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A great SEO content starts with your H1 tag. A carefully crafted H1 tag will immediately capture your user’s attention and sets the tone for the entire article. Any SEO guru worth their salt will tell you that a catchy H1 title tag can make all the difference. But somehow, many SEOs fail to pay attention to these itsy-bitsy pieces of code. I’ve been doing SEO since 2009, and I can’t stress enough how important the H1 tag is for your organic traffic. That’s why in this article I’ll show you what an H1 tag is, why it is important, and how to write the best one for SEO. Read More

Table Of ContentsQuick SummaryWhat is White Hat SEO?What Makes it Important?9 White Hat SEO Techniques that actually Make a Difference1. Prioritize Quality Content2. Satisfy The User Intent3. Focusing on Mobile First4. Claim Your Local Business Listing (GMB)5. Make User Experience (UX) a Priority6. Excellent Keyword Research7. Focus on Content Marketing8. Utilize Schema Markup9. Quality Link BuildingFAQsWhat Does White Hat Mean in SEO?What Is a Black Hat SEO Technique?What Is Grey Hat SEO Technique?Stay Future-Proof with White Hat SEO TechniquesReferences This year has been a turbulent one for SEO. Many updates by search engines, both announced and unannounced, have hit website owners in a short amount of time. You may be asking: What works, now? What’s the safest way to invest your marketing dollar for both short-term and long-term growth of your website? I’ve over 10 years of experience in the SEO space with many websites in different niches. I’ve tried many different SEO techniques. Some drove very good results, while others let’s say that I’d never do them again. Based on my experience, I can say that the best and safest SEO strategy is what’s called white hat SEO. In this article, we will explore the contemporary definition of white hat SEO, understand its significance, and uncover the nine most crucial white hat SEO techniques that will remain relevant now and in the future. Quick Summary What is White Hat SEO? White hat SEO is a term that covers all the techniques that operate in good faith with the rules and expectations of major search engines and their users. If you’re not trying to trick, undermine or outsmart the search engine ranking algorithm, what you’re doing is probably white hat SEO. This hasn’t always been the preferred way to do things. In the early, wilder days of search engine optimization and affiliate digital marketing, many website owners collected their first big payouts from underhanded tactics like keyword stuffing, invisible copy, and links spamming. So, what’s changed? Why has white hat SEO become so important? There are a few answers. What Makes it Important? While black hat SEO techniques once promised reliable increases in website traffic from search engine results if you knew what tactics to use, white hat SEO was frustratingly slow to get working and depended on standards that Google and other major search engines were very secretive about. However, recently, white hat SEO practices have become more promising than black hat SEO strategies because of a wave of new technology, search standards, and transparency. We understand what search engines are looking for now.  We know which white hat SEO strategies meet those standards too. It’s not just that white hat SEO tactics are less risky in the first place. Black-hat SEO strategies, like hacked links, and article spinning, don’t promise the rewards that they once did. There are many good reasons to adopt white hat SEO methods over black hat SEO, but that doesn’t mean that simply following the rules is all it takes. It’s no longer enough to put a keyword in a headline or subheadings. Some tips and white hat SEO techniques are simply more effective for website owners trying to rank on search engine results. Here are the 9 strategies that are going to make the biggest difference in . 9 White Hat SEO Techniques that actually Make a Difference It’s important to understand not only what tactics work, but how to pull them off so that they make the biggest difference for you. What follows is everything my agency (The Search Initiative) has learned about what works best, within the scope of white hat SEO, and how to do it right. 1. Prioritize Quality Content Content was king, now it’s whatever outranks a king—Emperor, perhaps? In any case, the content on your website is one of the most significant search ranking factors within search engines, and many see it trending toward becoming even more important in the future. It’s not as simple as just writing “good” relevant content, though. Google’s search engine results evaluate your site content based on a range of signals that include… Length Topic Keyword distribution Links (and their anchors) Age The right way to create content is to make sure that it is appropriately long, relevant, and well-sourced.  A tool like Surfer is great for bringing up a quick analysis of the ideal specs for planning an article. You should be planning ahead whenever you create a piece of content to make sure that you have enough information to fill your article with valuable information. And that holds true for both black and white hat SEO. You want your content to be interesting and authoritative enough to draw links from others. This will be an important part of a technique we’ll discuss later. A high quality content can be an engine for developing a page, multiple pages, or an entire website. However, content needs a long time, sometimes even the best content needs between 3-5 months to mature. [1] It should go without saying that your site is required to satisfy your user’s intent. As the next item will reveal, that’s something you need to focus on no matter what technique you’re using. 