Published
on
By
By Khurshid Alam
Introduction
SEO is an ever-evolving game, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with all the changes. It can be hard to come up with creative and effective ways of optimizing your website for search engine rankings without breaking any rules.
Most SEO analysts would never admit to using any “black hat” methods, but there are a few unconventional SEO tips and tricks that can give your website a boost without getting you into hot water. Here are 9 of the best ones:
9 Proven Unconventional SEO Tips and Tricks
Monitor Website Performance
One of the best ways to optimize your website’s SEO is by monitoring its performance. This can be done with tools such as Google Analytics and Search Console, which give you valuable insight into things like traffic patterns, keyword rankings and click-through rates. With this information in hand, you can make informed decisions about how to improve your website’s rankings and gain more visibility.
For example, if you notice that your website’s organic search results have been declining, it might be time to do an audit of the content on your pages and see if there are any changes needed.
Utilize social shares and signals
Another effective unconventional SEO tip is to make use of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. These channels are great for boosting your website’s reach, as well as helping you get valuable backlinks from other websites. If used strategically, these channels can bring an array of benefits to your website.
For example, when you post content on social media platforms, it is possible for other people to share that content with their own followers, which in turn helps you get more visibility and exposure. Additionally, many social signals are also taken into account by Google in its algorithm. This means that if your website is mentioned in an interesting way on social media, it can help improve its ranking in search engine results.
Optimize internal linking
Another way to improve your website’s SEO is by optimizing internal linking. Internal linking refers to the practice of adding links within the content of a page that point to other pages on the same domain. This can help search engine crawlers find and index more of your webpages, which helps boost your SEO rankings. Additionally, this practice also helps visitors navigate your website more easily, allowing them to find the content they are looking for quickly.
Join and contribute to communities and forums
Connecting with other professionals in your industry can be beneficial for SEO purposes. By joining and contributing to local forums or communities related to your field, you can get links from other websites that can help boost your website’s ranking in search engine results. Additionally, participating in these types of communities helps create a positive image for your brand and increases the chances of potential customers discovering your website.
Optimizing site metadata:
Another way to optimize your website for SEO is to optimize the metadata. This includes titles, descriptions, keywords and any other information that appears on the search engine results page (SERP) when someone searches for a term related to your business. By optimizing this information, you can help increase the visibility of your website in search engine results. Additionally, making sure that the information is accurate, relevant and up-to-date can also help your website’s ranking.
Repurpose blog posts as videos and podcasts
Creating content multiple times in different formats can help drive more traffic to your website. By turning blog posts into videos or podcasts, you can appeal to a wider audience and further increase your potential reach. Additionally, repurposed content can significantly reduce the amount of time needed to create new content, saving you time and resources.
For example, if you write a blog post about tips for starting an online business, you can turn that same content into a podcast episode or YouTube video. This not only provides more ways for potential customers to find your website, but also ensures that the content is still valuable and relevant to your target audience.
Resource pages and link roundups help secure backlinks:
Publishing resource pages or link roundups is an effective way to attract backlinks. A resource page is a collection of helpful links and resources that are relevant to the topic you’re covering. Link roundups, on the other hand, include valuable content from around the web alongside your own original content.
For example, if you’re writing an article on content marketing tactics, you can include links to helpful resources from other sites in your resource page or link roundup. By providing value to your readers and including external sources, you can secure backlinks for your website.
Optimizing images with alt tags:
Every image on a website should have the alt attribute filled in with an appropriate keyword. This helps search engine crawlers understand what your image is about, and it can help you get more organic traffic from Google Image Search.
For example, if you’re writing a blog post about hiking in the mountains, your image should have an alt tag with keywords such as “hiking,” “mountains,” or “outdoor adventure.”
Optimizing dwell time:
Dwell time is the amount of time a person spends on your website once they land there from a search engine. The longer people stay on your page, the more likely it is that Google and other search engines will consider you a trusted resource.
To improve dwell time, focus on providing quality content that engages readers. Use visuals such as photos, videos and infographics to break up long text. Make sure your content is easy to read on mobile devices and be sure to include internal links that direct readers to other relevant pages on your website.
Conclusion:
SEO tips are a dime a dozen on the Internet; however , some of the best tips and tricks out there remain unknown to most SEO professionals. Use these 9 unconventional tips and tricks to give your website an edge over the competition in search engine rankings. With a little bit of creativity and an eye for detail, you can make sure that your website stands out from the crowd.
