GrowthBar Review: Best Google Chrome Extension for SEO

Last updated on May 28, 2020 at 06:40 pm

SEOs rely heavily on tools when doing processes like keyword research and backlink analysis. However, most of the things that you need to rank for can be found right in the search results and by studying your competitors.

Most of the time, you have multiple tabs opened, using one tool per task so you go back and forth on multiple tools. Google Chrome extensions are a great way to reduce the time spent in these tasks and we just found the best chrome extension available in the market.

I’m talking about GrowthBar. A tool created by the awesome folks at Growth Marketing Pro. I’ve been using GrowthBar a lot and I’m loving it. Here’s my full review of the tool.

What is GrowthBar?

GrowthBar is a Google Chrome extension that provides SEO analysis straight from the Google search results. You could use Google search to look for any keywords that you want and GrowthBar will provide you insights that you need whether it’s for keyword research, competitor analysis, and more.

Before I continue with this review, you might want to try and install GrowthBar. You could do so by visiting this link: GrowthBar SEO Chrome Plugin. They are offering a 5-day free trial. 

GrowthBar Features

Once you install GrowthBar and turn on the tool, it is activated right away once you open a new tab of Google search. Here’s a view of the overall look:

Keyword difficulty

When searching for a keyword, a score will be found right beside the search bar which indicates how difficult it is to rank for the keyword that you searched for. This is really helpful as it helps you assess if you should go for this keyword or look for an easier keyword to rank for.

Keyword suggestions

This, in my opinion, is the highlight of this tool. Once you search for a keyword, there is a section where you can see a few other related keywords suggested by GrowthBar as well as their search volume and cost per click if you are running ads. Once you click the See more button, you’ll see a full list of recommendations and you can even download a CSV file so you could store the data.

Domain Authority and Top Backlinks

This feature is very useful for competitor analysis. GrowthBar shows you the domain authority of a website. And then you could check the top linking websites if you want to find out more how to beat your competitors. Similar to the keyword suggestions, clicking the See more button will show you the full list of the website’s linked domains. It will provide domain authority for each as well. You could also download the list as a CSV file if you want to keep a record.

Top Organic and Paid Keywords

Using GrowthBar, you could view the top keywords a website is ranking for both organic and paid ads keywords and see their position on it. Another great tool for keyword research and competitor analysis.

Facebook Ads

Clicking the Facebook Ads button on GrowthBar will show you the ads a website is running on Facebook. This is a great way to spy on your competitors and be ahead of their social media marketing campaigns.

Word Count

GrowthBar is able to give you the word count of a webpage without the hassle of copying and pasting their content on a word file. Though it has been said before that word count does not affect rankings, long-form content or deep content is still recommended. 

My Thoughts on GrowthBar

My experience has been great so far using GrowthBar. Just seeing all the data that I need while surfing through Google is exactly what I wanted for an SEO Chrome extension. It’s compact and easy to use. It saves me and my team a lot of time because it eliminates the repetitive actions of switching in another tab then analyzing websites one by one on different SEO tools. I get the data that I need without having to leave the search results.

However, I think GrowthBar could add more data and metrics to allow for a more in-depth analysis. But still, it doesn’t take away the versatility of the tool since you can have data for literally any keyword that you search for.

GrowthBar Pricing

GrowthBar costs 49 dollars per month which is relatively cheaper than most SEO tools. But if you want to check out the tools first before making a purchase, they are offering a 5-day free trial that you could use by going to this link.

Final Verdict

I would definitely recommend GrowthBar as it is a valuable tool especially for digital marketing companies running multiple campaigns for multiple businesses. I think it’s really worth it since it doesn’t limit the number of searches that you do so you literally can analyze unlimited amounts of keywords and websites. It doesn’t take a lot of power on your computer or laptop, it’s user-friendly, and could definitely increase your efficiency.

GrowthBar Review: Best Google Chrome Extension for SEO posted first on https://seo-hacker.com

How to Choose the Perfect Top Level Domain

Last updated on May 27, 2020 at 06:02 am

A top-level domain or much better known as TLD is usually the last part of a website’s address. For most websites, their TLD would be .com, .net, or .org – the most common ones. But when we use ccTLDs or country code top-level domains, it changes to .com.ph, or just .ph, .kr, .au, etc. You have a variety of choices as a webmaster for your website’s TLD. Unlike the second level domain where 

Your second-level domain or SLD – the domain name or phrase before the TLD – is the easy part since you can use your brand name for it. But deciding between the hundreds of TLDs you can use can be time-consuming. So, how do you choose the perfect TLD for your website?

