SEO

There’s nothing more useless than 1000 Facebook shares that come all at once. It’s particularly odd if you have a 100 page site and just one page on the entire site gets 1000 shares. The shares also drop to zero for weeks following that burst. It’s unnatural but that’s the landscape right now for the social share market. Very few do it right and that’s why very few get results for their clients.

What’s also useless is a bunch of links from the same core domain like this:

Or how about a promotional tweet with 3 views?

People often take a random blurb that is out-of-context and spam that as the text. No wonder Google ignores it. For an SEO professional to offer true value from a tweet, it should be hand written by the person posting it, so that it looks natural. There’s nothing in that tweet that screams natural. It screams spammy promotion.

The ideal social share campaign for a new blog post

Unlike what the Fiverr experts claim, you only need a few social shares to actually get the attention of Google.

1 Facebook post

A link on a public Facebook profile or page. The page doesn’t need to be famous, but it needs enough engagement to get at least 2-3 likes on the post.

1 Tweet

This also doesn’t need to be a page with 100k+ followers. As long as the post gets likes and retweets, it doesn’t really matter the size. Ideally the account is aged and has thousands of quality handwritten tweets.

1 YouTube video

YouTube videos are pretty easy to make. Make one and stick the blog URL in the description. Get some views and likes and you’re good to go.

1 LinkedIn post

LinkedIn can be from a page or profile but in my opinion, I think a profile is perfectly fine. As long as the profile is legit, filled out with a full resume, has connections, etc. Post a little paragraph recommending your followers to read the blog post and what you found interesting.

1 Reddit comment or post

This can be a post or a comment. Reddit is tricky which is why Google values it so much. You need to be creative and natural in your linking strategy. It’s very easy for a creative marketer to find a way to naturally link but impossible for the average mind. Just be sure the subreddit you choose has at least a few recent posts or comments that are non-promotional. Post from an aged account.

Conclusions

That’s it! Crazy right? Just 5 social signals can rank a blog post. I have a number of sites that get tens of thousands of organic visits from this simple strategy. Even the largest blogs on the internet don’t get more than half a dozen social shares in the first month, so why oust yourself by doing social shares the wrong way?

How things change. Surfer was once known as the affordable alternative to superior enterprise-level solution ClearScope. However, Surfer has been getting expensive. It still makes sense for deep-pocket clients who want maximum efficiency. I continue to recommend it as an excellent tool. However, for my own projects and for small businesses, it’s not a cost-effective recommendation so I wanted to dive into some alternatives.

Oh, and no one pays me to write these, so unlike every other article on this topic, I’m not biased. If I think a tool is garbage, I’m going to say it. As I checked out some of the others who wrote blog posts on the topic, I was shocked at some of the trash they were recommending. So let’s dive in.

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Let’s talk about the biggest SEO crawlers in the space and do a quick comparison.

Ahrefs

• The largest crawler, meaning the most accurate
• Minimal bugs
• Has been the best for a while
• DR (domain rank) is hard to fake
• Expensive

SEMRush

• Been around for a while
• Used to be mainly for paid analysis and not SEO
• Recently got much better with SEO
• Cheaper than Ahrefs and so it wins some attentions
• Unique audit features when compared to Ahrefs

Moz

• The smallest crawler
• The most inaccurate
• Free and so it wins attention from SEO workers in 3rd countries
• Metrics regularly inaccurate
• Domain authority (DA) is easy to spam/fake and so it means nothing
• Has limitations that make it less reliable for professional SEO work compared to Ahrefs or SEMRush

Majestic

• The best topical analysis of all tools
• Cheaper than Ahrefs but also not free
• Trust flow (TF) is probably the hardest metric to manipulate/fake
• Citation flow (CF) is similar to Moz’s DA where it can just be spammed
• The most unpopular on the list

In the world of digital marketing and SEO, understanding the nuances of anchor texts is crucial for enhancing your website’s visibility and ranking on search engines. I actually came across someone recently, who dubbed themselves a “linkbuilding expert” but doesn’t even understand what branded anchors are. He thought they branded anchors were where you used the anchor “branded”. You can’t make this stuff up.

