What is Social Bookmarking and How does it work for SEO?

Introduction

In the vast world of search engine optimization (SEO), staying ahead of the curve is crucial. One strategy that has gained popularity in recent years is social bookmarking. It offers a unique way to enhance your website’s visibility and drive organic traffic. In this article, we will explore what social bookmarking is, how it works, and its impact on SEO.

Understanding Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a method of saving, organizing, and sharing web pages or online resources through specialized platforms. Instead of saving bookmarks on your local device, you store them on a social bookmarking website. These platforms allow users to tag and categorize bookmarks, making them easily searchable by others.

How Social Bookmarking Works

Social bookmarking websites are community-driven platforms where users can create accounts and contribute by bookmarking interesting web pages. When a user discovers a webpage they find valuable, they can save it as a bookmark on the platform. These bookmarks can then be shared with other users who have similar interests.

The Benefits of Social Bookmarking for SEO

Social bookmarking offers several advantages for SEO purposes. Firstly, by submitting your website or blog to social bookmarking platforms, you can generate quality backlinks. Backlinks from high-ranking bookmarking sites can improve your website’s domain authority, leading to higher search engine rankings.

Increased Website Traffic

Another benefit of social bookmarking is the potential to drive targeted traffic to your website. When users search for specific topics or keywords on social bookmarking platforms, they may come across your bookmark and click through to your site. This increased traffic can result in higher engagement, longer session durations, and improved search engine visibility.

Enhancing Indexing and Crawling

Social bookmarking can also help search engine crawlers discover and index your website more effectively. When you bookmark a webpage, it creates a backlink to your site, which search engines can follow. This process helps search engines understand the relevance and popularity of your content, leading to improved visibility in search results.

Building Brand Awareness and Authority

Active participation in social bookmarking communities allows you to showcase your expertise and establish yourself as a trusted source within your niche. By consistently bookmarking valuable and relevant content, you can gain followers and attract an interested audience. This can lead to increased brand visibility and credibility, ultimately benefiting your overall SEO strategy.

Maximizing Social Signals

Search engines consider social signals as an important factor in determining the popularity and relevance of a website. Social bookmarking generates social signals such as likes, shares, and comments, which can contribute to your website’s overall social media presence. These signals can have a positive impact on your search engine rankings, as search engines recognize the social validation of your content.

Best Practices for Social Bookmarking

To make the most of social bookmarking for SEO, it is essential to follow some best practices. Firstly, choose high-quality bookmarking sites with a good reputation. Focus on relevant platforms that cater to your target audience. Secondly, create catchy and descriptive titles, descriptions, and tags for your bookmarks to increase their visibility. Lastly, be an active participant in the community by engaging with other users’ bookmarks, sharing valuable content, and building relationships.

Conclusion

Social bookmarking is an effective tool in the SEO arsenal, providing numerous benefits to website owners and content creators. By leveraging social bookmarking platforms, you can increase your website’s visibility, drive organic traffic, and enhance your overall SEO efforts. However, it’s important to approach social bookmarking with a strategic mindset and follow best practices to achieve optimal results. So, start exploring the world of social bookmarking.

ALSO READ: What is Influencer Marketing And How It Can Help in SEO in 2023?

AdSense Alternatives Top 8 Best Ad Networks for 2023

Google AdSense has long been the go-to ad network for bloggers and website owners looking to monetize their online content. But as competition in the advertising industry continues to grow, and as Google continues to tighten its restrictions, many publishers are looking for AdSense alternatives to diversify their revenue streams and maximize their earnings.

If you’re one of those publishers, you’ll be glad to know that there are plenty of other ad networks out there that can help you earn money from your content. Here are eight of the best AdSense alternatives to consider in 2023:

Media.net

Media.net is one of the most popular AdSense alternatives, and for good reason. It’s a contextual ad network that serves ads based on the content of your website, much like AdSense. Media.net is a joint venture between Yahoo and Bing, which means it has access to a large pool of advertisers and high-quality ad inventory. Publishers can expect to earn competitive rates with Media.net, and the network offers a range of ad formats to choose from.

AdThrive

AdThrive is a premium ad network that’s known for its high-quality ads and excellent customer support. It’s a great AdSense alternative for bloggers and website owners who have high levels of traffic and engagement. AdThrive offers a variety of ad formats, including display ads, video ads, and native ads. It also offers advanced targeting options to help you reach your ideal audience.