2. Satisfy The User Intent Google’s search engine crawler has long been obsessed with delivering search results that more accurately matched the motivations of searchers, a mission that has been called “user intent”. This is as pretty much taken over white hat SEO. Every update has been about building up the number and accuracy of the factors that go into guessing user intent. Now, there are thousands of such signals and they don’t need much input to assign your site a place in the online world. Everything you do, from your content to your site layout and images should be based around matching the intent of the users who are navigating to your site via online search engines. There are several techniques used to accomplish this. First, consider where your site belongs in the buying process. Are your users looking to be informed? To be convinced of something they already want? To make a purchase right now? The answer should lead you on how to develop your website. If the answer is information, then most of your information should focus on that. If they want to buy, the product should be front-and-center in their vision when they land. It’s now easily possible to analyze the user’s expectations. You can use TF*IDF tools to determine—with a very high degree of accuracy—what topics users expect to be covered in each niche, and what kind of prominence each subject should have. Of course, not all of the best SEO writing tips are dependent on timeless criteria like content and user intent. Some search ranking factors have changed a lot in the past few years, including the importance of mobile. 3. Focusing on Mobile First If you haven’t updated your site to focus on mobile quality first, you’re falling behind. Google’s search engine first started emphasizing mobile search results in 2016, when they announced a mobile-friendly label designed to lead searchers toward content that could be easily read on phone devices. A year later, they warned that… [2] This warning came with new guidelines about appropriate content (image examples are provided in the previous link), display ads and email opt-in pop-ups. Site content that is designed without consideration for mobile users may suffer overall, not just from mobile users. Fortunately, it’s not that difficult to make a mobile-friendly site. Google has released its own mobile-friendly test app where you can check to make sure that your website isn’t penalized, and figure out where you need to make changes. [3] OK, web design isn’t a white hat SEO but understanding it’s the importance and ensuring your site meets Google’s standards is. In addition, focusing on mobile users, there’s another audience that requires specific attention. The increasing importance of local intent has made it vital that you secure your Google My Business listing. 4. Claim Your Local Business Listing (GMB) Delivering locally relevant search engine results pages (SERPs) is just one more way that the Google algorithm is trying to match user intent. Naturally, users who are looking for home services, restaurants or some outdoor fun don’t want to see search results that are hundreds of miles away. That may be a lot more searches than you’d think. Recent research has shown that 82% of smartphone shoppers conducted “near me” searches. [4] Prioritizing local searchers is a major opportunity for most web pages and businesses because it gives them the chance to be the biggest fish in a much smaller pond. It makes success much more attainable. The best way to take advantage of these searches is to claim the GMB page for your company. GMBs, when claimed, appear in a special box above Google’s search engine results page called the Map Pack. Searchers are shown the physical location of all relevant businesses and have access to a profile that includes address, phone Read More Read More

Table Of ContentsHow is Rank and Rent Model Different?Who Invests in Renting Ranked Websites?Newly-opened businessesBusinesses that rely on leadsBusiness owners experimenting with targeting a new type of consumerThe Steps to Create a Rank and Rent Website1. Choosing a Niche2. Selecting a Domain Name3. Setting Up on a Content Management System (CMS)4. Analyzing your Competitors5. Researching Keywords6. Writing Content7. Setting up Google My Business (GMB)8. Completing Offsite SEO9. Renting out your WebsiteGet Started with Rank and Rent As experienced SEO experts and digital marketing professionals, we have a deep understanding of the Rank and Rent model and how it can be leveraged to generate significant revenue for your business. Local SEO Search engine veterans are flocking to rank and rent SEO because it’s simple, scalable, and best of all—lucrative. Even if you’re new to this model, a basic understanding of website ranking tools sets you up for success. This comprehensive guide will explain everything about Rank and Rent SEO, from understanding the model and its interested clients to choosing a niche, setting up your site, analyzing competition, creating impactful content, meeting technical requirements, and securing your first client. We’ll also delve into understanding the motivations of local businesses willing to pay for this service. Let’s dive in. How is Rank and Rent Model Different?  The Rank and Rent model is very different from what you’re used to. “Rent” is the key word here, because you’re choosing not to hand over control of the site. You control the site, the links, and the content. Your tenants negotiate with you over where and how any of that changes and end their lease when they either get what they wanted or no longer agree to your terms. You can then rent out the website to a different local business owner. If you did everything right, you can rent it out at a higher cost to the next client because it was gaining value while it was being rented out to the first one. For example, let’s say that you get a website to rank in the first spot for “dentist in Chicago”. Now that you’ve got that spot in local search results, there are a lot of dentists who would pay to skip the work and just slide onto that site. If you’re interested in Rank and Rent as a long-term local SEO strategy, your goal should be to develop a constantly-growing, money-producing portfolio of different lead generation websites. But before you start thinking about that, it’s important to understand who you’re going to be trying to attract as clients. After all, who invests in a website that they don’t even get to own? Who Invests in Renting Ranked