How to use Active Rain for SEO| (From a guy that uses it effectively)
I've been on Active rain for seven months. One of the things I have noticed is even EXPERIENCED bloggers are not using Active Rain for backlinking as effectively as they could be and inexperienced bloggers don't seem to be using it at all. I'm going to show almost all of you how to get the most out of your Active Rain Subscription. (Yes for Active Rain to be effective for SEO you need to spend the $199.00 for a years subscription)
Before I show you how I want to illustrate how effective Active Rain has been for ME!
These are the keywords I rank for as of August 2017.
I only started really pushing my blog content in January of 2017. I've had 12k visitors from ORGANIC google results in Seven months. A lot of that is due to using Active rain correctly. (From an SEO perspective)
These are my TOP TEN referring content pages out of 737. One of MANY hidden Google SEO facts is that is no longer enough to measure page rank(referred in the image below as UR). Google wants backlinks to deliver traffic thus PROVING the worth of both the link and the page it is housed on. Sometimes you can get a great link from a site with REALLY high domain authority but it won't be as valuable for SEO as a contextually relevant link that delivers some visits. That is why I am looking at REFERRING content instead of a backlink analysis based on Page Rank alone.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS| USING ACTIVE RAIN FOR SEO
- Your blog post must be 300-700 words AT A MINIMUM.
- It's best to have ONE outbound link for every 150 words(this post will not because I am experimenting with link strength based on outbound link quantity)
- You must have ONE relevant Image for every 200 words or so. This image must have a proper description connected to it.
- GOOGLE LOOKS AT COMMENTS - So having a following or asking other rainers to read your post is a good idea.
- Post your blog post to social channels. Either your own or hire a fiverr gig to share your content a few hundred times. This increases the relevance to your link destination by a large amount(if done correctly)
- Make sure your AR post and the page you are linking to ARE TOPICALLY ALIGNED. Don't through a listing up on AR then link back to a blog post about gardening on your website.
THIS LAST TIP THE BEST SEO"S IN THE WORLD ARE GETTING WRONG
This is really number 7 on the list above but it is SO important I've given its own category. Most of you heard of Penguin and Panda Googles Anti-Spam algorithm? Know how they work?
Much of these algorithms look at anchor text. They have a mathematically generated understanding of what a NATURAL link profile looks like. The farther out of line you are with that the more you get penalized. Up to 22% of your potential SEO score is affected by this part of the current Search Algo. Want to see a REALLY cool example? Keep in mind I am competing against the best SEO's in real estate for this search term which is "REAL ESTATE SLOGANS".
My UR is the lowest of any of my competitors. I have HALF of the referring domains of any other website on the first page and in most cases 20-40% fewer backlinks. So why am I number FOUR for this term?
Not because I have better links or domains. (One of those backlinks is Active Rain) But I DO have a Natural looking back link profile.
I do have some good news and some bad news. Getting this exactly right is more of an art than science. I will give you the formula I use with one NEVER EVER DO THIS tip.
40-50% of backlinks should have key phrases mixed into anchors(a good strategy is your domain + keyword IE: Active Rain Review by inboundREM
35-45% Should be branded, natural and URL anchors.
10-20% Should be exact match
Here is my closing tip something I have seen a fair amount of on Active Rain. NEVER EVER use an exact match anchor when creating your first backlink. You are guaranteeing yourself a penalty.
Hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Looking forward to your comments.