Sovrn

Sovrn is a programmatic advertising network that connects publishers with advertisers in real-time. It’s a great AdSense alternative for publishers who want to take a more hands-off approach to advertising. Sovrn offers a range of ad formats, including display ads, native ads, and video ads. It also offers advanced targeting options, as well as reporting and analytics tools to help you track your performance.

PropellerAds

PropellerAds is a global ad network that serves over 1 billion ad impressions each day. It offers a range of ad formats, including pop-unders, native ads, and push notifications. PropellerAds is a great AdSense alternative for publishers who want to monetize their traffic from Tier 2 and Tier 3 countries, where AdSense rates can be lower.

Infolinks

Infolinks is a contextual ad network that offers a variety of ad formats, including in-text ads, in-image ads, and display ads. It’s a great AdSense alternative for publishers who want to monetize their content without disrupting the user experience. Infolinks offers high-quality ads that blend in seamlessly with your website’s content.

Revcontent

Revcontent is a native advertising network that serves high-quality ads to millions of users each day. It’s a great AdSense alternative for publishers who want to monetize their content with premium ads that are relevant to their audience. Revcontent offers a range of ad formats, including native ads, video ads, and display ads. It also offers advanced targeting options and reporting tools to help you optimize your performance.

Ezoic

Ezoic is a machine learning platform that helps publishers optimize their ad revenue and user experience. It’s a great AdSense alternative for publishers who want to automate their ad optimization and testing. Ezoic offers a variety of ad formats, including display ads, video ads, and native ads. It also offers advanced targeting options and reporting tools to help you track your performance.

Amazon Advertising

Amazon Advertising is a programmatic advertising platform that allows publishers to monetize their content with high-quality ads that are relevant to their audience. As one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world, Amazon has access to a vast pool of advertisers and ad inventory. Amazon Advertising offers a variety of ad formats, including display ads, video ads, and native ads. It also offers advanced targeting options and reporting tools to help you optimize your performance.

In conclusion, while Google AdSense is a popular choice for monetizing online content, there are many AdSense alternatives available that offer competitive rates, high-quality ads, and advanced targeting options. Whether you’re looking to diversify your revenue streams or maximize your earnings, these eight ad networks are a great place to start. From contextual ad networks like Media.net and Infolinks, to premium ad networks like AdThrive and Revcontent, to programmatic advertising platforms like Sovrn and Amazon Advertising, there’s an AdSense alternative for every publisher’s needs. By experimenting with different ad networks and finding the ones that work best for your audience and content, you can optimize your ad revenue and take your website to the next level in 2023.

READ ALSO: Top 11 Game-Changing SEO Trends That Will Dominate in 2023

10 Proven Tips to Start a Successful Digital Marketing Career

Digital marketing is an exciting and constantly evolving field that offers a wide range of career opportunities. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to advance your career, there are many strategies you can employ to set yourself up for success in this industry. In this blog post, we’ll share 10 proven tips to help you start a successful digital marketing career.

Develop a Strong Foundation in Marketing Principles

Before you dive into digital marketing, it’s important to have a solid understanding of marketing principles. This includes understanding consumer behavior, market research, branding, and positioning. Without this foundation, it can be difficult to effectively execute digital marketing strategies.

Stay Up-to-Date with Industry Trends and Best Practices

Digital marketing is constantly evolving, and it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and best practices. This includes keeping up with changes in social media algorithms, emerging technologies, and new advertising platforms.

Build a Strong Personal Brand

In the digital marketing industry, your personal brand is everything. This includes your online presence, your reputation, and your professional network. Building a strong personal brand can help you stand out from the competition and attract new career opportunities.

Gain Hands-On Experience with Different Digital Marketing Tools and Platforms

To be successful in digital marketing, it’s important to have hands-on experience with a variety of different tools and platforms. This includes social media advertising platforms, email marketing software, website analytics tools, and more.

Develop Strong Communication and Collaboration Skills

Digital marketing is a collaborative field that requires strong communication and collaboration skills. Whether you’re working on a team or communicating with clients, it’s important to be able to effectively communicate your ideas and work together to achieve your goals.

Network with Other Digital Marketing Professionals

Networking is a key component of any successful career, and digital marketing is no exception. Attending industry events, joining online communities, and connecting with other professionals on social media can help you build relationships and learn from others in the field.