Khurshid Alam is the founder and director of Pixel Street. A top SEO agency in Kolkata. He has over 8 years of experience in the industry and has worked with some of the world’s leading brands including ITC, The Hindu Group, Glocal Healthcare, etc.
8 Hacks You Probably Didn’t Know You Could Do on YouTube
Ortom and Public Interest
Published
on
By
In this article, we’ve put together a list of some of the lesser-known hacks, tips, and features offered by YouTube. With these, you’ll be able to save a lot of your time and effort. You’ll be able to get the best out of the platform.
Here are the 8 Hacks You Probably Didn’t Know You Could Do on YouTube:
In the social media world, everyone loves to use GIFs. But, there’re very few knowing how to make one. Well, here’s a little URL trick with which you can make GIFs out of YouTube videos.
Firstly, play a YouTube video of your choice. Secondly, copy the URL at the top of your browser. Thirdly, open a new tab, paste the copied URL, and make a small edit. You need to just type “gif” right before the domain name in the URL. Here’s what your edited URL would look like – “www.gifyoutube.com/[your-video-tag].”
Finally, you’ll be redirected to gifs.com. Here, you’ll find your video already uploaded. You’ll now be just left to do edits to your video, make GIFs, download it, and share it with others.
Did you ever wish to see the transcript of a YouTube video but weren’t able to? Well, then this is the hack you need. YouTube automatically generates transcripts for every uploaded video.
Well, you have access to see the transcript of all videos. But you can’t see the transcript of videos where the uploader has manually hidden them. First, you’ll need to open a video Second, click the three-dot ellipsis. Thirdly, select ‘Transcript’ from the drop-down menu and voila, you’ll see the transcript of the video.
Using ‘Cards’ not only can you make your video more engaging but also cross-promote other content. They are most effective when they appear with calls to action, such as a link to other channels, videos or playlists, and other destinations.
To add cards, first, you’ll have to click the video you’d like to edit in the YouTube Studio. Then, you need to click the Cards box, select Add card, and finally, select Create. All you’ll have to do now is customize, adjust, and create the card.
End screens are nothing but whatever viewers see in the last 5-20 seconds of a video. You can use it to insert several CTAs and redirect viewers to different destinations. You can direct viewers to subscribe to your channel, other videos, playlist, visit another channel, etc. You can also buy YouTube subscribers as an add-on to this hack.
All you need to do is select a video in the YouTube Studio. Then select Editor from the left menu and, finally, select ‘Add End Screen’. It’s all done.
URLs of YouTube videos and channels are usually presented in binary & unmemorable strings of letters or numbers. But there’s a way that you can create your custom URLs. Luckily, we’ve got this hack covered for you.
To create a branded URL, your YouTube channel should satisfy some prerequisites. First, the channel needs to have a minimum of 100 subscribers, an icon, and channel art, and should be a minimum one-month-old. Once all these are satisfied, you can click your profile picture, go to ‘Settings’, and click ‘advanced settings’. There under channel settings, you’ll see a custom URL box, which you can use to add letters and numbers. Finally, as soon as you agree to custom URL terms of use, your unique branded URL would be ready.
We are sure that there must have been times when you wanted to delete items from your YouTube search history. We’re also sure that just like most YouTube users out there, you also must not be aware of how to do it. So, here’s how it’s done.
To clear your YouTube history on desktop or mobile, first, you need to navigate to the “Watch History” menu. There you’ll get to see all the options such as “clear all watch history”, “pause watch history”, or individually remove videos from your history.
At some point, you must have used Google Trends to find the popularity of specific search terms over time. But, did you ever use it to compare the popularity of YouTube search terms specifically? Well, if not, read on.
To start with, open Google Trends. Then, go to the “Explore topics” search bar at the top and type a search term. As soon as the page opens up, click on “Web Search”. All you have to do now is just choose “YouTube Search” from the drop-down menu. Now, you can specifically explore and compare popular YouTube search terms.
If you’re a parent who does not want their kids to have access to everything on YouTube, this hack is for you. YouTube has a kids’ version popularly known as the YouTube kids. You can use this feature to have more control of what kids are watching and finding.
