Just recently, Bing released a new set of link penalties. This will sanction websites that rent subdomains, use private blog networks, perform manipulative cross, site linking. This move is marked as one of Bing’s toughest takes on abusive ranking tactics that website owners use. Over the next months, we can expect these penalties to take effect.

Bing has been innovating and gaining more teeth for abusive website owners. So if you’re guilty of the mentioned methods, you should know more about this looming problem.

Is your site on the wringer? Here are the things you need to know:

Subdomain leasing is spammy

Subdomain leasing is done by creating a subfolder or subdomain on a well-established site then renting it out to third party site owners. This method gives new sites an unfair advantage as the internet presence of the mother domain trickles to the subdomains. With this, new sites rank fast, but Bing has emphasized that this is a spammy move.

Soon enough, sites that are seeking shelter to subdomains for rankings and traffic will be penalized. This won’t only cause problems to the lessee of the subdomain. It will also spell trouble for the owner of the mother domain.

As much as the benefit trickles down to the subdomain, the penalty will also climb up to the main domain once Bing discovers this tactic.

Cross-site linking should never be manipulated

As you know, backlinking is one of the major ranking factors in both Bing and Google. This is why many sites exhaust all possible means to cross-link their pages with other websites. However, some create several sites that manipulate backlinks by cross-linking within the sites of the same owner. Bing will penalize this as it manipulates the ranking advantage of the website owner.

Cross-site linking has to be natural and within sites of different owners. This way, websites will have healthier competition. Expect Bing penalties if you’re notoriously using this method in a manipulative way.

How does it translate to your site?

If you don’t use any of these shady tactics, you don’t have to worry about anything. However, if you’re guilty of such practices, expect that Bing will be after you. Even though you can get away with it for a few months, the search engine will advance and find your website. By that time, the penalty would be so adverse that it will pull you down from Bing rankings.

Also, you should know that Google also has similar penalties. So if you’re not playing by the rules, expect a double whammy of penalties. That’s a big headache, especially for high-ranking and high-earning websites.

Conclusion 

Bing is becoming more and more diverse. And as an effort to keep their platform fair for all websites, they are going after those who are using spammy tactics just to get an unfair advantage. Take note that you can only get away with your shady techniques for quite a time. At some point, Bing will catch your website and impose heavy penalties that will impact your rankings and, worse, your revenue.

Every business that wishes to improve its local online visibility needs a functional and well-optimized Google My Business (GMB) account. After creating an account for your organization, it’s important to optimize it in every possible way. GMB offers excellent potential to engage with your customers and to market your products or services.

Here are four of the ways we recommend in leveraging your GMB profile:

Nudge your customers to leave a review

After customers purchase a product or service, always follow-up for them to leave a review. While it’s true that not all customers are willing to take some time for a review, a small reward can go a long way.

Reviews on your GMB account will speak a lot about the reputation of your company. Unlike the testimonials you put on your website, actual reviews bear more weight. Other potential customers will use this as a basis of whether they will use your offers or not.

Respond to negative reviews

If a customer happens to leave a negative review, respond as soon as you can. Ignoring the bad review will not make it go away. Worse, you’re letting it sit on your profile with no apparent action. Aside from the customer, other potential leads are seeing the problem and your lack of action.

Many times, customers are willing to edit their reviews if you give them a resolution to their concerns. The sooner, the better. This way, you can convert a bad review into a positive, or at least a neutral one. At least, other customers will see that you tried to address the problem in the most professional way possible.

Connect to your consumers

Your job doesn’t stop upon selling the products/services and gaining the most coveted review. You should also take the time to connect to your customers through the GMB Messages tool.

This is an excellent way to make your patrons feel valued. You can send a personalized greeting card or just a simple ‘Thank You’ for being a loyal customer. By speaking to your customers directly, you get to empathize with them. This effort will not go unnoticed. It’s also a great way to retain repeat customers and convert potential leads.

Ditch spammy tactics

Spammy tactics will not just annoy your customers, but also Google. The search engine knows when you’re paying someone just to give you a nice review. When this happens, they will penalize your account and impact the reputation of your business. In the long run, you’ll lose more and experience more headaches with your online presence.

So the key here is being real and natural. Avoid getting flagged for fraudulent reviews. Remember that positive reviews don’t happen overnight. You have to be patient with following up and addressing the concerns of your customers.

Conclusion

Your GMB account serves as a gateway to your customers to send feedback to your business. It’s also your tool to reach them and to market your business. It’s just right that you unleash its full potential.

Every Google update sends site owners worrying about how their websites will fare. Some will go down, while others will be sent up in the rankings. This uncertainty is the reason why the November update is yet another worrying move from Google for site owners.

Still, there’s no need to panic. John Mueller from Google has given his take on some of the concerns surrounding the latest updates and why site rankings vary.

The new technology on the block

The newest kid in town is BERT technology. Google claims it to be the biggest stride in search for the past five years. BERT works by interpreting the relation of each word of an entered query. This is a big development as Google used to search meanings through individual word interpretation.

So how does this translates to site owners? Well, it will directly affect your rankings on specific keywords. But this isn’t bad news. In fact, Google is just putting traffic where it’s due. That means you’re losing website traffic that’s not helpful or converting. As for your ranking, it just goes to show how relevant your pages are for the keyword you’re optimizing for.

The reason why your rank goes down

Don’t be surprised if your page rankings go down after the November update. This is BERT in the works. In fact, if you’re generating rich snippets before, it may not show up this time.

The reason for this is that other pages could turn out to be relevant to the search than yours.

