So, do you have international aspirations for your business? Traditional search engine optimization strategies might not be enough. Thankfully, there is an unconventional method of reaching your global audience and propelling your global SEO aspirations and this method is using VPNs or virtual private networks.

You may have heard of VPNs as a powerful tool in Internet security but did you know you can use this tool to unlock possibilities in the realm of global SEO? Here’s what you need to know to make full use of this tool.

Understanding VPNs

A VPN creates an encrypted, secure tunnel right over the vast Internet. Data traveling through the VPN tunnel is scrambled using complex, high-end algorithms. Thus, the data becomes unreadable to anyone intercepting it. The secure tunnel also shields Internet traffic and data from prying eyes. Some of the popular VPNs digital marketers or SEO professionals use are Surfshark VPN, NordVPN, and ExpressVPN.

But how do these components of VPN help unlock global SEO opportunities? Continue reading to know that.

How VPNs Unlock Global Seo Opportunities

VPNs create a secure tunnel and mask your IP address. It also helps you connect to virtual server networks so you can change your location without physically traveling anywhere. So, here’s how this helps:

• Target international keywords

Depending on your location, the search engine results can significantly vary. VPNs allow you to virtually change your location by connecting to a server in a specific country. Thanks to this, you can research and target high-volume keywords in your target markets. Also, you can optimize your content for international audiences.

• Carry out localized competitor analysis

To achieve success in SEO, it is critical to understand your competition. Analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors will give you a clear idea of the strategies you must avoid and the ones you must capitalize on.

No matter where you are in the world, you can use a VPN to perform localized competitor analysis and get valuable insights into their keyword usage, content strategy, and overall SEO approach in specific regions.

You can use this knowledge to optimize your SEO efforts and achieve measurable results.

• Monitor local SERP rankings

Want to know the effectiveness of your global SEO efforts? You must track your website’s ranking in international SERPs. This can be done using a VPN. You can keep changing the location virtually and check your website’s ranking position from the perspective of users in different countries. With this, you will get a clear picture of your global reach.

• Access geographically restricted content

There are some countries that restrict access to specific online tools or websites. If these are valuable for your SEO strategy, you can use a VPN to bypass such restrictions.

• Augment the credibility of your website

Your international audience would prefer a website with localized content. After all, websites with a local presence appear more credible. You can use a VPN to research and study local trends and adapt your website content accordingly. This will help you build trust and enhance your international brand image.

Beyond Location Benefits: Additional Perks Of Using VPNs

Location masking is a key benefit, and this is a primary reason why SEO professionals use VPNs. However, there are other advantages of SEO offered by VPNs that must not be overlooked:

• Secure your website crawling

To index your website properly, search engine crawlers need to access the content of your website. If your site is on an unsecured connection, there’s risk of data breaches. Data breaches can disrupt the crawling process and adversely impact your SEO efforts.

Using a VPN, you can encrypt all traffic and ensure secure crawling by popular search engines.

• Augment website security

Cybersecurity threats are a constant concern for websites. VPNs help safeguard websites from malicious attacks by masking IP addresses and adding an extra layer of security. This improves SEO efforts indirectly by demonstrating to popular search engines that your site is a reliable and safe source of information.

How Do You Use VPNs For Global Seo

• Research your target markets and keywords

Before using VPNs, identify your target markets and carry out keyword research for each region. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner and explore localized versions of search engines, such as Yandex (Russia) and Baidu (China). Then, search relevant keywords with low competition and high search volume.

• Select a reliable VPN provider

Choose a VPN provider offering a global server network, a strict no-logs policy, robust security features, and consistent speed and uptime.

• Connect to a VPN server in your target market

After choosing your VPN provider and paying for the subscription plan, connect to a server located in the country you are targeting for your global SEO efforts.

• Research localized competitor strategies

Use the VPN connection to assess your competitor’s websites from the user perspective in your target market. Pay attention to their keyword usage, content strategy, backlinks, and overall website structure. You can use this insight to improve your SEO approach.

• Optimize the website content for the local audience

Optimize the website content for the local audience by using the results of your keyword research and competitor analysis. You may have to translate content into the local language and adapt cultural references.

• Track local SERP rankings

Use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush with a VPN connection to regularly monitor your website’s ranking in the SERPs. This will help you gauge the effectiveness of your global SEO efforts and make adjustments as necessary.

The Bottom Line: Add VPN To Your Global Seo Toolkit!

When VPNs are used strategically, they can be a powerful and effective tool in unlocking exciting global SEO opportunities. It can mask your location to help you stealthily study local trends of various countries and analyze competitors. Also, you can access geographically restricted SEO tools and website content to use it to your advantage. So, add it to your SEO toolkit and see the difference.