Stay Flexible and Adaptable

In digital marketing, things can change quickly. It’s important to stay flexible and adaptable, and be willing to pivot your strategy as needed. This requires a willingness to learn and a willingness to take risks.

Be Results-Oriented

At the end of the day, digital marketing is all about results. Whether you’re trying to increase website traffic, generate leads, or boost sales, it’s important to be results-oriented and focused on achieving your goals.

Continuously Learn and Improve Your Skills

Digital marketing is a field that requires continuous learning and skill development. Whether you’re taking online courses, attending workshops, or reading industry blogs, it’s important to always be learning and improving your skills.

Be Passionate and Creative

Finally, to be successful in digital marketing, it’s important to be passionate and creative. This is a field that rewards innovation and creativity, and it’s important to bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to the table.

In conclusion, digital marketing is a dynamic and rewarding field with many opportunities for career growth and success. By following these 10 proven tips, you can set yourself up for a successful digital marketing career.

READ ALSO: Top 11 Game-Changing SEO Trends That Will Dominate in 2023

Top 11 Game-Changing SEO Trends That Will Dominate in 2023

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is constantly evolving. What worked in the past might not work today, and what works today might not work tomorrow. That’s why it’s essential to stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends.

As we approach 2023, it’s time to look at the SEO trends that will dominate the industry. In this blog post, we’ll explore the top 11 game-changing SEO trends that will help you stay ahead of the competition.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning:-

AI and machine learning are not new concepts in the SEO industry. However, their importance will only continue to grow in 2023. With AI and machine learning, search engines can better understand user intent and deliver more accurate search results. As a result, optimizing for user intent will become even more critical in 2023.

Voice Search Optimization:-

Voice search is becoming increasingly popular, thanks to the rise of smart speakers and virtual assistants. In 2023, optimizing for voice search will become a game-changer. With voice search, users tend to ask more conversational questions. Therefore, optimizing your content for long-tail keywords and natural language will be essential.

Mobile-First Indexing:-

Mobile-first indexing means that search engines will use the mobile version of a website as the primary index for ranking purposes. In 2023, mobile-first indexing will become even more critical. Therefore, it’s essential to ensure that your website is mobile-friendly and optimized for mobile devices.

Page Experience:-

Page experience is a set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page. In 2023, page experience will be a crucial ranking factor. Therefore, it’s essential to focus on elements such as page speed, mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, and interactivity.

Local SEO:-

Local SEO has been essential for small and local businesses for years. In 2023, local SEO will continue to be a game-changer. With the rise of “near me” searches and location-based queries, optimizing for local search will be more critical than ever.

Video Optimization:-

Video content is becoming increasingly popular, and in 2023, video optimization will be a game-changer. With video optimization, you can improve your website’s visibility in search results, attract more traffic, and engage your audience.

Featured Snippets:-

Featured snippets are search results that appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). In 2023, featured snippets will be even more critical for SEO. Therefore, it’s essential to optimize your content for featured snippets to increase your chances of appearing at the top of the SERP.

Structured Data:-

Structured data provides search engines with additional context about your content. In 2023, structured data will be a game-changer for SEO. With structured data, you can enhance your search listings, attract more traffic, and improve your click-through rates.

E-A-T:-

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. In 2023, E-A-T will continue to be an essential factor for SEO. Therefore, it’s essential to establish your expertise, authority, and trustworthiness in your niche or industry.

Zero-Click Search:-

Zero-click search refers to search results that don’t require the user to click on a website to get the information they need. In 2023, zero-click search will become even more prevalent. Therefore, it’s essential to optimize your content for featured snippets, knowledge graphs, and other zero-click search results.

Image Optimization:-

Image optimization has always been a critical aspect of SEO, but it will become even more important in 2023. With visual search and image recognition technology becoming more prevalent, optimizing your images for search engines will help you attract more traffic and improve your overall SEO strategy. Some ways to optimize your images include using descriptive file names and alt tags, compressing images for faster loading times, and using high-quality images that are relevant to your content.

In conclusion, staying on top of the latest SEO trends is essential for any business or website that wants to rank higher in search engine results pages. As we approach 2023, it’s clear that AI, machine learning, voice search, mobile-first indexing, page experience, local SEO, video optimization, featured snippets, structured data, E-A-T, zero-click search, and image optimization will be the game-changing trends in the SEO industry.

