Blogging

How to Improve Google Search Rankings in 10 Simple Steps

Aug 30, 2021 | Seo

Your Google search ranking influences your audience’s awareness of you and the amount of engagement you receive. The better your ranking, the more likely you are to be seen by customers.

However, in today’s age of internet advertising, many businesses choose paid ads over organic search. Money, on the other hand, will not increase your website’s search engine ranking.

With all of that being said, today we are going to highlight some of the most effective ways to improve your rankings in Google. Through the list of the ten suggestions listed below, along with a combined work effort, marketing strategy, and commitment, anyone can see an improvement in their Google search rankings in a short period of time.

Keyword research is key!

To determine the ideal goals for each page on your website, use search data and research your competition. Start with the pages that have the most information and are beneficial to your customers, depending on the size of your website and the resources you have available. Your top one or two product/service pages, for example, or a well-written blog article that gives specific information your consumers are seeking, are both excellent examples.

Write copy that people want to read

You know more about your field than anybody else. Create content that is useful and includes keywords and synonyms that will help Google and other search engines find your website. Include keywords throughout the page to boost your search engine ranking, but don’t go crazy with keyword stuffing. Make sure your content is something that people want to read. To develop clear and appealing messaging, we recommend using the Storybrand method.

Give your page a title to assist search engines and people

The title tag, also known as the meta title, is used by search engines to determine what the page is about. Because your title tag is also the blue link that everyone sees on a search engine results page, be sure it contains the keywords people are looking for. This title is distinct from the bold heading that everyone sees on your page, usually the heading tag. As a result, you can create one title for the search engine results page (SERP) and another heading for your webpage if it helps you obtain more clicks.

Use HTML header tags to create pages

The most significant heading on the page is the first heading or H1 tag. The H1 tag is usually the first thing a visitor sees when they arrive at your website. Header tags are frequently used for style. However, they should be utilized to organize information instead.

One of the most effective strategies to increase search engine ranking is to employ subheadings. Heading tags have more weight in search engines than ordinary content, making it easier for users to browse the page. If you’re having difficulties updating your heading tags, you’ll almost certainly need to hire a developer to make the necessary changes.

Give your URLs purpose

Don’t be one of those people that ignore the URL of the page! Keyword research should also be applied to URLs. The name of the page will show in the URL if you use a CMS like WordPress. Check the URL and what you named the page before launching it.

Link to additional pages inside your site

You’ll frequently find yourself referring to other things that you’ve already written when creating content for the page. Selecting a sentence and adding a hyperlink to the blog post or page you’re addressing is internal linking.

These links will encourage some readers to go through and read your other pages, but search engines will also crawl them. Anchor text refers to the terms that you hyperlink. This provides context to the user and search engines about the website you link to. Therefore it’s critical to utilize relevant keywords in the hyperlink.

All of your photos should have ALT tags

Images visually support the message on the page. Users and search engines alike adore them. As a result, every one of your photos should include descriptive (keyword-rich) ALT tags. Alt tags also make your site more accessible, which might help you avoid a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Page speed and mobile-friendly design

It’s no secret that mobile visitors are increasingly visiting your website. Check to see if your website is mobile-friendly. Optimize graphics, code, and content to ensure that each page loads quickly. Slow websites will lose visitors, and search engines will notice. This is why having a quick website can help you rank higher in search engines. When it comes to making your website rank, you need great content, but website design and development are crucial.

Avoid duplicate content

Search engines favor new and unique information. Find any duplicate content and change it significantly or delete it entirely. Saying the same thing over and over has no benefit, and Google will punish you for it. You’ll most likely have duplicate content in one of two circumstances.

You’ve written a lot of content over the years and sometimes forget that you or someone else has already written a page or blog post on the same subject. This isn’t a total duplicate, but if the information overlaps considerably, you should combine it into a single powerful page.

Your website contains numerous versions of the same page that you aren’t even aware of. You can also use a site checker tool to help in the process of finding and removing any duplicate content from your site as well.

This may be the result of someone duplicating a page by accident, or you’ve made numerous copies for different languages or tracking. You can use a canonical URL to tell search engines that you copied a page on purpose. If you need canonical URLs, the Yoast plugin for WordPress makes it simple to do so.

