEO, given the demand of relevant and effective search result. Good content adds substantial value to the website’s performance on organic search rankings. However, to think of SEO as just publishing a whole lot of text and little else would be to ignore the vast network of other crucial activities involved that are equally important to secure your ranks. I figured I have been talking about content a bit too often myself, so here’s a quick heads-up on the key factors that you should be looking at closely to safeguard your website’s performance. Because of this sudden focus on content in search engine optimization, enough has been said already about its importance and role. I would assume you are already working on it, and would skip elaborating on this point. But, it is not to say that it is any less important! Check on Google how the link to your website appears when the search engine returns a result to one of your targeted keywords. Read the rich snippets – title, description, URL – does it sound alright? These are key to get you a higher click through rate. Check the page title, description (depending on the search query Google can extract a portion of your page content as the page description, but remember to revisit this part often to ensure it retains relevance to changing times and is compelling enough to invite a customer visit), and make the URL clutter free. Site speed is one area you should...

What is Content Marketing and what are its impacts?

by Gargi Banerjee | May 19, 2014 | Search Engine Optimization

(4 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

Four months into the new year, today I want to focus on one of the most integral aspects of SEO strategy that holds utmost relevance in 2014. Never before has ‘rich content’ been emphasized enough. SEO gurus today recommend quality content above all to improve website rankings. However, there is still a huge gap in understanding and execution. Most are not sure about what is good enough to be considered as ‘quality’ content. Uncertain, websites are stuffed with paragraphs that repeat keywords. There is a disconnect among the different pages of the website with plenty of areas for improvement. We will not get into a discussion on good and bad content – these questions have been answered in the past. And there are numerous posts that talk about ‘to do’ in SEO. In fact, as a reference, you may check this Forbes post for a more updated SEO to-do list for 2014. But we will dwell on something that goes deeper – how can we make the best use of content, what factors can boost a good content, and the myths surrounding expectations of ROI from internet marketing & SEO campaigns. First and foremost, let us clearly understand that SEO is important. A website can reach more and more people and penetrate the market with proper marketing and propaganda. With targeted steps and calculated measures, a good website can gradually move up in search engine results. And this does not require resorting to malpractices to achieve this goal or expedite this process. Second, it takes a lot of patience to see a website get better and better, and perform...

On Page SEO basics – Meta Title Tag

by Gargi Banerjee | Mar 4, 2014 | Search Engine Optimization

(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)

Day by day, there is a shift in the way people do SEO. And this is more relevant for webmasters doing their own SEO. Often, this leads to confusion and frustration, since frequently changing strategies or poor techniques show disappointing results. And the web – which is the biggest coach of the self-help community, is ever evolving in its supply of free SEO guidance. Today, I aim to address a very basic aspect of on-page search engine optimization. Before we begin, it is important to understand, SEO is not about fooling a search engine into believing your website is what it is not. For webmasters that do not care to SEO their websites, they leave it on the search engines to decipher key information about their websites which determine how its pages will be ranked. With the advanced search engines that we have today, they have their own mechanism of finding out the all the necessary information about a website. But for webmasters who SEO, they just go a step further, making these information more accessible to search engines. And as they say, an author knows best about his content, so it is always preferred to have a webmaster assign important tags like title, description, headers etc. Among the important attributes that can make a substantial difference to the webpage’s search engine performance; the Meta Title Tag tops the list in hierarchy. This in no way means the other Meta tags like – Meta Description, Header Tags and the Alt title tags (of images) etc. are less important. These are just different aspects that add more meaning to a...

How do I know if my website is hit by Google bot?

by Gargi Banerjee | Jan 30, 2014 | Search Engine Optimization

(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

I am often asked by clients how we detect if a website is hit by Google. And there are many who have a similar query looking for an answer. Let’s take a look at this issue. Why would you even have this question in your mind? Probably you noticed a sudden drop in your visitors or the call-to-action you measure your conversion with? Or you have, for long, been waiting for that elusive upward shift in your page rank, that you don’t see happening. And you think, there is a chance Google’s latest algorithm change could have affected your website. For one, if you sense a drop in the visitor base or the number of page views of your website, or a drop in your page rank (PR), these are alerts that something is wrong. It may not necessarily mean that the webmaster is at fault. But this is a sure hint that some investigation is required to detect what led to this downward change. What are some ways to detect problems in your website? 1. Check the webmaster console for malware. Webmaster tool can tell you if your site has been attacked by malware or a virus. This is a situation which may lead to a sudden drop in visitors. If so, more than the numbers, your concern is to prevent further damage and take control of the situation immediately. 2. Check the health of the external links to your site or your back-links. Often, we forget to check back how our back links are performing. If the quality of your backlinks deteriorates, or there are massive numbers...

When nothing works in SEO, follow this – Declutter!

by Gargi Banerjee | Jan 15, 2014 | Search Engine Optimization

(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)

An eye catching design that captures a visitor’s fancy – it is the first thing he notices, and decides to browse the website further. But no one comes back to a website for the design alone. Delivering compelling content that makes your website worth your aim and purpose has the strength to get returning visitors. In other words, offering quality and value to the user in an engaging environment can get them back to your website. Not difficult to fathom, these factors. And yet, it is amazing how, for the most number of web service providers and web development firms you have worked with in the past, they have missed the whole point of developing a complete website in the first place. Who needs a website for the heck of it? Surely, if that’s the case, your website will fail to create the right impact, and will be reduced to just another website that no one visits. When you have an objective, be it showcasing your portfolio, creating awareness about your campaign, or simply promoting your services, you drive the optimization of your site with the goal in mind. That gives direction to how your website performs, and how your target audience responds to your website. As an SEO expert, worried website owners often approach us sounding utterly confused and frustrated. Even while trying to follow Google’s instructions to create quality content, clean tags, update Meta data and putting the customer first, nothing seems to work for these DIY webmasters. So here are some tricks that, though apparently simple, are guaranteed to make you think whether you are doing...

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