How to Choose Your Top Level Domain

Your domain name is your brand’s digital and search representative which makes sense that you put in as much importance in it as your other facets since it will be one of your driving forces for marketing and reaching out to a wider audience. Yes, most brands opt to choose their own brand name as their second-level domain with the generic .com as the TLD, however, this isn’t always as easy as it sounds since choosing domain names do have some obstacles if you’re unlucky.

There are instances where the generic .com TLD for your brand isn’t available. So, this allows you to find chances to use a better TLD than the generic .com, however, this also contains a risk where you choose the wrong TLD – this could not be reversed and you have to buy and develop a new domain. 

So, how exactly do we choose the top-level domain?

• Consider Your Brand

Always remember that if you want to be successful in the digital landscape, your website is one of the most important facets you need. This means that your domain name (including your TLD) is, in one way or another, affects how your audience perceives your brand. 

As I’ve mentioned, .com is a generic and commonly used TLD; you can use this to your advantage. Make use of unique TLDs that can attract your audience and potential visitor’s attention. Of course, you need to consider your brand identity. You can’t use an unrelated TLD for your domain name. Let’s say for example, your preferred domain name (and business name) is southsideveterinarian, you can’t use a random TLD like .soccer since it’s unrelated and it doesn’t mean anything for your business. This does not only result in a bad domain name, but it also affects how your audience and visitors perceive your brand/website. But if you use a related TLD like .pet or .clinic is both unique, attention-grabbing, and improves your audience’s perception of your brand. 

Lastly, your TLD also affects how trustworthy your website is to your audience and visitors. There are TLDs that can be perceived as unsafe or not trustworthy so it’s important to be wary of this.

• Consider Your Target Market

As an SEO services agency, we take into account our client’s target market is important, especially if we’re developing their website. A TLD is important for your target market, more specifically, a ccTLD. This is important for your target market (and SEO) is because your ccTLD serves as a signal to Google and other search engines that you’re trying to rank higher in the search engine’s country-specific version. So, for most of our clients in the Philippines, their ccTLDs are either .com.ph or just .ph for their website to signal the search engine that we want the client website to rank in Google.com.ph.

Of course, there are disadvantages here. Having a ccTLD drives an obstacle in ranking for the international or global search market. But if you or your client is absolutely sure that they just want to target a specific location, then ccTLDs are not a problem.

• Consider Your SEO

There are two things you have to remember when considering your SEO when choosing a TLD for your domain name:

• ccTLDs will work best if you or your client is clear on your target market. ccTLDs are not effective in the international search market but are extremely effective for hyper-focused local search market efforts.
• Generic TLDs like .com and .net are more effective for the international and broader market. However, this does not mean that generic TLDs are more effective in ranking in ALL search engines. Ranking is dependent on the efforts done, quality of the website and its content, and its authority in its industry. 

Key Takeaway

Your domain’s TLD isn’t something that you can just decide on without proper consideration. It affects multiple factors inside your website and it can also spell your website’s success or failure in the future. So, does your domain’s TLD matter THAT much in the whole scheme of digital marketing? Yes. The most obvious reason is without the TLD, you won’t have a website to work on. Another reason is when you properly choose a TLD, it can help in your SEO efforts, albeit only by a little bit. What do you think about choosing the perfect TLD? Let me know in the comments below!

How to Choose the Perfect Top Level Domain posted first on https://seo-hacker.com

SEO Checklist: Optimizing After A Core Update

Last updated on May 21, 2020 at 05:09 pm

There have been plenty of Google updates but you may think, “Why can’t SEOs shut up about this one?”. The May 2020 Core Update has been rolled out in a time when digital has become colossal in the lives of people with many e-commerce sites and social media marketplaces seeing a surge in business from this avenue. With that, competition is more vicious than ever as many digital marketers clamor to find ways to achieve that top spot.

I have written about this last week to say who are the probable winners and losers from this update. Now, it has been a full two-week roll out as Google announced in their Twitter account that the update is finally over. As the search engine constantly revamps itself, marketers should be adaptable to the algorithmic changes that it undergoes. Knowing this, how can you cope with the effects of this universal update?

Personally, I believe in going back to the basics and reverse engineer it from there. What are the elements that you should look at once you’ve been hit by the May 2020 update or any update for that matter? Find out here.