Make an XML Sitemap and keep an eye on crawl errors

Sitemap submission

Search engines will index your pages faster if you provide a sitemap. After you’ve validated your site with Google Search Console in the first step, you may submit your sitemap to Google. You may also submit a sitemap using Bing’s webmaster tools dashboard.

Crawl warnings and errors

Search engines also crawl Links on pages. To give your site the best chance of ranking high, keep an eye on any mistakes or broken links and correct them or establish redirects. On Google, you can discover free broken link checkers.

Google Rankings Improvement Summary

Search engine optimization isn’t just a trend that will fade away shortly. It’s something your website should focus on right now, as well as in the future. If you’re just getting started with SEO, you’re already behind, but it’s not too late to apply the ten steps outlined above.

How Much Does Google Adsense Pay Per Pageview? (And Three Good Alternatives)

Aug 30, 2021 | Seo

Google Adsense is the way many new bloggers choose to monetize their blogs, but working out how much you can earn from it can be unclear. The big question is, how much does Google Adsense pay per pageview? Well, today we’re going to attempt to answer that question.

Since every site is different, we can’t say exactly how much your blog will earn from Adsense, however, we can offer a ballpark figure to help give you an idea of the earning potential of your blog. We’re also going to be sharing some great alternatives to Adsense, that can help you earn even more money from your blog.

What is Google Adsense, and how does it work?

Google Adsense is an ad network run by Google, which helps publishers monetize their websites and blogs with display ads. Anyone can sign up for Adsense as there are no minimum traffic requirements. This makes it one of the go-to ad networks for brand new bloggers.

Signing up for an Adsense account is a fairly easy process, but your website will need to be reviewed before being accepted to make sure it is compliant with all of Adsense’s program policies.

Once your site has been approved, you can start setting up your ads and making money.

Here’s how it works:

Simply paste a line of code into your site and choose the pages on which you are happy for ads to be shown. You can exclude any pages where you don’t want ads to be shown, such as your services page, or your online store/e-commerce pages.
Adsense matches different advertisers with your site, depending on the type of content you cover. This means that your audience should only be shown ads that are relevant to them.
Advertisers can bid in real-time for the ad spaces on your site. The highest bid wins, and this is the AdSense ad that will be shown on your site.
Adsense collects the payment from the advertisers, and after taking their share of commission, they will pay out your ad earnings. As a publisher, you will receive 68% of the earnings from each ad.

Adsense is completely free for publishers to use and is a great way to start earning money from a brand new blog.

How Much Does Google Adsense Pay Per Pageview?

The amount Google Adsense pays per pageview varies from one site to another. There are lots of things that can affect how much you earn, including where you live, the type of content you produce, and which niche you are in.

Google Adsense has created a handy earnings calculator to help you estimate how much your website or blog could earn from Adsense each year.

As an example, a home decor site with 50,000 pageviews per month based in the US could make around $14,010 per year in revenue from Google Adsense.

You can play around with the calculator to see what blogs in different niches could earn. We tested a few different niches to see how much earnings can vary from niche to niche.

Based on 50,000 pageviews per month, and based in North America:

Food and Drink Niche – $8,598 per year ($14.33 per 1000 pageviews on average)
Health Niche – $10,440 per year ($17.40 per 1000 pageviews on average)
Travel Niche – $8,460 per year ($14.10 per 1000 pageviews on average)
Finance – $19,278 per year ($32.13 per 1000 pageviews on average)
Beauty and Fitness – $7,806 per year ($13.01 per 1000 pageviews on average)

It’s important to remember that these are only estimates. And to be frank, these estimates are very optimistic. Take them with a pinch of salt.

At the low end of the scale, you could be earning $2-$5 per 1,000 pageviews. On the other hand, at the higher end of the scale with a blog in a competitive niche and a high CPC you could be looking at $30+ per 1,000 pageviews.

If you really want to know how much your blog could be making from Google Adsense earnings, you’re better off looking at income reports from other bloggers in your niche to see how much they are making.

Remember, earnings can vary drastically from site to site, country to country, and also fluctuate from season to season.

The Pros and Cons of Google Adsense

Google Adsense isn’t perfect, and as with anything it has its pros and cons. Let’s take a look.