By embracing these trends and implementing them into your SEO strategy, you can increase your chances of ranking higher in search results, attract more traffic to your website, and ultimately drive more conversions and revenue. So, start preparing for these SEO trends today and stay ahead of the competition in 2023 and beyond.

READ ALSO: How Toxic Backlinks Hurt SEO and How to Get Rid of Them?

What is Influencer Marketing And How It Can Help in SEO in 2023?

Influencer marketing has been around for a while, but it has recently become a popular topic in the digital marketing world. It is a type of marketing where brands collaborate with influential people in their respective niches to promote their products or services. Influencer marketing can help your SEO in a number of ways, and it’s important to understand how to leverage it for your business in 2023.

1. Influencer marketing can help you reach a wider audience. Influencers typically have a large following on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. By collaborating with them, you can tap into their audience and promote your brand to people who might not have heard of you otherwise. This can help drive more traffic to your website, which can in turn improve your search engine rankings.

2. Influencer marketing can help you build backlinks to your website. Backlinks are an important factor in SEO, as they signal to search engines that your website is authoritative and trustworthy. When an influencer links to your website in a social media post or blog article, it can help improve your website’s domain authority, which can positively impact your search engine rankings.

3. Influencer marketing can help you create high-quality content. Influencers are typically content creators themselves, and they can help you create high-quality content that resonates with your target audience. This can include social media posts, blog articles, and videos. By collaborating with influencers, you can tap into their creativity and expertise to create content that drives engagement and improves your SEO.

Read Also: Different Types of Digital Marketing Techniques and Their Uses

4. Influencer marketing can help you improve your social media presence. Social media signals are an important factor in SEO, and having a strong social media presence can help improve your search engine rankings. By collaborating with influencers, you can tap into their social media expertise and build a stronger presence on platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

5. Influencer marketing can help you build brand awareness and credibility. Influencers have built up a level of trust with their followers, and by collaborating with them, you can tap into that trust and build credibility for your brand. This can help improve your brand’s reputation and make it easier for people to find you in search engine results.

6. Influencer marketing can help you target specific audiences. Influencers typically have a specific niche or audience that they cater to, and by collaborating with them, you can tap into that audience and promote your brand to people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. This can help improve your conversion rates and drive more revenue for your business.

7. Influencer marketing can help you stay ahead of the competition. As more businesses invest in influencer marketing, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve and leverage this strategy to its full potential. By collaborating with influencers in 2023, you can stay ahead of the competition and improve your search engine rankings.

8. Influencer marketing can help you generate more leads and sales. Influencers have a powerful influence over their followers, and by collaborating with them, you can leverage that influence to drive more leads and sales for your business. This can help improve your bottom line and make it easier for you to grow your business in 2023.

In conclusion, influencer marketing is an important strategy that can help improve your SEO in 2023. By collaborating with influencers, you can tap into their audience, build backlinks to your website, create high-quality content, improve your social media presence, build brand awareness and credibility, target specific audiences, stay ahead of the competition, and generate more leads and sales. If you haven’t already, it’s time to start incorporating influencer marketing into your digital marketing strategy in 2023.

Read Also: What is Image SEO and How to Optimize Images for Search Engines?

6 SEO Tips & Tricks for Better Search Engine Results Positioning

If you want your website to rank higher in the Google search rankings, it is absolutely necessary to implement a good SEO process. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the method of promoting your website or content using various methods in such a way that it achieves higher position in the SERP. It helps to increase the organic web traffic for your website and boosts discover-ability. With the increasing online competition between the various E-commerce businesses and organizations, using SEO gives you an edge over the competition. In this blog, we discuss some basic tips and tricks of SEO which will help you to achieve a better Search Engine Result Positioning.

Using Long Phrased Keywords

Specific content related keywords is one of the most important aspect of the SEO process. Whenever a person searches something online, they use keywords to get relevant results. Using long phrased keywords with three or more words relating to your content will help you to achieve a higher web traffic that is actually interested in your business or content. It also helps Google to understand what your content is about and rank you better.

Creating High Quality Content

Regardless of your company type, having a high quality content relating to your products or services will help you to get more web traffic and better google rankings. Google, in the recent times, has optimised their algorithms in ways which values high quality contents more than anything. Your content should be related to your website’s meta-description, headlines and keywords but also remember that stuffing too many keywords in content might be considered as ‘Black Hat SEO’ and get you penalised. You content should be fresh and appealing to the people. You can also use images and videos to make your content more appealing and engaging.