Organic Search Results

The first thing you look at when there is an update is whether or not you slipped off your most-coveted rankings. It sucks when an algorithm change can mess up your hard work and you cannot do anything about it because it’s the system. If you are in panic mode because you’ve been hit by the update, it’s okay because this means that you are following the rules and sticking to white-hat strategies for your SEO. For those who game the system and employ black-hat tactics, they may feel as if they are vulnerable if they do not experience the same loss due to an update but I guarantee that they will suffer a grave consequence for their unethical acts.

Once you see that you have lost your place in the first or second page, then it’s time to go to work and see why it went wrong. Even if the May 2020 update has come to a close, this is not the end of your job to maintain a high-quality site. Start with checking if you are indeed relevant for the search term that you want to rank for. You cannot choose keywords just because. Go back to the foundation of your SEO strategy and research relevant keywords to your business, options that will generate more ROI in the long run.

Traffic

Updates usually make themselves known by that little curve downward or high wave in your traffic analytics report. The sudden loss in the number of users going into your site may or may not be a consequential effect of your ranking drop. Either way, this is still an important element that you should look at after an update. This will help you see which areas of your site will need your attention. It would be very helpful if you check which pages have lost the most traffic and optimize from there. Usually, this doesn’t mean that you are not relevant for users, the reason may be attributed to users finding it hard to find your pages due to a ranking drop. Navigational keywords are your best bet in recovering from this. Recover by catering to the users who have previously found your page and take them back to the pages that serve them with the most relevant information.

Featured Snippets

With the recent Core Update, there are webmasters who shared their accounts of missing featured snippets. If you have secured a position in a featured snippet for your query, you might want to check if you are hit by the algorithm update by getting kicked out of the featured snippet section. Optimize for it by following a solid content strategy that will help you succeed in securing a place in the featured snippet. The benefits of having a spot in a featured snippet are unmatched so this will be an area that you need to focus on.

Site Speed and Security

High-quality sites optimize best for user experience, which is why you should also look out for your site’s speed and security. Page load times can be a killer if you have a slow site causing your user to exit and look for information somewhere else. Same with Site Security, if a user finds out that he is unsafe while browsing your site, you should expect that it would not be a great experience for them. Core updates crack down on sites that are not proven to be of value to users so a way for you to come out strong from this is to optimize for people. It may be a daunting task trying to hit two birds with one stone, but algorithm updates are there as guides on how you can serve your audience better.

Key Takeaway

Having a checklist for SEO should be your priority, especially if you are in the middle of a turbulent update. With this in mind, make sure that you do not over-optimize or neglect the most important elements for your online visibility. Updates are there for a reason, you have to make sure that you are properly optimizing your site for the best user experience and the highest-ranking position in the search engine. What are your thoughts on the fully rolled out Google update and what are the things you include on your checklist? Comment down below!

SEO Checklist: Optimizing After A Core Update posted first on https://seo-hacker.com

12 Best Practices for Technical SEO

Last updated on May 19, 2020 at 06:39 pm

Technical SEO is one of the most exciting parts of SEO in my opinion and certainly one of the most crucial ones. There is a unique satisfaction you could get when you see Google indexing more and more pages of your website. At the same time, it feels like you’re walking on a field of landmines and one mistake can make your website virtually gone on search engines.

Sounds scary right? But don’t worry, this guide is written to make sure that you don’t step on a landmine.

Just because it has “technical” in its name doesn’t mean you need to have developer skills to do it but you will need assistance from a web developer from time to time. You might not realize it yet but you’re probably doing it already since technical SEO  is part of a regular SEO audit you should be doing. In this article, I will walk you through technical SEO and its best practices. 

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO is the process of optimizing a website to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index. Generally, it also includes any technical aspects of SEO. Not only does technical SEO guarantees your website appears on search engine results but it also highly affects your rankings.

1. Check for Noindex Tags

The noindex tag is used to tell search engines to not show a specific page on the search results. Meaning if you have a great piece of content that is ranking really well and you accidentally add a noindex tag on it, it might disappear from the search results in a few days. Make sure that all of your important pages are indexable and only use the noindex tag when necessary. To check if a page has a noindex tag on it, you could simply go to its source code and find a noindex tag or use install browser tools/extensions to make things faster. 