Google Adsense Pros:

No minimum traffic requirements
Can be used alongside other monetization methods such as affiliate marketing
It enables you to start making money from your website straight away
Free to join
Easy to use – Google handles everything

Google Adsense Cons:

$100 minimum payout threshold
Low EPMV (earnings per 1,000 visitors) compared to other ad networks

As you can see there are upsides and downsides to using Google Adsense to monetize your blog. It’s not perfect, but for many new bloggers, it’s a great place to start.

Google Adsense Alternatives

Although Google Adsense is a great place to start for new bloggers, there are some great alternatives that can boost your ad revenue and make you more money with no additional work. So if you’ve been looking for a better AdSense alternative, you should consider these options.

Ezoic

Ezoic is one of the best display ad networks around. In fact, it’s what Spencer uses on his niche sites, including Own The Yard (Niche Site Project 4).

As an official Google partner, Ezoic requires you to be approved by Google Adsense to apply to the program. Ezoic uses AI to optimize the ad performance on your website or blog, meaning you can make more money from each visitor to your blog. Nice, right?!

It basically continually split tests the ads on your site, and the AI learns from this and uses the data to choose the ads that get the best response from your audience. Over time this results in a higher EPMV as your ad optimization increases.

When Niche Site Project 4 switched over to Ezoic, the ad revenue increased by an impressive 232%!

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Ezoic used to have a minimum traffic requirement of 10,000 monthly pageviews to join the network, but they’ve recently dropped that, and anyone can sign up now (subject to approval). Best of all, Ezoic has a low payment threshold of just $20, making it perfect for bloggers just getting started who want to collect revenue ASAP.

How much does Ezoic pay per page view?

As with Google Adsense, Ezoic earnings will vary depending on your location, niche, and time of year. According to Ezoic’s 2020 performance report which measured the progress of 300 websites over one year, the average increase in monthly revenue was a massive 93%.

From the most recent income report, Niche Site Project 4 achieved an EPMV of $19.75. That’s $19.75 for every 1,000 pageviews, which worked out at a total of $2911.78 just from Ezoic ads for one month. That’s a massive amount of extra cash coming in, totaling just over 50% of Own The Yard’s earnings for that month.

If you’re currently using Adsense to monetize your site, it’s definitely worth switching over to Ezoic. You can join for free, and there is currently no minimum traffic requirement.

Get Started with Ezoic Here

Mediavine

Mediavine is a full-service ad management platform for content creators. It is popular with bloggers in the travel, food, home, personal finance, and lifestyle niches, and is known for offering a high RPM (revenue per 1k views).

To join Mediavine you must have an established blog with over 50,000 sessions per month, and regularly produce original, long-form content. Your website or blog will also need to be in good standing with Google Adsense, because much like Ezoic, Mediavine works with Google AdExchange.

If you’re an established blogger regularly reaching over 50,000 sessions per month, then it’s worth considering signing up to Mediavine. You will almost certainly see a boost in your ad revenue.

Check out our in-depth review of Mediavine to see how it increased a niche site’s earnings by 80% after switching over from Adsense.

Read the full Mediavine Review

How much does Mediavine pay per pageview?

The amount Mediavine pays per pageview will vary from site to site, depending on the niche, season, and location of your blog.

RPM (revenue per 1k sessions) can vary from around $10 to $50+, and sometimes even more depending on the niche.

Adthrive

Adthrive is another premium advertising network that allows content creators to monetize their sites with display ads. It is one of the most popular ad networks around with bigger bloggers and is known for its high RPMs.

Adthrive has strict requirements, so not everyone will be accepted when they apply to join this premium ad network.

To join Adthrive you must have:

100,000 monthly pageviews
A majority of your traffic coming from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand
No Google policy infringements and the site must be in good standing with Google Adsense
Unique content

As you can see, the requirements for joining Adthrive are a lot higher than Adsense, Ezoic, and even Mediavine. But if you do have over 100k monthly pageviews, you should definitely consider Adthrive.

How much does Adthrive pay per pageview?

It’s tricky to say how exactly, but Adthrive guarantees that your site will earn more with Adthrive than any other ad network.

Publishers using Adthrive see an average increase in revenue of up to 67% compared to their previous ad network.

Which is the best ad network for new bloggers

When it comes to monetizing a new website or blog, display ads are a great place to start.