We hope that these YouTube hacks would be useful to you. The platform certainly is further going to evolve and competition on it is going to be more cut-throat in the coming days. Remember you can always rely on the best sites to buy YouTube likes to get desired results on YouTube. It is probably one of the best hacks you should know.
Published
on
By
By Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi
Looking at the number of politicians in Nigeria that play politics with neither ideology nor principle, it will not be characterized as hasty if one concludes that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist, had Nigerians, particularly politicians in mind, when he, many years ago, remarked that seven things which have to do with social and political conditions would destroy a man.
Gandhi, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign against the colonial master in India, named these seven sins to, include; Wealth Without Work, Pleasure Without Conscience, Knowledge Without Character, Commerce (Business), Without Morality (Ethics), Science Without Humanity, Religion Without Sacrifice, and Politics Without Principle.
Indeed, this piece need not search far to know that a great number of Nigerians are, in their social, economic, religious, moral and political endeavours, guilty of these sins.
While this state of affairs remains unpalatable as well as condemnable, there are, however, some hopeful signs that not all politicians in Nigeria are without principle.
Going by the recent news report that Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, a member of the People Democratic (PDP), lately threw his weight behind the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in the forthcoming elections, barely 48 hours after former President Olusegun Obasanjo released a six-page letter endorsing the former Anambra State governor, one will to a large extent believe that Ortom is among the very Nigerians that presently play politics, not for private gain but the purpose of the greater good for the greater number, politics laced in principle.
Governor Ortom, according to the report, strongly recommended Peter Obi to Nigerians as the man who has the capacity to effectively tackle the economic, security and other challenges facing the country, noting that Obi possesses the qualities of a leader who will be a true President of this country by guaranteeing justice, equity and fairness for all Nigerians.
Essentially, apart from being reputed for possessing nation-building prowess and laced with a burning desire to see Nigeria transform into a nation where equity, justice and peace shall reign supreme, Ortom, by the latest declaration, has demonstrated that his sense of nationhood, public good, national cohesion and development is stronger than ethnic, religious and political consideration.
In addition to the above, there are other traceable indices and critical, creative leadership feats and ingenuity that vividly qualify Ortom as outstandingly famous in the present circumstance.
First, he is one of five aggrieved governors of the PDP known as the G5 or Integrity Group. Others are Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu) and Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia).
The governors have refrained from campaigning for the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, amid opposition to the party’s National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, coming from the same region as the standard bearer. Ortom in the opinion of this piece, is a believer in fairness, equity and justice.
Also remarkable is the fact that the Benue state Governor did not hide under the cloak of ‘party supremacy or anti-party activity in his presidential endorsement of Peter Obi.
Another area of interest that is worth commenting on is the news that the Governor threw his weight behind Obi of the Labour Party without minding whether such action would affect his (Ortom) senatorial ambition on the platform of the PDP.
Again, before the latest support to Mr Obi, Governor Ortom has scored so many firsts in the time past as a result of his well-foresighted leadership strategies.
Take, as an illustration, he spearheaded the anti-open grazing campaign. In the wake of the farmers/herders crisis across the country, many were against Governor Ortom’s position on the matter, as it were.
Like a prophet and a lone voice in the wilderness, he cried persistently that the need for solutions to insecurity has become more urgent at the present because the problem is far more serious now than it was a few years ago.
At a different time and place, he called on the Federal Government to address the deteriorating insecurity in the country, which manifests in killings, kidnappings, arson and other acts of banditry and terrorism.
Worsening the situation was the fact that his calls came at a time when someone outspoken, with a different set of ideas, values, or organizing techniques, was viewed as ‘the enemy within’. And the constructive debate is perceived as unnecessary, messy and divisive, and differing political ideas and strategies are perceived as destructive to the nation’s interest.
For Nigerians with critical minds, Governor Ortom’s ban on open grazing in his state is important because open grazing is the first line of conflict between herders and farmers. The friction caused untold hardship as farms worth millions were destroyed, and farmers were killed for resisting herders’ influx into their farmlands; consequently, many farmers were forced to flee from their farms, farm yields dimmed, and food inflation was gaining ground across the country.
Today, there is progress across the board. At the National Assembly, both the upper and lower chambers have finally seen reason and presently align with his position on insecurity in the country.