2. Check your Robots.txt File

The robots.txt file is used to block search engine bots from crawling URLs that are specified in the file. You could use the robots.txt file to prevent search engine bots to enter certain parts of your website for security purposes or if you want a certain section of your site to not appear in the search results.

By default, your site’s robots.txt file can be seen by adding robots.txt on your domain: “https://yourwebsitehere.com/robots.txt”.

Take note that once Google already indexes a page and you want to remove it from the search results, you should put a noindex tag on it first then block it through the robots.txt file to prevent it from being crawled again.

3. Secure your Website

Installing an SSL (secure sockets layer) certificate on your website is one of the basic technical SEO optimizations that you can do. In fact, making your website on HTTPS is one of the most known minor ranking factors. Not only does this affect rankings but it may also affect user experience. Browsers may show a warning message to a user before entering a non-secured website. This can scare away users and it’s definitely a loss of traffic.

4. Submit your Website on Google Search Console

Submitting your website to Google Search Console (GSC) should be the first thing that you need to do once your website is up and running. Verifying your website on Google Search Consoles guarantees that your website appears on the search results. There are a lot of other benefits as well. Having your website on GSC allows you to monitor your organic clicks and impressions. Google will also notify you of errors when crawling and indexing your website through GSC.

5. Have a Proper XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap file is the list of all URLs on your website. You then submit the sitemap to Google Search Console. Google treats all URLs in the sitemap as priorities for crawling. You could easily install an XML sitemap by downloading a plugin and from there, you can control what pages are excluded or included in the sitemap.

6. Optimize URL Slugs

Optimizing the URL slugs of your pages is one of the easiest tasks to do for technical SEO and it is also an important one. It can affect your rankings since it is a place where you could add your target keyword and it makes your website look good for users. Optimize URL slugs by making it clean and easy to understand and refrain from using random letters and numbers.

7. Optimize Site Speed

Optimizing your website’s speed is always the way to go. Not only does it affect rankings, but also it affects user experience. You could use tools such as GTmetrix or Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check your website’s site speed and get recommendations on how you could further improve it.

For this one, you might need the assistance of a web developer on your team. But as an SEO, you could also do optimizations yourself such as compressing images, installing site speed optimization plugins, or moving to a faster hosting provider.

8. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

You might also need the assistance of a web developer on this one. Having a mobile-friendly website should be a top priority. Google gives high importance on mobile usability and it is known to be one of the top ranking factors. And since a large number of users come from mobile phones, it is best to make your website easier to use for them. Alternatively, you could use AMP or accelerated mobile pages to easily make mobile versions of your pages. 

9. Remove Links to Dead Pages

Linking to dead pages or 404 pages is a waste of link juice. Always be on the lookout for outbound links to 404 pages and make sure to update them and link them to live pages. If there is an internal link on your website to a page that you deleted or does not exist, search engines might be confused and you might see coverage errors on your GSC report. Use SEO crawlers to find links to dead pages and update them immediately.

10. Look for Orphaned Pages

Orphaned pages are pages that are not linked from other pages of your website or are not part of your website’s link ecosystem. This makes it hard for search engine bots to crawl and index these pages. You could use SEO crawl tools like Screaming Frog and Netpeak Spider to look for orphaned pages and check if these pages have any value.

11. Implement Structured Data Markup

While structured data doesn’t affect rankings directly, it certainly helps search engines have a better understanding of your website and its contents. Having the right structured data markup enables your website to have rich snippets in search results and boost your click-through rate. You could use Google’s structured data testing tool to make sure that the markup you implemented has no errors and is accepted by Google.

12. Check your Canonical Tags

Canonical tags are known to be an advanced SEO strategy as it requires careful implementation. Like the noindex tag and robots.txt, improper canonicalization of pages in your website can massively affect how Google crawls and indexes your website.

A canonical tag is used to denote that a page has the same contents as the page it is canonical to. By default, all pages should be self-canonical. For example, this post: https://seo-hacker.com/google-may-2020-core-update/ should have the code <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://seo-hacker.com/google-may-2020-core-update/”> in it.

Should you want to set a different canonical to a page, you could use tools like YoastSEO or you could ask your developer to implement the code on different pages. In my experience, canonical tags are mostly used on e-commerce websites as they tend to have multiple product listings with minimal differences with each other.

Take note that if you want to check if Google is reading your canonical tags correctly, you can use the URL inspection tool on Google Search Console, click on Coverage and it will indicate the user-declared canonical and Google-selected canonical. Google always follows the user-declared canonical but in some cases, Google’s bot would select its own canonical because it may find similar pages on your website. 

