I was chatting with a friend, who was telling me about an ex-client of his.

The client had a site re-design by a family member, and though he had done a lot of link building, the website wasn’t ranking anywhere. His site wasn’t even listed in Google. Was the site banned? On inspection, John Zumwalt found the designer had put a robots.txt file on the site, blocking all robots. A simple mistake, but difficult to spot if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Sometimes professional help is what is needed.

If your site is not being crawled by Google or other search engines, here’s a simple checklist to follow:

ROBOTS.TXT MAY EXCLUDE SPIDERS: 

Check to see if you have a file called robots.txt. This can appear in any directory but is usually found in the root. Either remove the robots.txt or make sure it conforms to the following robots.txt standard.

NO INBOUND LINKS: 

Search engines crawl the web, following links from page to page. If you don’t have a link pointing to your page from a page that is already included in Google, it is less likely that Google will find your site. Submit your site to a directory, ask a friend for a link, or beg, borrow or buy. It pays to get links from reliable sources, as opposed to link farms, which Google may discount.

THE SITE MAY HAVE TECHNICAL ISSUES: 

The server may be set up incorrectly, your site may contain code that makes crawling difficult, etc. Luckily, Google offers a reporting tool in the form of Webmaster Central. Use Sitemaps and the Site Status Wizard to help determine potential problems.

NO DEEP CRAWL: 

Google crawls the site but doesn’t find many pages. Check your linking structures to ensure that important pages are well linked. You may wish to use a pyramid site structure to help organize your site thematically. Remove, or alter, duplicate content. Increase the quality of inbound linking, and avoid poor quality outbound linking. See Matt Cutts comments roughly 3/4’s of the way down.

FLASH, SCRIPTING:

Google can have problems following animated and coded links. It is safest to provide an all HTML version of your site if using Flash. Google is getting a lot better at following scripted links, however, be sure to check with Webmaster Central if problems persist.

SITE BAN:

It’s unlikely, but possible, that your site may have been banned. Check with Webmaster Central, and if a ban is in place, try submitting a re-inclusion request. Here’s the definitive guide on submitting a re-inclusion request, straight from the horse’s mouth. Essentially, Google wants to know that the problem has been corrected, and it won’t happen again.

Will SEO change in 2021? Well in this video, I’m going to show you seven of my new predictions for 2021, based on my experience, working in this industry since 2011., so SEO prediction number one is you can expect fewer clicks, so searchers are clicking on organic results. Less than ever and many variables are responsible for this, but two of the biggest culprits are number one more SERP features which are featured snippets, instant answers, and knowledge boxes, reduce organic ctr number two aggressive google ads.

So, what’s the best way for Facebook, Google, or any ad giant to increase revenue in the short term? Well, they will force you to pay for ads by reducing organic reach, and I do believe google cares about delivering quality answers for searchers, but don’t forget they will always care more about pleasing their shareholders. Google will do what it takes to increase it for their advertisers and never forget that.

So the question is: what can you do to increase your organic ctr number, one! Don’t target dangerous keywords: you shouldn’t target keywords that have a high probability of producing low ctr. Google. Can answer simple queries like what time is it in location or? What’S the temperature the searcher doesn’t need to click through on these types of queries, in short, avoid keywords that have easy answers.

Number two: build your brand branded searches are the key to long-term seo. Success and you attract more branded searches by having an amazing product or by adding incredible value in your market plus branded searches are a huge trust signal for seo and I believe your brand’s reputation and trust are the future of effective seo more on this. In a second so seo prediction number two is voice: search becomes more popular now, voice, isn’t the future. It’s already here, according to bright local 58 of consumers, have used voice search to find local business information in the last 12 months.

Now, here’s the good news you don’t really need to do anything new to optimize for voice search. All of the traditional seo. Actions like create effective new content on-page seo, ux, optimization, and link building will all help voice search performance. Now, there’s one key difference, though: according to backlinko’s voice search case study, approximately 75 of voice search results rank in the top three. For that query, that means you need to focus on traditional rankings. If you ever want to become a voice search, result and now we prediction, number three is that mobile search continues to dominate.

