Your 50 Common Blogging Questions Answered – Part 7

Welcome to part 7 of my Common Blogging Question series and we are making some awesome ground. I hope many of you are taking advantage of the information I’ve posted in part 1-6, and if you have any questions, you can post them below. We’re coming to the final parts of this series and I have only 3 left to round it off to a 10 part series. For those of you just joining us and want to learn more about this series, it’s pretty simple…

These are common questions asked by my visitors through my personal blog and comment box. The answers I provide are perfect for both beginners and experts trying to learn more about blogging and marketing. Let’s get started…

What are Backlinks and How Do They Help?

Blogging

Backlinks are the backbone of Google’s search engine and they are essentially links pointing from “1” site to another. Google wanted a way to transform search so decided to use a structure much like a piece of literature. Value books reference other value literature and having a search structure like this can help rank websites according to popularity. For example, a high authority website building a “backlink” to another shows the external websites is of value. Next, how does this help you?

First, it’s a great way to divide low quality websites from the higher quality sites. Next, it increases the overall authority of your website and eventually will boost your rankings within the SERP. It’s recommended you ONLY get backlinks from website with high authority so they add value to your website. Links from low quality websites can have the reverse effect on your rankings.

How Does Google Find My Website?

Search engines use a very sophisticated system to index your website and rank your website according to your “target” keywords. Obviously, getting ranked takes time and there are over 200 rankings factors you have to pay close attention to in order to build your blog. However, initially, Google finds your website by crawling through your pages using “spider bots”. These small bots built on a sophisticated coding system will arrive on your website and go through the pages, collecting data. However, you need to do your part to ensure this process is done correctly, for example:

  • Make sure your keyword is placed in the correct spots like title, content, and URL.
  • A clear interlinking structure so bots can jump from page to page.
  • Having a sitemap.xml will help organize information.
  • A solid SEO campaign to ensure value to your website and/or page.

In the next question, you’ll learn the difference between a legitimate SEO campaigns compared to one that will hurt your business.

What is White Hat vs. Blackhat?

To create an effective SEO campaign and build links the right way, you have to understand the difference. Not knowing the difference can get you in trouble with Google and eventually eliminated from the search results. Here’s the difference…

White Hat SEO is strategies allowed by Google and considered legitimate when optimizing your website. This includes building links manually, keeping a slow and steady pace, writing high quality content, actually putting forth effort and staying away from Black Hat SEO strategies.

Black Hat SEO are strategies that Google tries to avoid like low quality link building through software, PBN’s, low quality content, spamming, etc.

If you want to be effective, then build links by always using White Hat SEO strategies.

How Long Does it Take to Re-Index My Website?

This is a very common question I get because from the first time Google indexes your website, there have been several changes on your end. For example, you’ve optimized your website, adding links, content, and submitting your site on related directories. Before these changes can be picked up, Google needs to index all the sites involved within your SEO campaign. There are a few factors that encourage the rate of indexing.

  • The rate at which your website is updated with new content. After the recent Google freshness update, it’s been said websites with new content published frequently will be indexed quickly and even see a boost in the SERP’s.
  • The number of external websites pointing to your website. The more frequent high quality links are built to any given page, the faster the indexing process.
  • How frequently updates are made to existing content on your website. Frequent updates on existing content are a great way to let Google know you’re constantly updating your information.

You can use http://pingomatic.com/ to alert the search bots also.

How Do I Keep Track of My Keyword Rankings?

Google Webmaster Tools is a great way, but their results can sometimes be off because they show the average, NOT current position. I’m currently using SERPFox.com to keep track of all the main keywords I want to rank for. This tool is very affordable and even offers a FREE trial. I’m currently paying $10/mo for 50 keywords and unlimited domains.

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