The post How To Use VPNs To Unlock Global Seo Opportunities appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The success of casinos relies on three key aspects of search engine optimization (SEO): on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. Each aspect uses various strategies to enhance visibility, gain a competitive edge, target specific demographics and geographical areas, and establish brand recognition. This article explores the challenges casinos encounter and SEO strategies that can boost your visibility, build brand awareness, and lead to conversions.

What Are the Unique Challenges Casinos Face?

SEO for casinos presents unique challenges when compared to other industries. In a highly competitive market, casinos face numerous competitors vying for the same keywords and target audience. This intense competition makes achieving top rankings on search engine results pages difficult.

Casinos differ from other industries because they cater to a specific audience interested in gambling and gaming-related content. Therefore, it is important to tailor SEO strategies to this demographic by focusing on casino games, sports betting, gambling strategies, and industry news content. Additionally, the popularity of keywords about casinos may fluctuate depending on seasonal trends, holidays, and significant events like major sports tournaments or award shows. To remain relevant, casinos must adapt their SEO techniques to take advantage of these fluctuations.

Another unique challenge is that the online gambling industry is subject to strict regulations that oversee advertising, marketing, and responsible gaming protocols. Casinos must comply with these regulations when developing their SEO strategies, which may vary depending on the jurisdiction. 

Offshore casinos may face challenges in reaching out to specific geographic areas and should, therefore, create marketing strategies tailored to particular regions or target markets. For example, this may entail using keywords specific to certain regions and offering promotions for players from Malaysia, the Philippines, Tunisia, or regions where gambling regulations are less strict to minimize legal risks and attract a larger customer base.

Search engines carefully evaluate gambling websites because of worries about legality, safety, and responsible gambling. To maintain their reputation and avoid penalties, casinos must uphold transparency, adhere to search engine rules, and avoid unethical SEO strategies.

On-Page SEO Strategies

On-page SEO refers to improving elements directly on the website to improve search engine rankings and user experience. This would include optimizing content, meta tags, headings, URL structure, and internal linking. On-page SEO also involves improving website usability, ensuring mobile responsiveness, and enhancing overall user experience. Strategies to include are:

Content Optimization

High-quality content is important for SEO because it impacts search engine rankings and user experience. Search engines consider keywords, relevance, and user experience to determine a website’s ranking on the search results page. From a search engine’s perspective, high-quality content indicates the website’s relevance and authority, increasing its chances of ranking higher. From a user’s perspective, quality content makes the website engaging and valuable, leading to a better user experience.

Optimize content with relevant keywords related to casino games, promotions, and services.

Use descriptive meta tags, including title tags and meta descriptions, to improve click-through rates in search results. Additionally, quality content helps generate backlinks, improves click-through rates, and strengthens a brand’s reputation, ultimately contributing to improved SEO performance.

Keyword Optimization

Casinos recognize the importance of keyword optimization to attract the right target audience. They achieve this by optimizing their content with specific terms and phrases that potential players are actively searching for. Furthermore, this strategy helps search engines understand the content of the web pages.

Casinos can improve their content to match users’ search intent to increase their chances of attracting interested visitors and getting them to participate. This can be done by emphasizing key terms related to casino games, promotions, and services.

For example, to effectively optimize a casino website for the keyword “online slots,” it is important to incorporate the keywords naturally and strategically:

• The meta tags on the homepage should contain the targeted keyword.
• Different category pages should be created for different kinds of slot games.
• Game descriptions should be improved by including relevant keywords.
• Publishing blog articles focusing on subjects related to slots.

The main goal of this optimization strategy is to attract visitors interested in playing slot games online. Ultimately, this will lead to increased interaction and income for the casino. There are several excellent tools for keyword research, such as KWFinder, Moz Keyword Explorer, Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SemRush. These tools help find relevant keywords, analyse their search volume and competition, and provide valuable insights for effective keyword optimization.

Website Usability and Navigation

The usability and navigation of a website are important for SEO as they directly impact the user’s experience, indexing and crawling, site speed, and search rankings. These factors such as site speed, mobile responsiveness, and site navigation, directly influence the improvement of search rankings. Consider these points: 

• User experience: A well-structured and easily navigable website enhances the overall user experience, leading to higher engagement and a lower bounce rate. These factors are advantageous for search engines.

• Indexing and crawling: Search engines use website navigation to find and index new web pages. A user-friendly navigation system helps search engine crawlers understand the content and context of the intended page, which can ultimately impact search result rankings.