Websites? There are local business owners in every niche that are interested in renting out web properties that generate leads. For most of them, the big factor is cost. Buying a website is expensive. Paying people to design pretty graphics and write engaging content is expensive. Chasing down backlinks is tedious and time-consuming on top of all the costs. Renting a lead generation website gives local businesses the freedom to bundle all of those costs into a monthly fee that they can stop paying whenever they’re ready to move on to their next digital marketing strategy. They don’t even need to worry about finding a new buyer. They can just walk away. Even beyond the lower cost, rank and rent websites offer unique advantages to certain clients. Understanding who they are will help you throughout the development of your first website and any future rank and rent sites. Newly-opened businesses Starting from scratch with a rank and rent site can take a while before it gains some traction in the search engines. Even a local business that attracts a lot of foot traffic won’t start ranking in search engines immediately. In addition, many local business owners perceive online marketing and SEO as intimidating, to say the least.  You’re the bridge. For any local business that’s brand new, from restaurants to plastic surgeons, renting websites is a great way to skip the sandbox period to immediately start showing up in search engines. Businesses that rely on leads Those who rely on leads will take them wherever they can get them. Any local business, from dentists to lawyers and home repair services, want leads wherever they can get them. Renting a high ranking website and claiming leads that come into it requires less obligation and liability than a lot of the other methods that are used to draw leads. Business owners experimenting with targeting a new type of consumer Dipping a toe into a new customer base is so much cheaper and easier with a rented website. For example, an IT company that is considering offering a wordpress web hosting service and wants to dip its toes before building out a department. Successfully ranking in search engines shows the client that you have successfully targeted the consumers in question. If they aren’t interested in your client, the costs are very low. Now that you understand the motivations of those who rank and rent websites and the clients who invest in them, you’re ready to tackle your own. Following the detailed steps below will take you all the way to the sale. The Steps to Create a Rank and Rent Website All the work it takes to rank and rent a website fit neatly into the following steps. Choosing a niche Selecting a domain name Setting up a content management system Analyzing your competitors Researching keywords Writing content Setting up GMB Completing off-site SEO Renting out your website If any of that sounds confusing now, don’t worry. All of them are going to be explained in complete detail in the sections below. Let’s start with the vital first step: Choosing the niche for your rank and rent website. 1. Choosing a Niche Choose your niche carefully. Remember, you want to find a balance where the niche is lucrative enough to rent out for a great price, but not so competitive that you’re going to have to spend big to rank the site in the first place. That’s why the recommendation is to focus on local SEO. Many learn that it is best to approach this decision by narrowing down an industry and a city where you want to focus your efforts. Industry Most people who rank and rent websites successfully do it by attracting leads. If you plan on doing the same, you need to start by considering businesses that live off leads. For example… Elective health professionals like dentists and cosmetic surgeons Beauty professionals like hairdressers and manicurists Service professionals like roofers, landscapers, and renovators Destinations like resorts, wineries, and spas To keep the examples consistent throughout the rest of the guide, let’s assume that your target tenant is a lead-hungry landscaper. This is a great example because there aren’t many national landscaping companies. Let’s look at how that should be done. City It’s not a good idea to try to go national with your first rank and rent website. Instead, choose a medium-sized city that has a healthy amount of business. If you target a community which is too small, you’ll have a tiny pool of potential tenants to choose from. If you choose a city that is too big, you are going to have a lot more competition cutting into your costs. Let’s return to our example. There are landscapers in almost every city, but you’re going to discover more of them in cities that have a base of wealthier homeowners and verdant land that responds well to being sculpted. Build a small list of medium-sized cities so that you can do some homework on each one. For our example, you can safely skip cities that are built in deserts (like Phoenix) or on tundras (like Anchorage). Now, do some basic google research to determine how well each city matches your preferred client. Determine out how many landscapers are operating, and what kind of keywords are ranking there (we’ll do a more complete run-down of keyword research in a later section). For the sake of the example, let’s assume that you landed on beautiful Hillsboro, Oregon. A healthy tech industry has filled this city with upwardly mobile professionals, and it’s surrounded by agriculture and wineries—both industries that frequently work with landscapers. A quick Google search will show you that there are just over 20 landscapers who know enough to appear in GMB. These are your likely clients, so take a few minutes to look over their website and find out what services they are most likely to showcase. This information will come in handy when we start looking at the development of your content in a later step. While it’s not necessary to be close to the city you choose, it can help if you’re going to specialize in a large portfolio of rank and rent sites. Being able to meet in person can help you form the relationships that lead to more consistent Read More Read More