Now, this is a no-brainer here, but most searches are on a mobile device and to be exact, 52 percent of all website traffic was generated through mobile phones according to Batista. Now, I will say it varies based on the industry. For example, 80 of the traffic coming to my website. Gotcha seo.com is from desktop and I’ve seen this trend in many b2b industries, but most industries will get most of their traffic from mobile, and this is the reason why google rolled out mobile first indexing and they have way more data than we do. And it’s obvious that mobile is more important than ever, and it also means that your website absolutely needs to be mobile-friendly, but not only that the mobile experience needs to be exceptional as well.

Which brings me to SEO prediction number four and that’s that UX becomes A stronger ranking factor now, one of the best ways to improve SEO performance is to optimize your site’s up. In fact, adobe discovered that 38 of people will stop engaging with a website if the content and layout are unattractive, but that’s not all. Google has publicly stated that page experience will be a ranking factor in the coming future. This alone should make you value ux and ui, optimization even more, but the question is: how do you actually optimize ux?

Well, there are obvious UX, optimization actions like increasing your website. Loading speed, making your site mobile friendly, not using aggressive, interstitial pop-ups, and not using disruptive ad placements, but there is one ux, optimization action that matters for seo more than anything else, and that’s optimizing for user intent. So what does that mean? It means that your page should satisfy the intent of the keyword that was searched now. I won’t go too deep into this, but the best way to understand user intent is through categorization, just memorize.

These four types of user intent number one informational. If a user searches how to build backlinks, you should serve them an informational piece of content because that’s the intent number two comparisons: if a user searches for versus areas they’re looking to compare and contrast these two products, so they can make an educated buying decision and A good page would be explaining the pros and the cons of these two products, which would satisfy the intent for that search. Query number three: transactional: if a user searches by both seo academy they’re ready to transact number four navigational, if a user searches both seo academy login, you know exactly what they’re looking for just give them the login page. It’s that simple!

So just try to get into the searcher’s mind every time you decide to target a keyword. What do they actually want when they enter the search query? Its time well spent trying to figure it out and getting it right will improve your page’s ux, and that means users will stay on your page. Longer. Won’T pogo stick as much may visit a second page on your site, or they may complete a goal like subscribe, submit a lead form or even buy one of your products. I recommend using a combination of google analytics and heat map technology like sumo, hot jar, or optimized to test and optimize your UX, so optimizing is the baseline for effective use.

But what happens when most websites have strong UX? What signals can google use to determine what the best pages for that particular keyword? Well, the same signal they’ve used since the very beginning, which are backlinks, which brings me to seo prediction number five. You still need backlinks to rank, and I’ve heard some people claim that backlinks don’t matter or that ux is more important than backlinks, but this is wrong links matter and will continue to be critical to google’s algorithm now and into the future.

Links are the only accurate differentiator if all things are equal. Let’s say two pages are competing for a keyword. Both of these pages have in-depth well-researched content written by a qualified expert have perfect page level. Optimization has perfect UX and all user signals are positive. What page deserves to rank number one? Well, it’s pretty challenging to make a decision when you don’t have any external signals and that’s why backlinks, which are really just votes, are critical to google’s algorithm but don’t take my word for it.

According to backlinko’s massive google ranking study the number of domains linking to a page correlated with rankings more than any other factor and sem rush had similar conclusions. They found that the higher the domain’s position on the SERP the more referring domains. It has not only that areas studied one billion pages in their content explorer index and discovered that there’s a direct correlation between total linking route domains and total organic search traffic. In fact, they discovered that over ninety percent of pages in their content explorer index get zero traffic from google, and guess what roughly 85 of those pages have less than three linking root domains. So the truth is backlinks matter now, and they will continue to be a big ranking factor in the future, so seo prediction number six is that accurate information becomes even more critical.

Now I believe, google tested this theory with the medic update and I also think it wasn’t a successful test, because many websites saw a reversal after dropping it’s very similar to the test. They ran to see how the series would look without using backlink signals, but with that said, I believe that eating which stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness is and will be a big deal going forward.

Google wants accurate information written by real experts in their search results, and you can feel that sentiment through their search quality, evaluator guidelines, this all circles back to quality content, google’s panda, algorithm, targeted, thin low quality, affiliate websites. Why wouldn’t they continue down that path?