• Site Speed: A player’s ability to navigate a casino site efficiently is crucial to quickly and effortlessly accessing games or information between various site sections. But the impact of site speed extends beyond user experience; it’s also a critical factor in SEO. A slow-loading site could signal inefficiency and inconvenience to search engine algorithms, potentially lowering your casino’s ranking in search results.

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Mobile-Friendly Design

A design suitable for mobile devices is extremely important for on-page SEO since it impacts several factors, including user experience, search rankings, audience reach, and page speed. Ensuring that the website offers a positive experience for mobile users leads to decreased bounce rates and increased engagement. Furthermore, Google’s mobile-first indexing prioritizes websites optimized for mobile devices, highlighting the considerable influence of mobile-friendly design on SEO rankings.

Since most players and gamers now access casino websites through smartphones, it is crucial to have a design suitable for mobile devices. This enables the site to reach a larger audience and attract more visitors. Additionally, a design compatible with mobile devices also aids in enhancing loading speeds, which is essential for both user satisfaction and search engine optimization.

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Off-Page SEO Strategies

Off-page SEO refers to the actions conducted outside of a website to boost its credibility and visibility. These actions include acquiring trustworthy backlinks from reputable websites, engaging in social media platforms, and building brand awareness.

Link Building

Link building is crucial for search engine rankings. Search engines, including Google, assess the quantity and quality of inbound links to determine a website’s relevance and authority, greatly affecting its search rankings.

High-quality backlinks are seen as positive endorsements for a website, showing that its content is valuable and credible. This improves the website’s visibility, credibility, and reputation, resulting in higher search rankings and more organic traffic.

To build links effectively in the casino industry, use different tactics like guest posting on trusted gambling websites. Also, create quality articles and guides to get backlinks from authoritative sources. Use social media platforms to engage with the audience and build influencer relationships.

Casinos can create strong backlinks to improve their website’s visibility and reputation by using niche edits, broken link building, and other strategies. This comprehensive approach helps increase search rankings and organic traffic.

Social Media Engagement

Maintain active profiles on popular social media platforms and share valuable content, promotions, and updates to engage with the casino’s audience and encourage social sharing. Participate in discussions and interact with your followers to build a loyal community around your casino brand.

Online Reputation Management:

Monitor online reviews, feedback, and mentions of the casino across various platforms.

Respond promptly and professionally to customer inquiries, complaints, and feedback to maintain a positive reputation. Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews and testimonials to bolster the casino’s online credibility.

Technical SEO Strategies

Technical SEO refers to optimizing the technical aspects of a website to improve its search engine visibility and user experience. Technical SEO ensures that search engines can crawl, index, and understand the content of a website effectively. While technical SEO focuses on the backend of the website, it directly impacts search engine rankings and user experience.

Website Speed Optimization

Website speed refers to how quickly a website loads its content. Search engines like Google prioritize fast-loading websites because they provide a better user experience. Online casinos should optimize website speed by minimizing server response times, reducing page size, and leveraging browser caching techniques. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can help identify areas for improvement.

Mobile-Friendliness

With most online users accessing websites from mobile devices, ensuring mobile-friendliness is critical for online casinos. Mobile-friendly websites adapt their layout and content to fit smaller screens, providing a flawless user experience across devices. Casinos can achieve mobile-friendliness through responsive web design, which adjusts the website’s layout based on the user’s device.

Schema Markup Implementation

Schema markup provides search engines with additional context about the content of a website. Online casinos can use schema markup to mark up important information such as casino events, promotions, reviews, and ratings. This helps search engines understand the content better and can improve search results, such as rich snippets and knowledge panels.

Site Structure

A well-organized site structure makes it easier for users to navigate a website and helps search engines crawl and index its pages more effectively. Online casinos should create a logical site structure with clear categories, subcategories, and internal linking. This ensures that every page on the website is easily discoverable and accessible to users and search engines.

URL Structure

Optimizing URL structure is another important aspect of technical SEO. Online casinos should use descriptive, keyword-rich URLs that provide both users and search engines with information about the page’s content. URLs should be concise, readable, and follow a logical hierarchy. Avoid using long, complex URLs with unnecessary parameters or session IDs.

The Bottom Line

SEO plays a crucial role in the casino industry, allowing operators to increase their visibility, gain a competitive advantage, and target the right audience. By implementing effective SEO strategies, casinos can enhance their online presence, attract new players, and achieve their marketing goals. 

The post The Ultimate Guide to SEO Strategies for Online Casinos appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The company has introduced its new “Search to Sale” module. The module was developed in partnership with Verve, known for its skills in location-based mobile advertising.