Key Takeaway

And there you have it! Thirteen best practices for technical SEO. I hope this guide made you realize that technical SEO isn’t as hard as it seems but is definitely essential and must be done thoroughly and with care. A technically sound website can be the difference between your SEO success or failure. Make sure that you follow these best practices and improve your website rankings.

12 Best Practices for Technical SEO posted first on https://seo-hacker.com

The Best Way to Find 404 Pages and How to Fix Them

Last updated on May 14, 2020 at 06:15 pm

There are a lot of tools available in the market today that enable webmasters and SEOs to find broken pages inside their website. But not one of them can show you the most important broken pages that users still enter. This means that the broken page where users go to, if not fixed immediately, will make you lose valuable traffic in the long run. 

However, there is an easier and faster way to find these important broken pages and be able to fix them immediately. The surprising part about this is possible through a tool that ALL webmasters and SEOs use (and the tool is absolutely free). So, what’s the best way to find important 404 pages?

Use Google Analytics to Find 404 Pages

Simple enough, Google Analytics can show you the broken pages that are garnering traffic from your users. And it’s easy enough that anybody can do it as long as they have access to the website’s Google Analytics account. Here’s how to do it:

• Go to your Google Analytics Account
• Click the Behavior drop-down Button > Click on the Site Content drop-down button > Then click All Pages.

• In the list showing your top pages, choose Page Title as the primary dimension

• Use the search bar to search for 404 pages. They commonly have “404” or “Page Not Found” as their Page title

• After searching, you’ll be able to click on the result that contains all the URLs that have a 404 status code

• Click on the result, compile the list of broken pages

• Fix the pages you found.

How to Fix 404 Pages

Now that you’ve found the most important 404 pages, it’s time for you to fix them to not lose all this valuable traffic. You can do it in two ways: If you have website development knowledge, fix it immediately, or contact your developer and ask them to fix it as soon as possible. Once you fix it, the page will serve its purpose, and hopefully, be able to give the user what they’re looking for.

The second way is to redirect the broken page to a relevant but working page. This enables you to save the user from bouncing but this does come with the risk of them still bouncing if the page you’re redirecting them to does not give them what they’re looking for.  

Key Takeaway

404 Errors are one of the most common problems websites experience. It doesn’t matter if its a newly-established website or a well-known, high-traffic website, all of them are susceptible to 404 errors. The easiest way to resolve these issues would be to redirect them but there will also be times when redirection is bad for SEO. So, keep this in mind.

Now that you know the best way to finding 404 errors and how to fix them, you’ll now be able to retain the traffic that you were losing while the 404 errors existed. Do you have any other way to find 404 errors inside your website? Comment them down below!

The Best Way to Find 404 Pages and How to Fix Them posted first on https://seo-hacker.com

A week into Google’s May 2020 Core Update

Last updated on May 12, 2020 at 05:27 pm

Before the May 2020 Broad Core Update was released, there have been talks about it among the SEO community. “Surely Google would not release an update during this time,” but lo and behold they have announced it on the 5th of May that left some of us dumbfounded on the results that they have received. The announcement has kept us on our toes as most updates go, they usually roll out during the first or second week of implementation.

With this in mind, I have constantly monitored my sites and my clients as well to see if any of them came out strong or if they have been hurt by the update.

Winners and Losers in the May 2020 Update

Before we get into the personal side of things, let’s look at the volatility of the search results since the update.

Cognitive SEO Signals

Accuranker Google Grump

SEMrush Sensor

As you can see, the volatility of the search results is wild. Fluctuation is prevalent among sites and this has enjoined webmasters to stay vigilant on how to maintain steady traction or to recover from their losses. This is the perfect time to work on website fixes to see if you can hit that sweet spot that the algorithm will honor in the weeks to come. Since the update is still fresh and will not be fully rolled out until its 2nd week, this can buy you time to see what works and what doesn’t.

Anyway, I have told you that I have seen the effect on some of my client’s sites and I have found that winners are recipe sites, automotive industries, and e-commerce sites. For the health and news sector, there has been a dramatic drop. Before we discuss the winners and losers from this update, I would like to throw it out there that if your site has been affected by the update, it does not mean that your industry is targeted by the algorithm. This simply implies that updates have been magnifying their evaluation of sites continuously optimizing for search intent and relevance for search queries.

