The world seems to have changed, although to be fair it has never stopped advancing. This truth becomes evident when we talk about a discipline as attached to the present as SEO.
And precisely today I want to talk to you about that, about SEO in times of coronavirus.
In difficult times there are those who choose to collapse, others prefer to see it as an opportunity for growth and learning; in truth it is that second group of people who will be most interested in the content that I brought to Citizen 2.0.
And we must not forget that some sectors, as well as many online stores, are doing their August; either by reinventing their business model, adapting their range of services/products or establishing new synergies, agreements and collaborations with other companies or sectors as for example can happen with ozone.
Without going any further, my cooking and sports blogs have increased their traffic; and I have it on good authority that sales of sports equipment have also increased, about 130% during the confinement.
And although seen in this light it seems that people have become more fitness-oriented, the reality is that we are becoming more polarized; in short, changing habits and buying patterns.
Seen this way, it is a good time to look for new business opportunities, to find that necessary evolution; to reinvent ourselves in times of crisis.
With all this I want you to get the message that your project or digital business has a future, the market is changing and the opportunities are still there for those who want to explore them.
You should not stop doing SEO or that your sector is one of the most affected, and if you have never before considered positioning your business or online store on Google, this is perhaps the best time to start.
At the end of the day, the position you occupy in Google will be a great advantage that will alleviate the process of economic recovery while we are gradually returning to normality.
For example, one of my clients is in total closure of activity (it belongs to the tourism sector) but we continue to do SEO so that it does not lose the privileged position it occupies in its sector.
Maintaining the position of your keywords despite the fact that traffic has dropped, should be a priority to safeguard your business. Whether you have an online business, a budding project or live from your niches, neither boredom nor fear should invade your daily chores.
There is a lot of SEO to do and to do it well, it is necessary to have tools that facilitate your ascent to the coveted summit of Google. Today I am going to tell you about the characteristics that this faithful squire must have.
SEO tools, your travel companions to rank on Google
In the same way that you need a toolbox or special kitchen utensils to make a home renovation or a delicious cake, to do SEO you will also need to have a specific toolkit or functions.
As with everything else, SEO has to be learned and that learning involves the use of tools that make the task at hand less burdensome and its performance easier.
Those who are dedicated to positioning their own or third party projects in Google, do it using specific tools for this purpose because, even if you know how to drill, if you don’t have a drill it will be difficult to make a hole in the wall.
That is why SEO consultants and agencies, as well as small freelancers or entrepreneurs, choose to acquire suites of SEO tools; for the advantages they offer over the classic “single function” tool.
An SEO suite is the union of different tools that run under a common software. It would be like the programs that run on your computer. And although there are many SEO suites, I particularly use and recommend Dinorank, especially if you have never done SEO before.
First of all because unlike other suites, Dinorank is a tool created in Spain and therefore its support system and customer service is in native Spanish; something uncommon in the SEO tools sector.
This is always an advantage when we talk about working with a software because we often have doubts about some aspect of its operation or the reading of data that shows us.
In addition, its quality-price ratio is excellent for such a complete SEO suite. An economical and effective option.
What benefits does an SEO suite bring to the users who use it?
I would summarize the advantages mainly in these five:
The convenience of centralizing processes.
You only have to learn how to use it once because although the functions are different, its architecture is the same.
If different SEO tools are used, it is easy to find format incompatibility when crossing data or exporting files.
Its price is usually cheaper in proportion to all the functions it allows you to do compared to more specific SEO tools.
You get a more complete solution as it allows you to approach SEO in a comprehensive way.
What functions should an SEO tool have to help you rank in Google?
It depends on the business model you want to position and the way you understand SEO, but there are some essential features that a good SEO software must have.
Below I will share with you the most relevant aspects when it comes to take a project to the top of Google. In short, I will tell you the unavoidable steps of a professional SEO strategy, as well as what you should take into account when selecting a suite of SEO tools that will make your job easier.
At the end of the day, the choice of your “working tool” can make the difference between success and mediocrity in your SEO work. Therefore, any SEO tool worth its salt must have the following modules:
Keyword analysis (keyword research). Necessary to perform keyword searches for your services or products.
SEO audit. Necessary to find and debug errors on your website.
Position Tracker. Necessary to monitor the keywords you are positioning in Google; See when they go up. See when they go down.
Content analyzer. Necessary to extract the semantic prominence of the texts you want to position, that is, those terms that are most commonly used for a particular sector, service or product.