“Search to Sale is a new component within Rio SEO’s Open Local Platform, a hub for local business information, offers, and content distribution across various channels,” the company tells us. “The module links the online consumer experience with in-store visits and offers brick-and-mortar businesses a scalable, automated way to reach consumers with real-time, location-based contextual offers.”

Rio SEO solutions are based on an open architecture approach. The new Search to Sale works with the leading location-based targeting and ad technologies including Bluetooth beacons, geo-fencing, mobile couponing, Apple Passbook, and other emerging POS technologies.

The firm has designed it to be effortlessly pressed into service by many industry sectors, including retail, hospitality, restaurants, and financial institutions.

“Today’s connected consumer has heightened expectations for immediacy and relevance, so it’s imperative for brands to understand and measure the digital opportunities and micro-moments that can close the online-to-offline loop,” said Dema Zlotin, Chief Executive Officer of Rio SEO.

Relevance is the key goal.

“Without a broader conversion strategy, a beacon is just a piece of plastic,” Zlotin added. “Verve’s platform allows our enterprise customers to engage consumers in mobile moments by utilizing geo-fencing, mobile couponing, Apple Passbook, iBeacon technology and more. We are thrilled about this new partnership to further drive contextually relevant customer experiences.”

The post Rio SEO Announces ‘Search to Sale’ — Because Without a Strategy, a Beacon is ‘Just a Piece of Plastic’ appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

To help you prepare for the shift ahead, the team at Nine Hertz has put together a new advice-rich infographic that aims to answer every question you may have right now about mobile SEO and preparing for the Google-centered changes ahead.

To learn more, check out the visual shared below courtesy of Search Engine Land.

The post Infographic: Mobile SEO and Surviving the Google Update appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Yet, nothing seems to work like SEO.

Want proof? It’s often in the raw numbers.

According to a new infographic created by the SEO experts and digital marketing gurus at Salt Lake City, Utah-based Fusion 360 and recently shared with MMW, the numbers are pretty amazing.

For instance, 93 percent of the traffic for businesses still emanates from SEO. The search industry is now estimated to be worth $16 billion. And unluckily for staffers tasked with improving results on search powerhouses like Google, to this day 73 percent of seekers never scroll past the first page of results.

Here’s the infographic that says it all.

The post SEO Still King of the Hill: 93% of Traffic for Businesses Starts Here appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

In 2014 there were a number of changes to SEO that, while not earth-shaking, did prove to marketers what it’s still good for, what works now and what changes to the tool should be embraced.

Recently, MMW caught up with the digital marketing and SEO experts at Fusion 360, a digital marketing firm in Salt Lake City, Utah recognized for their world class expertise in all forms of digital and social media marketing.

Take Social Media for example. While it used to be a platform for practically anything, from posting pictures of your breakfast cereal to “tweeting” about nearly any inane subject one could think of, today’s social media is almost exclusively about entertainment. It’s the smart SEO marketer, Fusion 360 says, who knows this and creates interesting, entertaining content that users will not only enjoy but also share profusely.

SEO also showed us that, when it comes to what’s important about online content, quality trumps just about everything else. Sure, word count is still slightly important but, for example, if a blog is nothing but gibberish with a few SEO keywords and key phrases thrown in, it won’t be long before it’s discovered as being, well, crap. Any links to it will be labeled as crap as well, meaning that quality should be your only goal when creating or linking to content.

Lastly, we found out in 2014 that online headlines aren’t nearly as important as we thought they were. Just like low quality content, titles that are misleading or completely false will only serve to hurt or damage a website, brand or publisher. Thus, using a false or misleading headline is definitely not in any company’s best interest, SEO-wise.

The post What Are The SEO Lessons Learned for 2014? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Check out these facts and more (courtesy of mobile payments giant PayAnywhere) in a new infographic from Visualistan, which delves into everything a marketer could want to know about Google search and SEO in 2014.

To get informed and make smart decisions about your business, take a gander at the visual shared below.

The post Infographic: Understanding Google Search and SEO in 2014 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

In an effort to find out, LocalVox has published a new local marketing “report card.” And the findings are quite riveting.

“When it comes to using local marketing to attract and retain customers and beat out the competition, many of the top 150 U.S. retailers are falling behind on local search, mobile, social media and content marketing efforts,” explains the report summary from LocalVox, an integrated local, social and mobile marketing platform.

This indicates that companies either don’t understand local marketing or are choosing not to invest in it, even though the magnitude of online interaction creates a mandate for retailers to invest in local Internet marketing. The industry is growing 13.8 percent year-over-year, from $26.5 billion in 2013 to over $44.5 billion in 2017, and half of in-store sales are influenced online, according to Forrester.