Google wants to eradicate inaccurate and potentially dangerous information from their search results, and the good news is that optimizing for eat or eat is super easy, just find a credible author who is someone with real credentials, experience, and other forms of social proof, write, well-researched, in-depth content, and just to be a good company

The truth is Google definitely has all the positive and negative information about your brand because their data access is unlimited. So if your product sucks or your company wrongs its customers, then your seo performance will likely suffer as well. Now won’t happen tomorrow, but it’s definitely coming soon and seo prediction number seven is that ranking will take longer. Did you know that ahrefs discovered that the average top 10 ranking page is over two years old? That’s why I always emphasize patience so much SEO is a very long term game and if you’re not willing to put in the work over a sustained amount of time, then it’s probably not the right marketing channel.

For you. That said, the potential is huge for people who are willing to do the right work and to be patient, and I’m going to do it. One bonus seo prediction which is seo prediction number eight seo continues to be the best online marketing channel in 2021.

Now, despite these changes or perceived challenges, SEO is more alive than ever. It’s definitely harder and requires more skill sets, but that’s a good thing. It’s good for those that are willing to learn, take action and those that are willing to be patient.

The truth is, companies are willing to pay more for seo than ever before, because it’s so much harder than it used to be, and that means, if you possess the ability to increase organic search traffic, then you will never need to worry about money again. You can take on clients, you can start your own niche websites and you can have real financial freedom when you understand how to get SEO results. All you need is just the right system to follow and a credible teacher, and I can help you on that front. So please subscribe to my channel, so you can get more free SEO training in the future. So now to you, what are your new predictions for 2021 leave them below, and please, like this video, if you got some value. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you in the next video

Read More: How to get more website traffic

As found on YouTube

Often, web design theory has got it all backward.

 

A web site is sometimes first conceived as an entity that reflects the company that publishes the web site. A mission statement, that is given an online form.

 

The harsh reality is that most people don’t care about your mission statements, but they do care about seeing their own reflection. They are not surfing the web to find you, they surf the web and click on you, hoping you will answer some questions about the problems they have in their life. In other words, they are basically saying “it’s not about you, it’s about me.”

 

In no environment is this more true than on the web. The web is a two-way communication medium, and the control of that communication, unlike, say, a film, rests not with the director, but with the user. The back button or the “escape” button is only ever a click away. Because you can not force them to sit through a sales pitch, customers or repeat visitors will only happen if they find “themselves” (hopes, dreams, and solutions) on your site.

 

Your Website is Not a Trifold Pamphlet

For this reason, a web design that places too much emphasis on what the publisher wants to say is doomed to irrelevance and an alarming dearth of visitors. The publisher does not have the upper hand when it comes to controlling the flow of web communication, yet a lot of web design theory assumes this as a given, mostly because outmoded ideas of web design is based on print publishing. Many still view their web site as a trifold pamphlet that mysteriously sneaks into every living room. 

 

What are the most successful computer applications? Email. Word processing. Spreadsheets, Games. Take a look at the web sites that are most successful: Google, Amazon, Facebook, and eBay. The history of computing is all about user-centric empowerment. The future of computers and web sites is already on a trajectory of increased user interaction. One of the key metrics Google’s algorithms measure is social engagement. If you are not producing content that people are engaging in, not just reading, then you are doomed to the rocky shores of oblivion.

 

The way to do web design is to base the design around users, specifically their wants and desires. People’s wants and desires should drive the design process, and structures imposed for other reasons will be less successful. This goes beyond usability. Web design should be, fundamentally, about listening to and addressing people’s problems.

 

SEO-centric web design

This is where SEO-centric web design comes in. As many SEOs know, people are broadcasting their needs and problems. Every second. They are using keyword queries in search engines to tell the search engine what they need. We can “listen” to these needs by using keyword research tools.

 

Once we discover the language people are using to describe their needs, we can then build pages, architectures, and content copy, using their language, and addressing their problems, thereby creating a website that is an accurate reflection of the people who will use the site.

 

For example, a search engine doesn’t see a hierarchy, and most users don’t care about it. Every page is effectively a “home page”. Once people land on a page, they are at the start of the funnel which should quickly and effortlessly lead to the desired action, which is the point at which you meet their needs. The “desired action” is often wrongly defined in terms of the desires of the publisher or business owner, but it’s even more useful to view it in light of the desires of the visitor and potential customer.