Keyword Analysis Module
The starting point for any project or business that wants to position itself in Google is to understand what the user is looking for and how he/she does it. You must first see if there is a market and if so, if it is not already saturated and there is room for you; try new approaches, be more specific, etc.
An SEO tool that includes among its functions a keyword analysis will allow you to do a search of the terms associated with your services or products: see the search volume they have in Google, the trend of that search throughout the year and the competition that surrounds them.
Let’s use a real example to see this:
Let’s suppose I want to position myself for the keyword “weddings Madrid”, so I enter the keyword to study in the tool.
The image shows us the number of times per month that the keyword we have entered is searched for as well as its total average volume. In this case we see that in the months of March, June and October there are search peaks.
The advantage you get with an SEO tool that allows you to do Keyword Research is that you not only get information about the keyword you want to study, but you discover new keywords; keywords usually semantically related in long tail format (more than 3 words) or local keywords that you will most likely be interested in positioning.
Here we can see that, although the search volume of these keywords is lower, they are more specific and therefore we can respond more specifically to the search that the user is doing.
In this case “weddings Madrid” is a seed keyword that helps us to discover new keywords that are being searched for in Google. If we know what they are looking for, we will know what content to offer to get them to our website.
At the same time, a keyword analysis helps us to know the competition surrounding the sector and thus see which keywords are within reach of our project.
It is, so to speak, like turning on the light in a dark warehouse, it allows you to walk through it seeing where the dangers are and where the opportunities are.
SEO audit module
This is a somewhat abstract function that each SEO tool interprets in its own way. This module serves you on a platter the errors and absences that prevent your domain from ranking.
The data is usually presented in table format, in an orderly fashion and relatively easy to understand for anyone who has already had some contact with SEO.
The number of errors in a domain is usually much higher than it is believed and therefore the resistances or limitations that we may have when it comes to positioning ourselves in Google are also higher.
Some of the most serious errors that no search engine will tolerate are:
Very slow loading time of the web site; which can derive in the end in errors 500.
An excessive number of “page not found” URLs (404 errors); especially serious if it is content that was previously ranking.
That your website does not comply with the SSL security protocol; especially in those domains where transactions are made.
Duplicate or scarce content. It is a problem that usually derives from a CMS (WordPress or Prestashop are good examples) which tend to generate duplicate text of little value in categories, tags, filters, etc..
And although the errors mentioned above are the most problematic, there are many other errors to pay attention to, here are some of them:
Excessive number of 3XX redirects of any kind.
Duplicate or missing title or main heading (h1) tags.
Number of URLs in noindex (these are pages tagged in such a way that Google cannot index them; consequently they cannot be positioned in its search engine).
Duplicate or missing meta descriptions; if you have reached the first page of Google this will be a text you will have to take care of.
Are there terms you have never heard before? If this is the case, here is a SEO terminology dictionary: See SEO dictionary.
Precisely this is one of the main reasons why I recommend the use of Dinorank among friends and acquaintances who want to get started in this SEO.
Unlike other SEO tools, Dinorank has a very easy learning curve, with continuous recommendations and advice on “what to do in case of…” within the platform; both in text format and with video tutorials.
Does the ultimate SEO tool exist?
There are very good SEO tools out there, but to make such a sweeping statement would be foolhardy. Among other things because SEO is an art in itself, and as such it is in constant movement. A tool that is effective today may be obsolete in a couple of years if it is not renewed in step with Google.
A good SEO tool will not get you to the top of Google on its own, just as you can’t win a race with a good car without the necessary skills to drive it. Of course, as soon as you learn how to drive it, then your chances of winning skyrocket.
SEO is a constant learning process, but it is a grateful one. In this article I wanted to take you through the journey that every project, company or freelancer who wants to rank in Google must undertake and I wanted to offer you a reliable travel companion from the hand of an SEO suite.
And whatever your choice, remember that for your work to be effective, you need the SEO tool you use to allow you to do:
Keyword Research; to know what the user searches for.
SEO Audit; to know what errors there are in your website.
Position Tracker; to know which keywords you have positioned and their evolution.
Semantic Prominence; to know how to write to create appealing texts for Google.
And of course, if possible, to have an SEO suite that for an affordable price includes everything, something really complicated and one of the best options you can opt for is, without a doubt, Dinorank.
I say goodbye to you, reader, wishing you the best. Don’t get discouraged and keep pushing.
And remember that doing a good SEO job means getting a lot of free traffic for your website every day. This very blog, for example, receives every day more than 10,000 visits from Google. So if you have never explored SEO, now is the time to do it.