So what can you do here? You don’t necessarily have to fix anything. Just continue producing relevant content. You can also employ a new content strategy so you can outperform the top ranking sites.

From the point of view of a Googler

John Mueller recently addressed some concerns on a webcast as to why some websites rank even if they don’t meet certain ranking factors. Also, he was asked what site owners can do after the big November update.

According to Mueller, there’s no need to panic. BERT is yet another Google update. There’s no need to fix anything to recover from your rank losses.

How come slow sites rank higher than mine?

One webcast member asked Mueller why some sites with slower page speeds rank higher than his. The Googler clarified that page speed is just one of the ranking factors that the search engine takes into account. There are other bigger factors to consider here, including relevance and positive signals.

Junk links and keyword stuffing

Junk links are expired links that don’t’ have any use for your site. The good news is that Google doesn’t pay attention to this. Once it expires, you’ll go back to your original ranking. Nevertheless, you can enjoy the short-lived boost of your pages.

Aside from junk links, Google also allows some sites to get off the hook with keyword stuffing. If a website is popular and in-demand, Google will still place them on the top spot even if they are notorious for keyword stuffing.

Every website has a bounce rate. However, if yours gets too high, it’s a sign that something is broken. The cause of excessive bounce rate needs to be fixed to prevent losses in your revenue. What’s more, the bounce rate of your website will impact your website’s ranking.

It’s quite tricky to identify if the current bounce rate of your website is acceptable or not. Also, high bounce rates can be due to a myriad of problems.

First, where does the bounce rate of your website stands? Here’s a quick look at each percentage:

25% and lower – exceptional

26% to 40% – an acceptable range

41% to 55% – still acceptable and usually considered just above average range

56% to 70% – still acceptable based on a website’s niche, but higher than normal

70% and higher – there’s an urgent problem on your website that you need to fix

Reasons why you have a very high bounce rate

If your website happens to record a bounce rate higher than 70%, you have to find out what’s causing the problem ASAP. Take note that letting a high bounce rate linger will cause substantial losses on your business. Worse, it will push you to the depths of search results.

Slow loading time

This is the leading enemy of website owners. If your website loads longer than three seconds, your visitor will look for another option. This translates to losses on revenue and a massive decline in warm leads.

For websites with hundreds of pages, it will help to compress the images or to fix code errors. You should also check if your hosting or server is suitable for the amount of traffic your website is experiencing. Sometimes, an upgrade to a dedicated hosting can do wonders on your bounce rate.

Poor navigation and functions

Another common flaw among websites is poor navigation. Some buttons may not be working, or the pages are difficult to view and use on mobile devices. Take note that more than half of consumers are purchasing online goods through their mobile phones. This is the reason why you should always optimize for mobile view first before the desktop version.

The best thing to do here is to browse your website the way consumers do. It will give you first-hand experience and knowledge of what’s wrong with your website.

Low-quality content

Avoid publishing content for the sake of updating your website. Always think about what your visitors need and what could be of value for your rankings. Also, never write for search bots alone, write for the people and make sure that your tone is conversational and easy to understand.

Always brush up your copywriting skills. If you don’t have the time and skills to update your content, it’s best to hire a copywriter for a small amount.

Conclusion 

The bounce rate of your website will impact your revenue, rankings, and credibility among users. You must fix the problems behind this to improve user experience and to boost your business’ visibility.

Keyword research is an integral part of running an SEO or PPC campaign. Also, it’s a key component of search engine optimization. By picking the right keywords to optimize, you’re bringing your website closer to its rightful audience. However, the question is this: are you making the research process more complicated than it should?

The problem with overcomplicated keyword research

With the advent of software and online tools for keyword research, it’s easy to think that the process will take no more than a few minutes. For those who know how to harness such tools, keyword research can be just as quick. However, for those who get easily lost in the process, these tools can also cause the overcomplication.

A keyword research software can spit out thousands of keywords at a time. The struggle here is knowing which in the sea of keywords you’re supposed to use.

To help you narrow down the list, you should always focus on your goal. What do you want to optimize for? Take note that internet users search for a specific keyword under four different categories:

*Transactional – these keywords are directly selling an item. For example: door panels for sale

*Navigational – a query for those looking for a specific location. For example: door panel store near me

*Commercial – this is a buying intent keyword. For example: For example: best door panel for garage doors

*Informational  – it’s a query that requires a practical answer. For example: how to install door panels

Keyword research is worth it, but do it right

Keyword research allows you to rake keyword options that will help you rank your pages and launch ad campaigns. Aside from using the best keywords, this process ensures that you’re optimizing your website for the right audience.

Avoid succumbing to redundant processes. By focusing on your goal, you can easily pick well-curated keywords that will work well for your campaigns.

Stop wasting your time by searching each keyword result. Narrow down the list by determining which group of keywords you need based on the four search behavior discussed above.

Knowing what your customers are searching for is as important as knowing how and why they search for it. This way, you’ll determine what type of group ad you’re going to launch.

Stop overcomplicating keyword research

Even experienced PPC managers can make the mistake of overcomplicating the process. The key here is defining your goal so you can go back to track on your keyword research. Use the tools available, but don’t let it consume too much of your time either.

Keyword intent is the key here. Once you know what you want to achieve with your ads or SEO efforts, it’s easy to look for the keywords that you will use.

Nevertheless, it’s quite normal to have a testing phase. Still, it should last too long, or it will impact your rankings and revenue. If you find keyword research, the advice of an expert will be a big help.

Conclusion

Keyword research doesn’t have to be more difficult than it should. With the right tools and techniques, you can easily find the keywords that you really need.