Moving on, here is what the data dictates for the sites I am monitoring:

Winners

This e-commerce client has been enjoying a ton of traffic and is one of the testaments that this lockdown is viable for digital marketing efforts’ contribution to businesses. It is now strong in terms of online visibility with results going as far as a 100% increase in traffic but with the core update, it is showing even more signs of an increase.

Recipe sites are also one of the winners during this core update and the site I am handling that mainly deals with recipes for their content has been positively impacted by the update. Compared to the previous period, there has been a 35.75% increase in users and 29.14% in sessions. This has solidified its place as a winner from this core update. However, there are some webmasters that are not so lucky, with some of them saying that their rich snippets have been removed resulting in a drastic drop in traffic.

The automotive industry has also shown significant results when it comes to traffic increase. Here in the Philippines, modes of transportation are at a standstill and this event affects user behavior in terms of looking for alternative ways to get around their location. Be that as it may, the update has been favorable to the sites for this industry. As you can see from the noticeable spike in traffic on May 5th, this site has also enjoyed a favorable appraisal from the algorithm broad core update.

Losers

We are moving over to the unfortunate few who have been hit by the update. The drop in traffic shown on these sites may be attributed to the core update, ranging from health sites to industry news sites. Let’s look at these losers from the May 2020 core update.

For a health site, it seems that it has been drastically affected by a significant amount of traffic shaved off during the first week of May. Traffic started slipping on May 5 and has not recovered since then. This is in comparison to the previous period wherein the site has experienced a steady stream of users going into the site. With the search algorithm clamping down on content pertaining to the pandemic, this may be another way for Google to evaluate the quality of health sites.

An industry news site is also affected by the update. The site maintained its strength in traffic up until May 9 when it started dipping and hasn’t increased since. Although the lost traffic is just a little over a thousand, it is still a significant loss for this site. 14% of traffic slipped away compared to last week.

Key Takeaway

The Core Update affects health sectors the most as Google continues to pay attention to news concerning the pandemic. It seems this is an urgent call to uphold the standard when it comes to search queries and remains faithful to giving the right answers to it. If people are looking for scientific explanations for information dissemination on the coronavirus, chances are, Google will honor content that is highly-reputable for this purpose. We are living in a time when misinformation can cost a life, so it is only admirable that the algorithm is constantly evolving to help champion this cause.

So far, have you seen the effects of the update on your site? Do let me know in the comments below.

A week into Google’s May 2020 Core Update posted first on https://seo-hacker.com

Soon Done Review: Free Powerful Email Outreach Tool

Last updated on May 7, 2020 at 05:20 pm

Link building is one of the most tedious tasks in SEO. Prospecting and outreach take so much time and automating these tasks is always the way to go. There are a lot of tools out that are available out there but what if there is a tool that could help you out with all of these for free?

Yeah, you read that right – Free!

These days, it’s hard to come by free email outreach and prospecting SEO tools that are useful and reliable. If you opt for paid tools, on the other hand, the more prospects you search and the more emails you send, the more you pay. 

Let me introduce you to Soon Done.  

What is Soon Done?

Soon Done is a completely free prospecting and outreach tool founded by Ray McNamara, a solo entrepreneur from Dublin. Compared to other outreach tools, Soon Done uses Google search. Once you make a search using Soon Done, it records the first 100 results. It then scans for emails on each website that you visit and you can send outreach emails directly from the tool.

How To Download Soon Done?

If you want to try it out, all you have to do is go to the Soon Done website and fill up a form. They will reach out to you and send a document about how to install the tool and a full guide on how to use it. Also, take note that the tool is only available for Mozilla Firefox so if you’re using Google Chrome, you might have to wait for a new version before you are able to try it (or just download firefox).

How Does Soon Done Work?

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the tool, fire up your browser, and go to Google. You’ll immediately see the interface of the tool in the lower right of your screen.

To look for prospects, you could use Google search operators. In this example, I’m trying to look for travel blogs that are accepting contributors. So I entered “travel blog” + “write for us” in the tool and clicked Search Google.

Once I clicked on “Visit Websites” the tool opened the first search result and automatically scanned for emails. 

Right from the tool, I could easily send an outreach email. The tool sends an email from the one registered on it so if you might need multiple accounts to send from different email addresses.

After sending an email, there is an option for me to move on to the next website. This saves time since I don’t have to go back to the search results or open multiple tabs on my browser.