“On average,” the company reveals, “businesses earned a failing grade of 3.58 out of 10 for comprehensive local marketing efforts: only 11 of the companies scored above a 5, and 12 companies scored less than a 2. Despite the fact that no company is engaging with local marketing correctly, a handful of them are at least starting to make an effort.”

So which companies are at the top of the local marketing heap? Here are the top ten:

1. Whole Foods Market
2. Walmart
3. Verizon Wireless
4. Best Buy
5. Michaels Stores
6. Brinker International
7. Hy-Vee
8. Barnes and Noble
9. Sears Holdings
10. Gap

To review the full report and review other rankings across a host of marketing categories, click here.

The post Which Companies Are Getting Local Marketing Right? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

In short, the program identifies and repairs inconsistent listings of advisors’ company contact information, otherwise known as citations.

LocalMotion works to ensure an advisor’s online search results are consistent and visible across more than 150 different local search portals and navigation tools such as Siri and TomTom.  This advisor-focused program also includes custom review cards for an advisor’s business as well as instructions for how to obtain and promote reviews hosted on third-party sites, per the SEC’s new IM Guidance Update No. 2014-4.

According to the SEC’s IM Guidance Update No. 2014-4 released in March, Guidance on the Testimonial Rule and Social Media, advisors are now permitted to have and share some third-party reviews with their clients, prospects and community. As a result of this update, LocalMotion is consulting advisors on how to obtain, manage and leverage independent online reviews made by consumers.

“Search marketing needs to be an integral part of every company’s marketing plan, no matter its size,” explains Amy Romero, SVP of Marketing & Product Solutions for RME360. “In order to create credibility online and within your community, a business needs to have consistent and accurate visibility across search engines, citations and reviews.  We created an affordable solution for small businesses to address this growing and critical need.”

The post RME360 Launches Web-Based SEO Program appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is a guest contributed post from Eric Covino, President and Founder of Creative Signals.

While rankings are an important part of an SEO campaign, there is a lot more to it than that. Here are a few other areas you should be paying attention to:

Tip 1

Google provides free tools for website marketers to use to help understand how visitors are finding your site and interacting with it. You should sign up for Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools (Bing also offers a Webmaster Tools product that you should utilize as well). Google Analytics and webmaster tools will help you understand how your traffic is getting to you and what it is doing once it arrives.

These products can help you tailor content, products, and services for your target market. The insights given to you by Google help you create a great user experience which can lead to more and more people talking about your site, sharing your content, and linking to you (all of which help with your search engine rankings).

The Webmaster Tool products give you insight into how a search engine interacts with your site. The data from this piece will help you identify and fix key techincal issues which also helps your SEO.

You can learn more about each free product via these links:

http://www.google.com/analytics/

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster

Tip 2

Forget “link building” and start “relationships” with your market and key influencers in your market. Search on Google, Bing, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google+ to find key influencers in your market and start building relationships with them.

Treat it like a typical networking scenario. Talk about how you can help each other and each other’s customers rather than emailing hundreds of strangers per day and asking them to link to your website. Much like the offline world, networking is one of the biggest keys to success in SEO today.

Good, honest, relevant recommendations of products, services, and information to your potential customers from influencers in your marketplace are better than any “link” you might acquire.

Tip 3

Make it easy for your customers to leave reviews on various business platforms like Google+ for Business (http://www.google.com/+/business/) and Bing Places for Business (https://www.bingplaces.com). As search engines continue to pull in data from multiple sources to present to searchers, you should do the same for major review sites across the web (like Yelp).

This will help you with getting the attention of searchers when you show up in a search result amongst your competition.

Tip 4

Avoid trying to game Google. Google has a tough job to do in policing its search engine. The quality and user experience of Google’s search engine is something they (rightly) take very seriously.

Taking shortcuts will only hurt you in the long term. Stick to doing high quality, ethical marketing practices online and you will be more likely to succeed in the long run than those who are constantly looking for shortcuts.

Tip 5

Fix your mobile experience. Google expects mobile searches to outnumber desktop searches by next year! It is super important to make sure your site functions correctly on mobile devices and does not rely on outdated technology like Flash.

The world is going mobile. In a short period of time desktop searches are going to become the minority. You will need to be sure that all parts of your website function correctly and elegantly on a mobile device to ensure a great user experience. Keeping up with delivering a great user experience across all online devices is perhaps one of the more important tips in this article. Having a “mobile friendly” site is not simply a nice thing to have at this point, it is a requirement.

Good SEO is a sum of many parts. Start incorporating these tips in your SEO campaign and you are likely to earn quality, sustainable traffic from search engines.

The post MMW Op-Ed: 5 Tips to Boost Your SEO in a Competitive Online Environment appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.