Ortom’s demonstration of objectivity, truth and patriotism in Peter Obi’s endorsement glaringly confirms that Leadership holds the key to unlocking the transformation question in Nigeria. Only a sincere and selfless leader and a politically and economically restructured polity brought about by national consensus can unleash the social and economic forces that can ensure the total transformation of the country and propel her to true greatness.
Without a doubt, the country, as Ortom recently argued, is on the verge of collapse, owing to leadership failure and its attendant consequences of poverty, heightened insecurity with banditry, kidnappings and other acts of terrorism threatening the very foundations of the nation.
Ortom may not be alone in the present circumstance as well-foresighted Nigerians have before now argued that the President that Nigeria needs at this challenging time in the country’s history should be one who understands the urgent need to unite the people and speedily initiate policies and actions to redirect the ship of the nation on the path of growth and development.
In line with the above belief, this piece, as usual, calls on Nigerians to use their Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) to jettison the present socio-economic system that has bred corruption, inefficiency, primitive capital accumulation and socially excluded the vast majority of our people.
Just as the only way this can be done is to work to build a new social and political order that can mobilize the people around common interests, with visionary leadership to drive this venture. Only then can we truly begin to resolve some of the socio-economic contradictions afflicting the nation.
Finally, as noted in my earlier intervention, there are, in fact, two striking attributes worth mentioning that stand Ortom out; first and very fundamental, he is a national leader that is well respected by all.
Secondly, Ortom is among the few public office holders in the country that have played politics using global rules and dictates. He is, in the opinion of this piece, a clear thinker and belongs to the class of those that can cull everything down into the right points irrespective of political divides.
Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He can be reached via jeromeutomi@yahoo.com/08032725374
Published
on
By
By Adedapo Adesanya
Lagos State has the highest rent index among selected cities in Africa, a new index from Numbeo seen by Business Post shows.
In its Africa: Cost of Living Index by City 2023 rankings, Lagos scored 56.0 points, higher than other advanced cities on the continent like Dakar in Senegal (22.2 points), Abidjan in Cote D’Ivoire (17.0 points), Accra in Ghana (15.7 points), as well as South African cities of Cape Town (20.4 points), Pretoria (12.4), and Johannesburg (13.7) among others.
Rent has been an issue for many Nigerians who pay as low as N300,000 per annum for a self-contained apartment and could reach up to N1.5 – 3 million yearly in some highbrow areas. For some locations in Alimosho Local Government Area, a small-room apartment goes for a minimum rate of N90,000 per annum, while a two-bedroom apartment can cost N650,000 per annum based on negotiation and familiarity.
In the Ifako-Ijaiye area of the state, a self-contained apartment goes for as low as N250,000 – N300,000, a resident shared with Business Post, adding that a two-bedroom apartment can cost N500,000 – N600,000.
In the Ogudu area of the state, a resident, Seyifunmi, whose last name was not given, told our correspondent that rent for a one-bedroom is N800,000 per year in a “fairly good street.”
However, she shared that this comes with some drawbacks. In her words, “Parking is hellish.”
Miss Joe, a resident of Gbagada, corroborates claims about the high rent in the state, noting that a simple, decent one-bedroom apartment range is around N500,000 to N800,000 per annum.
“That’s decent, when you want something really good and fine, maybe in an estate too, this starts from N700,000 [a year].”
Explaining the rationale behind Gbagada, she said, “I think Gbagada is like the new Surulere or Yaba. The fact that Gbagada is a more central location in Lagos than any of the above is my most unique selling point. Also, Gbagada is relatively safe with some good roads.”
She noted that housing in Gbagada and its environs, including Pedro, Oworo/New Garage, and Ladi-lak had increased significantly in the past four years. This, she points out, is because “demand is up much more than availability.”
“It has also attracted real estate developers who build to make quick and high returns, and most of these buildings are substandard,” she added.
The Numbeo index rankings also showed that other parameters, including Cost of Living, have shut up in Nigeria’s most populous city. The Cost of Living Index stands at 38.8 points, while the Cost of Living Plus Rent Index adds up to 47.0 points, also the highest among the benchmarked cities.
Other indicators from Numbeo showed that Lagos has a Groceries Index of 39.5 points, also the highest, while the Restaurant Price Index stands at 33.1 per cent, wit the Local Purchasing Index one of the lowest at 7.6 points.
Copyright © 2022 BusinessPost