Rank Ranger Blog

SEO vs SEM. Which is better and why.

Now, before we let them fight it out, perhaps I should mention that SEM and SEO can and in many cases should work together in harmony.

In reality, they are two different sides to the search engine marketing coin but the implementation of each one is completely different.

In this post, I’ll get into:

• What’s the difference between SEO and SEM?
• What are the benefits of each?
• What are the best applications for each?

There is a point in every SEO's development where you graduate from Google Search Console to a paid Rank Tracking tool.

That point usually comes when you realize that rank trackers don’t just offer you an accurate picture of your rankings, but also give you a host of analytics tools you can use to get a deeper understanding of your rankings.

And who doesn’t love gleaning actionable insights from data?

However, one of the difficulties you might find when making the transition is that Search Console picks keywords for you. Rank Trackers, on the other hand, only give you data based on the keywords you choose.

This leaves you with the difficulty of deciding which keywords to track.

In this post, I’ll show you a tried and tested method of finding laser-focused keywords (so that you don’t waste your time tracking low-impact keywords).

There is no question, effective SEO can be a gigantic task.

With content marketers flooding the internet with weekly and even daily content it’s becoming more and more difficult to stand out from the crowd.

What’s more, if you regularly publish content your site will rapidly gain in size, making SEO optimization an unwieldy task.

And...

If you imagine an enterprise site with literally thousands of pages, it isn’t difficult to see why SEO automation is a necessary part of your SEO strategy.

With that in mind, in this beginner’s guide to SEO automation I’ll be getting into:

• What SEO automation is
• How you can easily get started with SEO automation
• Some basic tasks you can quickly automate to speed up your SEO process

A few months ago I was looking at our Twitter mentions and I saw a Tweet by Christopher Hoffman.

Christopher made three bold points:

• Rank tracking tools should be tracking pixels and not just rank
• Rank trackers should also be tracking SERP features
• As digital marketers, we should adapt our SERP strategy based on what’s ranking on the SERPs

The points he brings up are all crucial for SEO as it stands.

In other words, not understanding this could mean you’re missing out on some obvious opportunities, or worse being left behind by focusing on outdated metrics.

To help you out… In this post, I’ll explain why you must implement pixel tracking and target SERP features in your SEO strategy. I’ll also show you some case studies using Rank Ranger’s pixel tracking secret weapon.

In this month’s SEO Trends for 2021, we take a deep dive into the human side of SEO.

Yes, as SEOs we all love optimizing pages, applying canonical tags, and trying to figure out the latest algorithms. But, we should never lose sight of the fact that SEO is a form of marketing.

And…

As marketers, we are marketing to people.


People buy your products. People use your services.

So, to help you out...

In this post you will find:

• Three sound strategies to help you keep control of your organic traffic as Google becomes more competitive
• How listening to your audience can substantially boost your SEO results
• How focusing too much on Google algorithms might hurt your SEO in the long run

I have a question for you.

If you were hired to do SEO for a big brand like Cisco Systems or Sony, how would you approach it?

Would you do anything different to any other SEO project?

I mean, the search engines don’t differentiate between small sites and big sites. So would you do anything differently?

In this post I’ll answer:

• What is enterprise SEO?
• What is an enterprise SEO strategy?
• What enterprise SEO tools should you know about?

Core Web Vitals.

Just the sound of it strikes fear into the hearts of SEOs.

This is most likely because it’s probably the most hyped Google algorithm update so far.

The question is, should you be worried about it?

How do you know if your site is ready for Core Web Vitals?

In this post, I’ll be explaining what Core Web Vitals are, how you can analyze your site, and how you can easily optimize for it.

When looking for an opportunity to win a Featured Snippet, should you swim upstream like a salmon, or should you just go with the flow?

Well, I’m always a fan of the second option.

I love it when I get a push from the outside.

How this relates to Featured Snippets is, when trying to win a Featured Snippet, you should always look for a snippet that Google isn’t ‘happy’ with.

In other words, look for cases where Google is looking for a better alternative and then show up with that perfect solution.

An easy way to do this is to look for a volatile Featured Snippet. One where Google is consistently changing URLs.

In this post, I’ll show you two different types of Featured Snippet volatility through the lens of the Rank Ranger SERP Features Monitor and how you can deal with it.

Did you know that search engine results pages are more than just a ladder to climb?

They can give us much more than just a ranking number and are a regular feature in discussions.

But why are SERPs so important?

And what types of data can you gather from the SERPs that can help your SEO?

In this post, I'll show you six ways that SERP analysis can help you create content with higher ranking potential that can better satisfy the user intent.

"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” - Jimmy Dean

There is no question that Jimmy’s words are true for every successful SEO. Due to the ever-changing nature of the Google SERPs, an SEO has to constantly adjust their sails.

So...

In the interest of helping you adjust your SEO sails this year, here is this month’s episode of SEO Trends for 2021.

This month’s SEO trends post features some stellar content that you can take action on.

In this post you will find:

• How to understand user intent by doing manual searches and looking as SERP feature data
• Why you should be leveraging video content in your business
• How to quickly identify the best quality sites for your link building campaigns
• Why you need to do SERP feature and SERP competitor analysis to win on today’s

Learning Python can drastically improve the quality of your SEO.

By abandoning Excel and the use of spreadsheets you can use it to automate the implementation process of machine learning algorithms and leveraging APIs.

Primarily intended to amplify coding readability, Python can come in handy when optimizing a website’s SEO. To show you exactly how this can be done, here is a detailed guide on learning Python for SEO and implementing the right tools along the way.

Backlinks.

One of the foundations of any SEO strategy.

However, just running out and trying to build links will leave you spinning your wheels and going nowhere, fast.

To see your site traffic growing month after month, you must be strategic about your link building. Your strategy must be built on sound research.

In this post, I’ll be showing you how to create a well-thought-through link-building strategy.

Also, I want to use this post to announce our new Link Explorer. Using the link explorer together with our link tracker will give you everything you need to run a successful link-building campaign.