Optimize Page-Loading Time

The loading time of your page is a very important part of the SEO process. According to statistics, most users typically waits around for a maximum of 2-3 seconds for a page to load before moving on. So if your pages takes a longer period to load, you might be losing potential leads to your competitors. Some ways by which you can optimise your page-loading time are:

• Compressing image sizes.
• Enabling browser caching.
• Removing unnecessary elements in CSS.
• Reducing redirects.

Remove Zombie Pages

Zombie pages refers to web pages that brings in very little to no web traffic at all. These pages just exist. According to Google, it is better to remove such pages as they do not contain any vital information or quality content. Businesses should conduct SEO audit at regular intervals to identify such pages and remove them. This can help to increase Google page rank.

Site Responsiveness

Most people, today, uses smartphones and tablets to access the internet. When you are optimising your website or pages, you should definitely keep in mind about your site’s responsiveness on various devices. It should definitely be mobile-friendly and ready. Google recently introduced the mobile-first indexing that takes mobile friendliness into account while ranking pages. So mobile responsiveness is important for achieving a higher page rank.

Keep In Check Of All Changes

Regardless of the various processes or methods you choose to implement for you website’s SEO, the most important of them is to check the progress. Without properly monitoring the changes, you would not be able to say which processes are helping to boost your page rank. You should implement one change at a time, monitor the progress and then move on. This way you can be sure about which SEO technique is actually helping you to achieve a higher page rank.

ALSO READ: What is Image SEO and How to Optimize Images for Search Engines?

What Is a Web Crawler and How Does It Work?

The internet or the World Wide Web is filled with limitless contents and websites. Whenever a user search for a particular term or phrase, the search engine provides a whole list of numerous websites and pages related to that particular keyword but how does a search engine know about the different contents in various different websites? How does it list the websites according to your needs or search queries? Well, this is where a ‘Web Crawler’ comes into action.

What is a Web Crawler?

A web crawler, also known as crawling agent, spider bot, web crawling software, website spider or search engine bot, is a digital bot or tool, which visits the various websites through out the world wide web and index the pages for the search engines. It is the function of the web crawler to learn about almost every content and information that is present on the world wide web so that it can be easily accessed whenever required.

Each search engine has its own version of a web crawler. A search algorithm is applied on the data collected by the web crawler through which search engines are able to provide you with the relevant information you are looking for. Various sources estimates that only 40 – 70% of the publicly available internet is indexed by web crawlers and that’s over billions of pages, so it can be said without a proper crawling application it would be very difficult for search engines to provide you with useful information.

To simplify the concept of web crawlers, let us compare the world wide web with a library. A web crawler is like someone who goes through an entire library and catalogues the books present in an orderly manner so that when readers visits the library, they can easily find what they are looking for.

Some well known examples of web crawlers are – Googlebot, Bingbot, Slurp Bot, DuckDuckBot, Baiduspider, Yandex Bot, Sogou Spider, Exabot and Alexa Crawler.

Read Also: What is Image SEO and How to Optimize Images for Search Engines?

How Does Web Crawlers Work?

The internet is continuously expanding and changing. More and more website are being created and contents are being added so it is not possible to get an exact number of how many websites and pages are available over the world wide web. Web crawlers start their procedure from a list of known URLs, also known as Seed URLs. They will crawl the pages available at those URLs first and then move on with the hyperlinks of other URLs present within those pages. As there are a vast number of web pages present over the internet, the procedure can go on indefinitely however crawlers follow some basic policies to make the procedure more selective.

Relative Importance of a Web page: Like mentioned earlier, crawlers do not exactly go through 100% of the entire publicly available internet. They crawl pages based on the number of other URLs linked to a page, the amount of visitors a page gets and other factors which indicates a page having useful information.

It is likely that a web page, which is being cited by many different pages and getting a lot of web traffic, contains high quality, informative content. So it is important for search engines to have it indexed.

Revisiting Web pages: Web contents are generally updated, removed or moved to new locations so it is important for web crawlers to revisit pages to make sure the new contents are properly indexed.

Robots.txt Protocols: Robots.txt, also known as robots exclusion protocol, is a text file that states the rules for any bot trying to access the hosted website. The rules specifies which pages to crawl and which links to follow. Web crawlers checks for such protocols before crawling any web page.