The great thing about using display ads on your blog is that you can use them alongside other monetization methods such as affiliate marketing, or dropshipping. If you don’t have display ads on your blog already, then by adding them you will see an instant boost in income, so it’s definitely worth it!

If you’re just getting started, then Ezoic is without a doubt the best option for you. Since they no longer have a minimum requirement of 10,000 pageviews, anyone can join, as long as you have a unique blog with high-quality content.

Ezoic also offers excellent customer service and has loads of great features that can actually help speed up your site. Ezoic users have access to a free SSL (HTTPS) and a lightning-fast CDN (Content Delivery Network) with advanced caching to speed up your site and reduce bounce rate.

If you’ve been thinking about using display ads on your website, Ezoic is the best option for new bloggers. It’s free to sign up, so there’s nothing to lose!

Find Out More About Ezoic Here

How Much Does Google Adsense Pay Per 1000 Views?

There are pros and cons to having display ads on your site, but for many people display ads are an easy way to bump up a website’s monthly revenue with no additional work. In fact, display ads can often be a passive income stream on evergreen content, earning you money for years after initially publishing a blog post.

If you have been thinking of using Adsense to monetize your site, you should definitely check out the alternatives we mentioned in this article. By switching to one of these better alternatives you will ensure that you are getting the most from your display ads, and earning as much as possible.

Mediavine and Adthrive are both great options, but they both have high traffic requirements. If you’re not quite there yet traffic-wise, then you should sign up with Ezoic. Ezoic no longer has a minimum traffic requirement and can give you a massive boost in earnings compared to Google Adsense.

How to Make a Timeline Graphic in Google Docs, Word, Excel, Google Sheets, and PowerPoint

Jan 10, 2021 | infographic

Infographics are a great way to capture user attention and communicate key concepts. Why? Because they combine relevant information with graphic impact to increase retention and engagement.

Data backs up this common-sense assertion: Research found that people retain 65% of the information they see — but only 10% of the information they hear — and spend 39% less time searching for the content they need when it’s displayed in infographic format.

One of the most compelling uses for this functional format? Timeline graphics. These date and data delivery vehicles offer a way to quickly communicate important information — from key dates in your company’s history to upcoming project milestones or predicted market trends.

Of course, it’s one thing to see the value in timeline graphics and another to actually create attractive and effective visuals. In this piece, we’ll tackle timeline tactics for familiar applications including Google Docs, Word, Excel, Google Sheets, and Powerpoint.

3…2…1…let’s go!

What is a timeline graphic?

While there’s no single format for timeline graphics, the most common composition uses four parts:

Data
Visual
Header
Description

Each timeline element contains all four parts, and elements are then arranged in left-to-right order of oldest-to-newest events. This format offers simplicity of form and function — elements are easy to read and identify, and the “flow” of time is simple to spot.

Let’s say you’re creating a timeline of key events in your corporate history using this framework. It might look something like this:

an example of a timeline graphic made in google docs

This (very basic) example was made in Google Docs and uses an arrow to denote the passage of time. Dates above the line are paired with brief details below. Some timelines will include both a header — such as merger — with a longer description below. How much information is worth including depends on the complexity of the topic at hand, who’s going to be using the chart, and its overall purpose. In this case, our graphic element is the line itself but you can also insert relevant images of people or places associated with the event to increase user engagement.

Another common graphic timeline format runs top-to-bottom with earlier dates at the top of the page and later dates further down. To maximize space many of these top-to-bottom templates alternate information left-and-right down the line.

How to Make a Timeline on Google Docs

So how do you make a timeline graphic?

1. Create a picture.

Head to “Insert”, then select “Drawing” and “+ New”. This will bring up a new window that looks like a checkerboard.

2. Start drawing.

Select the “Line” button from the top menu and choose “Arrow”. Then, draw a line across the screen. To make sure it’s straight, look at the left-hand side — if you only see one line, it’s level. If you see more than one, it’s at an angle.

3. Enter your text.

Click on the Text Box tool — represented as a T surrounded by a box — and create a box above or below your line to start adding details. You can either copy and paste multiple boxes to ensure consistent sizing and spacing or use a single, giant text box. While the latter option is quicker to create (we used it) the natural left-to-right format of the box means you’re limited in how information appears.