If you know me then you know how much this bugs me. I can’t stand someone calling themselves and expert when they’re a beginner at best. Have some humility. I’ve been in SEO since 2009 and my stomach kind of turns when I have to explain my experience in the field to a prospective employer or client. Am I even an expert even though I’ve worked with the largest brands and ranked for extremely competitive keywords repeatedly demonstrating knowledge better than 99% of marketers? Not really. I have a lot to learn.

Let’s explore a few types of anchor texts using the example of a fictional company, “WebPilot Solutions.”

1. Branded Anchor Texts:

Branded anchor texts are a fundamental part of SEO. They use the brand name as the anchor, helping to establish a strong online presence and reinforce brand recognition. For WebPilot Solutions, a branded anchor text might look like this:

“WebPilot Solutions”

2. Exact Match Anchor Texts:

Exact match anchor texts use the exact keyword or phrase you want to rank for as the anchor. For example, if WebPilot Solutions wants to rank for “custom web development,” their anchor text could be:

“custom web development services”

3. Partial Match Anchor Texts:

Partial match anchor texts incorporate a variation of the target keyword. For instance, if WebPilot Solutions provides web design services, a partial match anchor text could be:

“WebPilot Solutions specializes in professional web design”

4. Generic Anchor Texts:

Generic anchor texts are non-specific and don’t contain keywords or brand names. They are often used for natural link-building. An example for WebPilot Solutions could be:

“Click here”

5. LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) Anchor Texts:

LSI anchor texts use semantically related words or phrases to the target keyword. For WebPilot Solutions offering web development, an LSI anchor text might be:

“Explore our website development expertise”

6. Naked URLs:

Naked URLs are straightforward links to a website’s URL. For WebPilot Solutions, it would be as simple as:

“www.webpilotsolutions.com.”

7. Image Anchor Texts:

Image anchor texts are used when linking images. For example, if WebPilot Solutions showcases their portfolio, the anchor text may not be text but actually an image of the portfolio, hyperlinked to the website.

By strategically incorporating these anchor text types into your website’s content and link-building efforts, you can improve your SEO rankings and provide valuable information to both users and search engines. Remember that a natural and diverse mix of anchor texts is key to a successful SEO strategy.

There are hundreds of rank trackers to choose from – some expensive and some cheap. Some are even free. I like to have a separate rank tracker for each venture so when I sell the company, all assets stay together. It also allows my partners to view one project’s SERPs without seeing everything else I’m involved in – and it also help keep my finances between projects start.

Sometimes I want a rank tracker just to watch 2 or 3 keywords, so I’m always on the lookout for budget rank trackers that are either free or $10 or less per month.

Rankitor

Rankitor is who I am currently using. They are owned by Pro Rank Tracker which starts at $25/month for only 200 terms. Previously, they had a free plan but have since removed that. Rankitor has a $5/month plan which I’m happy with. It covers 20 keywords. Since it is a new platform though, you will come across the odd bug.

SerpRobot

SerpRobot is a favorite on the SEO forums. It is entirely free. The only problem is it’s not technically a rank tracker. Instead it’s like a rank checker, which can only check on a keyword for you. Ideally it’s nice to monitor positions so when they go up and down, you know when and can attribute it to an onsite or offsite SEO change you made.

SerpFox

SerpFox has been around for a while. They previously had a free plan but removed that and instead offer a starter plan for $10/month which covers 100 keywords. If you need between 50 and 100 keywords checked, this is the better value than Rankitor but if you need less than 20 keywords monitored, Rankitor will be the better option.

SEOlium

SEOlium is the only tracker on the list that is pay per use. I like this, especially as someone who doesn’t track many keywords. However, the pricing can be a bit complicated as you have to measure based on the frequency you want checked. For reference, 25 keywords checked daily is $3.75 per month making SEOlium the cheapest paid rank tracker on the list. The problem with free plans is they get discontinued often and free customers have no priority. Paying $3.75/mo is almost free and you know that your keywords will be checked.

Keyword

Keyword.com is the successor to Serpbook, which was founded on the black hat forum Black Hat World. It is the most expensive rank tracker on the list at $24/mo for 100 keywords.