 

At this point, some readers will surely be thinking “but people don’t come to my site via search engines”. Though that is a terrible situation to be in, it doesn’t matter. The site should address people’s problems, and search engines reveal the language people use to do define and frame their problems. Once you have a website that answers people’s questions and search-intent, then search engines will start promoting you. Web designers should not ignore this valuable information. Rather, this information should be integrated into the design process. It is a Google-centric web. Google achieved this feat by placing the user first. SEO should be at the heart of the design process, not something bolted on at the end.

There is a gap of knowledge most local business owners have concerning how to achieve better Google rankings.  In an effort to help local business owners understand and become more competitive in gaining higher search engine rankings, I want to explain a few must do’s for almost every online business.  Especially for the hard-working business owners who don’t have the time to take years of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) training.

Table of Contents

Getting Into the Mind of the Searcher's Intent

What many online businesses fail to realize is to grow online customer traffic you must begin with a strategic plan of action. This plan always begins with researching how your online customers think. This is what we call the searchers intent. Sometimes we refer to it as “commercial investigation.”

  • How do they look for the product or service you have?
  • What would they type in Google if they didn’t know the exact name of your business or product?

You must understand what a potential buying customer might type into the search engines to find your product or service. This is accomplished by doing keyword research. Knowing the keywords your customers use in searching for your products and services allows you to target those words and optimize your website to attract them and to rank highly in the search engines.

Focus on Buyer Intent Keywords

Quality VS Quantity – Many Businesses make the fatal mistake of going after large volumes of untargeted visitor traffic before understanding QUALITY (targeted visitors) must come before quantity.

 

Having large numbers of visitors come to your site does nothing to your bottom line if they are not interested in what you have to offer.  It is far better to have 100 targeted hungry buyers come to your site who are looking for what you offer than 10,000 random visitors who will not buy anything. This is what is meant by buyer intent keywords. Words like “best hedge trimmer” probably means the searcher is needing a new hedge trimmer and is ready to buy.  These are the customers we want at our site.

Other key Commercial investigations would be:

When you look to increase your profit potential it is extremely important to make sure you optimize your website to rank for specific quality “buying keywords” which will have a better chance of ending in a sale for your business.

Implement an Online Strategy for Success

Every business which wants to grow must implement a continued plan for online growth.

 

Merely setting up a website and doing nothing else will leave your business lost in an endless sea of other online businesses.  Your site cannot be found anywhere near the first or second page of the search engines. (Nearly 90% of all searchers do not go beyond the first page before trying a new search.)

It is crucial for any business with an online presence to have a continued online advertising plan. The plan should include on-page and off-page search engine optimization. This involves acquiring incoming links (backlinks) from authority sources within the same or similar markets of products or services as your own. The backlinks should come from a variety of blogs, articles directories, forum links, social media, video, and more. Otherwise, your hard work to gain rankings will be short-lived with no lasting power.

Invest Online in Success

In order to obtain high rankings for the most profitable keywords and stay on top, you must develop a well thought out plan. You need to implement your plan to grow your rankings, earnings, and become a major player in your line of business. Remember your competitors are forever reaching to grab a greater share of the targeted customer traffic, too.

 

Few of the Oklahoma business owners I know have the time to focus their attention in so many directions at once. How is it possible to expand without a degree in internet marketing, or spending hours sitting at your computer every week?

Take the Sweat Out of Your Website SEO Work

The solution to the problem is simple. SEO Kraken’s team of Search engine experts has designed several unique and flexible programs to help businesses get explosive results. The plans will increase targeted customer traffic and profitability over time. This approach allows owners to concentrate on what they do best, running the day to day activities of your business.

 

Our finely-tuned regimen of continued monthly implementation has proven again and again to be the most effective strategy. The search engines reward you with higher rankings and allow you to dominate your competition.

 

All our plans start with the essential process of keyword research to target quality buying keywords. We help you choose keywords that have a high probability of producing profitable sales and increasing traffic to your website.

For more information or to get started on our plans and services just click “Prices”. You can request a free website evaluation by filling out the simple sign-up form below.