4. Save and close.

When you’ve entered all of your timeline data, click “Save and Close” and the image will be automatically added to your Google Doc.

How to Make a Timeline in Word

Maybe you don’t like Google Docs, maybe your company uses Microsoft Office exclusively, or maybe you don’t like the idea of potentially shared timelines. Whatever the case, it’s also possible to create a timeline graphic in Word.

1. Insert SmartArt

Open a new Word document and head to the “Insert” tab, then select “SmartArt”.

2. Find your timeline.

From the new menu that appears, select “Process”. This will bring up a host of potential timeline graphic options, everything from single, large arrows to connected text boxes to linked circles. The simplest option is the “Basic Timeline” which contains dots embedded in a large, transparent arrow.

3. Enter your data.

Use the text pane located on the left-hand side to enter your timeline data. Pressing “Enter” creates a new timeline entry — if you need to add more information to a specific timeline item, press Shift+Enter to create a line break.

4. Customize your timeline.

Customize your timeline dots and arrow with shapes or colors to achieve your desired look.

Word does not automatically calculate time between events; as a result, all items on your timeline will be equidistant from one another. If you need to communicate a larger span of time, you can drag events further apart manually, but this will eventually distort the graphic.

How to Make a Timeline in Excel

If you enjoy using Microsoft Office for creating timelines but want to make things more difficult for yourself, try building an Excel timeline. While the finished product offers easily-accessible data in a familiar format, the effort required is significantly more substantial.

1. Create a data table.

Create a three-column table in Excel that contains your timeline data. Use the first column for dates and the second for event titles. In the last column, enter a series of numbers — these numbers will determine the height of your timeline plots. You can set them all to the same height with the same number or different heights in a repeating pattern depending on your preference.

2. Insert a scatter chart.

Select “Insert” from the top Excel menu, then “Charts”, then select a Scatter chart.

3. Import your data.

Right-click the chart that appears and choose “Select Data Source.” Select the “Add” button in the “Legend Entries (Series)” menu that appears. Click on the small spreadsheet image that appears next to the “Series X values” box, then choose the column of dates you created.

Then, select the small spreadsheet next to the “Series Y values” box and choose the data in your timeline height column. Click “OK” and you’ll create a scatter chart with dates at the bottom and dots at varying heights.

4. Eliminate gridlines, add error bars.

Select your chart and find the “+” in the upper-right to bring up the Chart Elements menu. Uncheck “Chart Title” and “Gridlines”, then check “Data Labels” and “Error Bars”

5. Connect the dots.

Head to the “Error Bars” menu option and select “No Line” for your Series X Error Bars — this will remove the horizontal lines on each side of your data points. For your Series Y Error Bars, set the direction to “Minus” and the Error Amount to “100%”. This will create vertical lines between your dates and your data points.

6. Insert event titles.

In the “Format Axis” menu, select “Series 1 Data Labels”, uncheck “Y Value”, and select “Value from Cells.” Then, click the small spreadsheet icon. Select your event titles column and then click “OK”.

This should create a basic timeline with dates along the bottom and data points at varying height, each with a small description above. If desired, you can add extra formatting and color options from the Format Data Series menu.

How to Make a Timeline in Google Sheets

The polar opposite of Excel, Google Sheets makes it easy to create project timeline.

1. Create a new timeline.

Open Google Sheets and select the “Project Timeline” option.

2. Customize.

Edit your timeline. Change any text box, add colors, and modify dates as required. While customization is bounded by the basic format of this Gantt chart, Google Sheets offers one of the easiest ways to create and share a timeline.

How to Make a Timeline in PowerPoint

Making a timeline in PowerPoint is almost identical to the process used in Word.

1. Select your design.

Head to the “Design” tab and select your theme.

2. Insert SmartArt.

Click on “Insert”, then “SmartArt”.

3. Choose and fill your timeline graphic.

Select the timeline you prefer and it will be created with three elements. Add text to the elements directly, and use “Add Bullets” to add bullet points below. Select “Add Shape” to additional timeline sections.

Timing is Everything

Timeline graphics add convenient context to otherwise dry data points. From details about your company from inception to current interaction to in-depth project milestone markers, visual timelines in Google Docs or Sheets, or Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint offer a way to capture critical data while simultaneously boosting viewer interest and bolstering information retention.