Read Also: 16 best off-page SEO techniques you must know

Web Crawlers and SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of promoting websites or pages in such ways that it gets indexed so that the pages can rank higher in SERP. For this to happen web crawlers need to crawl the pages so it is important that website owners do not block the crawling tools however, they can control the bots with protocols like Robots.txt  and specify which pages to crawl and which links to follow according to their needs.

What is Web 2.0 and what is its advantages over Web 1.0?

With the world evolving and so much technological advancement happening all around, the internet or the world wide web is bound to evolve as well. You might have not noticed in detail but the internet we use today is quite different and advanced from when it was first introduced. In the early years, the internet, mostly, used to have static web sites and personal sites. The interaction or the engagement of people/users were very limited. The internet was mainly used for finding information which were coming directly from the servers. This was the first generation of world wide web or as experts like to call it, Web 1.0.

It was after the year 2000, when more user-generated content and information started being available over the internet and with the rise of various social media platforms we ushered into the second generation of the internet. This new generation of the internet is what experts refer to as Web 2.0. We are currently living in the age of Web 2.0. The term was first coined by Darci Dinucci in the year 1999 and was popularized by Tim O’Reilly and Dale Dougherty in 2004. According to Tim O’Reilly, “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as a platform, and any attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”

In more simpler words, Web 2.0 means using the internet and its various applications or tools in such a way that people can freely express themselves online and have the opportunities to share and collaborate with other people.

Web 2.0 has made our life easier. There are many advantages of Web 2.0 over its previous generation of the internet. Let us discuss them:

These are some basic advantages of Web 2.0. If you think about it, there are many more features and advantages of Web 2.0. This new generation of internet and its various tools and applications like – Wikipedia, WordPress, YouTube, Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, Drive, etc, has really had our life much easier and the overall internet experience more pleasant. Web 2.0 is very advanced and is bound to evolve even more.

ALSO READ: Different Types of Digital Marketing Techniques and Their Uses

5 Mistakes You Must Avoid While Adding Images To Your Site

Customizing your website and adding relevant images is an important part of the SEO process for your website. Relevant and interesting images attracts people to your site, increasing your web traffic which will result in your website possibly getting a better ranking in Google search. According to NewsCred, articles or blogs with images get around 94% more views than articles without images, 40% of people respond better to visual information than plain text, and around 93% of people consider images to be the no. 1 factor which affect the purchase decision-making. These surveys show how important images are for a website.

However, you can not just upload any images to your website anyhow you want. There are certain regulations and formats which you need to follow while uploading images to your website otherwise, it can negatively impact your website’s SEO process. In this blog, we are discussing 5 mistakes which you need to avoid while uploading images to your site.

Large Images

With today’s cutting edge and fast technologies, people do not have the patience to wait for long. Large images, even though they are beautiful to look at, makes your website sluggish and takes a longer period to load properly. This may result in losing web traffic. Most people wait around for 3 seconds for a image to load if they are using a desktop/laptop and a maximum of 5 seconds if they are using mobile or tablet devices. So if your image takes more than 5 secs to load, you may lose a visitor.

So, it is advisable to keep your image sizes under a few hundred KBs so that they can load quickly on any devices.

Image File Name

One of the most common mistake while uploading images to a website is not changing the image file’s name. Generally, images have random names saved against them and it is not a good idea to use those default names while uploading it to the website. When it comes to SEO, you need to assign descriptive and relevant keyword related names to your images for better image optimization. This helps to increase your page rank as search engines not only checks the text content of your page but also keywords in your image names.

Image File Extension

Many people avoid this point or do not understand it properly but knowing the difference between the various image formats and when to use a particular format makes a huge impact on image optimization. There are a number of image formats available that one can use according to their needs. The most common types are :

• JPG or JPEG – This is the most common type of image format available over the net. They are good for color rich photographs and gradient images but they compress the file which can result in low quality images.

• GIFs – GIFs are common format for animations. They produce lower quality images than JPG and are generally used for simple illustrations and graphics.

• PNG – This another form of image format. PNGs support high quality images and rich color. As the quality do not degrade under this format, they are recommended for logos, charts and graphics.

• SVGs – It is vector format. Images of this format are free of resolution boundaries so they remain sharp and clear on any device.

Adopting a relevant format for your website’s images can help to make your website quicker and free of technical abnormalities.