Clicking “Next Website” brought me the second search result. Again, the tool scanned the site for email addresses, and right after, I could send my outreach email to them.

The “Return to Search Mode” button allows me to search for another query. This time, I looked for SEO blogs that are accepting contributors. Making another search didn’t clear my previous search and progress. As you can see, there is still an option for me to visit the travel websites and go back to where I was. This is really useful if you’re running different campaigns in different niches.

The tool also has other features such as using email templates or setting up goals allowing you to automate more and track things better in your campaign. If the tool is unable to find an email address, you could manually add one in the tool if you know the email address.

My Thoughts on Soon Done

Soon Done might seem like a simple tool, but it really packs a punch. In my opinion, depending on how you use the tool, it can be on par with other known paid email outreach tools. Those tools are good; you could find thousands of prospects in an instant and send templated emails in a few seconds. The problem is, sometimes credits are wasted on websites that are inactive or are not even relevant to your website. Soon Done allows you to view websites first before sending emails so you would know if a website is relevant or is fit for collaboration. While you could use templates in the tool, you could still personalize and customize your emails which I love because it makes it easier to connect and build relationships with the webmasters I reach out to.

It saves time, it’s easy to use, and it’s free! And I can’t ask for more than that. It’s perfect if you’re a freelancer or a small business owner and you’re looking for free tools but it’s also useful for agencies and large companies running medium to large scale link building campaigns.

Right now, I believe that Soon Done has lots of potential and room for improvement. I would love to see more features added to it in the near future.

Let me know what you think

I spoke with Soon Done’s founder and he is very much open for feedback and suggestions. He’s continuously working on how to improve the tool and you can support him by letting him know your thoughts on the comments below.

Soon Done Review: Free Powerful Email Outreach Tool posted first on https://seo-hacker.com

Google Officially Releases May 2020 Core Update

Last updated on May 5, 2020 at 05:42 pm

It’s the time of the year again where Google releases its core update. However, times are different now because of the ongoing pandemic and we won’t know if this core update will negatively affect us. Being on top of everything right now is important since a lot of businesses are opting to go digital because of the ongoing pandemic. These give us SEOs and digital marketers a massive opportunity to bring quality services to more people who need it. But with core updates, success in the search industry is uncertain since unexpected variables and factors are constantly added in the SEO game. 

Google announced the May 2020 Core update through their Google SearchLiaison Twitter account a few hours ago. A follow-up tweet was made an hour after the original announcement that informed everyone that the May 2020 Core Update is now live and is rolling out steadily although it could take up to two weeks before it’s fully rolled out. 

What’s included in the May 2020 Core Update?

Google did not specify which changes the May 2020 core update and this is understandable since core updates do not focus on individual factors, rather they focus on the algorithm as a whole. Google once again referenced their blog post about what we should know about their core updates.

There are three possibilities that could happen once the core update has fully rolled out: 

• It positively affects your site rankings and traffic
• It negatively affects your site rankings and traffic
• It doesn’t affect your site rankings and traffic

We’ll just have to wait and see how the core update affects you. But if it does negatively affect you, I’ve written a post on how to recover from being hit by the core update. 

The last core update was released in January 2020. This might seem like just a short time difference between the 2 updates, but I believe the May 2020 Core Update might have something to do with the massive changes in search behavior due to the pandemic. 

SERP Volatility

Lastly, I checked tools that included SERP volatility just for the sake of ensuring that there’s nothing major happening right now. Here’s what they looked like:

CognitiveSEO Signals

Around the end of April and the start of May, there was a spike with SERP volatility, but it went down during the past few days.

 

Accuranker’s Google Grump Rating

Compared with cognitiveSEO’s graph, Accuranker’s Google grump rating shows that the spike happened today. This could possibly be the result of the core update, but we still need a few days and more data to finalize this assumption.

 

SEMrush Sensor

Unlike the other two tools, SEMrush sensor isn’t showing signs of massive spikes and volatility. 

 Key Takeaway

In conclusion, SERP volatility tools are not showing conclusive signs of the core update affecting the SERPs as of this moment. However, there is a high chance for this to change in the one or two weeks that is needed to roll out the full core update.

We just have to be ready to adapt to the situation and I believe if we know for ourselves that we’re not doing anything that’s worth penalizing, we shouldn’t worry about the occasional core updates that Google releases. What do you think about this core update? Comment it down below and let’s talk.

Google Officially Releases May 2020 Core Update posted first on https://seo-hacker.com