Image Description/ Alt – Tags

Just like adding image name, adding a description or alt-tag of your image is also an important part of the SEO process when it comes to image optimization. Alt-tags can be considered as the text alternative which can describe your images in case the browser can not render them properly. You need to properly implement the alt- tags with relevant keywords so that it helps your page rank but remember not to stuff too many keywords as that can be considered as ‘black hat’ SEO process. Another plus point of using alt- tags is that they can help the visually impaired to understand what your website is showing.

Distorted Images

Another point you need to keep a check on is image distortion. If your image seems too enlarged or stretched, it is probably distorted and you need to edit it. Remember to always use the original version of the image so that it stays clear and sharp. Distorted images can negatively impact your site. You can always use Photoshop and it’s feature to compare between the edited and original version.

So, this were the common 5 mistakes that you must avoid while uploading images to your website. Remember, even small mistakes can hugely impact your search ranking negatively so you need to take care of even the smallest details, follow the regulations and implement proper formats.

Also Read: JPG or PNG: Which is the best for Your Website?

How Toxic Backlinks Hurt SEO and How to Get Rid of Them?

Backlinks, also referred as incoming links or inbound links, are one of the major factors of Google’s search ranking and therefore, an integral part of SEO. When a different website links to your own site, a backlink is created and without proper backlinks, your website won’t rank much in the Google search engine rankings. The more backlinks your website earns, the more it is likely that your website will rank highly for relevant keywords and search topics. However, not all backlinks are the same. As there are proper backlinks which helps to optimize your website’s ranking, there are also bad or toxic backlinks which harms your website.

Toxic Backlinks

Toxic backlinks or unnatural links or bad links are those types of backlinks that can negatively affect the SERP of your website and hurt the SEO process. Too many toxic backlinks against your website can even compel Google to remove your website from the database. According to Google’s link scheme guide :

“Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behaviour that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”

Identifying Toxic Backlinks

There several ways by which you can understand whether your website is being affected by toxic links or not. If your website’s organic traffic suddenly decreases, chances are that Google has fined you for too many toxic backlinks.

Another sure shot way of knowing is that when Google Webmasters sends you a warning regarding the build up of toxic backlinks of the website. But how to identify which links are good and which are toxic? Generally toxic backlinks are created when :

• Links come from a spam site or sites which are particularly set up for the purpose of link building.

• Links come from sites and topics which are not relevant to your website.

• Links come from sites which are not indexed by Google.

• Links are forced into blog comments.

• Links come from sites which contains virus and malware.

Impact of Toxic Backlinks on SEO

Toxic backlinks mainly hurts the SEO process of your website. It decreases the organic traffic of your site. If your website generates too many bad links, google will penalise you for it. Getting penalised decreases the chances of your content to be found on google and in worst case scenario, your website might get taken down. There are mainly two ways by which you might get penalised.

First, back in 2012, Google introduced the Penguin algorithm which targets low quality backlinks. If you get penalised by the Penguin filter, you won’t be getting any warnings or notifications about the penalty. You can’t even file a reconsideration request to alter the penalty.

Second, you receive a manual action. According to google :

“Google issues a manual action against a site when a human reviewer at Google has determined that pages on the site are not compliant with Google’s webmaster quality guidelines. Most manual actions address attempts to manipulate our search index.”

Manual actions can target either a section of your website or the whole website itself. They are mainly triggered when a competitor files a spam report against your website or the Penguin algorithm detects issues which triggers the manual action. To remove a manual action, you need to identify and remove all possible toxic links or disavow any which you can not before applying for a reconsideration request.

How to Get Rid of Toxic Backlinks

There are several ways through which you can remove toxic backlinks. But first you have to make a list of the toxic links. There are many software and tools available in the market today which can help you to analyse and determine the good and toxic links. Once you have the list of the toxic links, you can contact the administrator of those particular linking sites and apply for the removal of the links.

Another way of removing toxic links is disavowing. If your removal request was unsuccessful, then you need to disavow the links. A disavow file is basically a request to Google to overlook the links which you upload and not take them into consideration while analyzing your website’s ranking. However, it is important to use Google’s disavow tool carefully and correctly otherwise it can affect your website’s performance.

Hopefully, now you can understand how toxic backlinks affect your website’s SEO process and why it is absolutely necessary to get rid of them. Carefully building good quality backlinks and keeping in check with Google’s rules & regulations is mandatory if you want your website to rank high in search results.

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