Google uses over 200 ranking factors to maintain its market leadership and provide users the most relevant search results. With over 5.14 billion searches each day, it's the ultimate dream of an online marketer to achieve high rankings on Google SERPs. But the volatility of Google algorithms makes it difficult. Therefore, you must make good use of top Google ranking factors for consistent and optimal results.

In this blog, we'll focus on leading on-page SEO ranking factors to help you improve rankings. We will also discuss the best SEO practices, features of SEO-friendly content, SEO-friendly website builders, and prerequisites of an ideally optimized web page..

Important On-Page Ranking Factors

If your website is brilliantly optimized, chances are it will rank higher. Since Google bots scan the on-page elements first, on-page ranking factors can be a game-changer for your website or web page's ability to rank.

Here we list the top three Google ranking factors to help you improve your rankings and neutralize the impact of Google algorithm updates and consequent ranking fluctuations.

1. Content on Page

Search engine crawlers work relentlessly to find content that offers users value, making content on-page a strong ranking metric. From an SEO perspective, good content must:

1. Offer a solution to the user’s queries and pain points
2. Be linkable

A. Good content resolves issues, addresses demands

Your website should act as a resource for your audience and customers and supply information to meet the immense demand. For example, WikiHow gives people easy instructions to solve day-to-day problems. Apart from text, you can consider videos, podcasts, images, or gifs to provide solutions depending on the demand.

B. Good content is linkable

If your content is not linkable, search engines may discount all the value it offers. If people can't link to your content, Google algorithms will find no way to assess its rank worthiness. As a result, your website will receive no traffic from search engines.

It frequently happens, especially when you have locked content such as eBooks, educational material, or AJAX-powered image slideshows that can be viewed when the reader is logged in. Search engines can't crawl such content. It can't be reproduced or shared either. Search engines and netizens don't like content that doesn't fulfill a demand.

2. Title Tag

Crawlers scan title tags before moving on to the content on the page. Therefore, title tags are an essential and sensitive on-page ranking factor. They also help bots categorize the web page and index it. To know why title tags are so important and how you can write an appropriate title tag, read this Moz article

3. URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

Since category hierarchy is crucial for SEO, it should reflect in the website URL. For example, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-analyticsĀ  tells us that this HubSpot page is dedicated to Google Analytics (GA) in the online marketing articles category.

Crawlers use this information to assess a web page's relevance. The hierarchy also reflects that the page discusses GA in digital marketing's context, and the page isn't likely a resource that contains GA as a tool. So, if a user is looking for information on GA for online marketing, it's likely that the search engine sends them to this instructional article. It happens before the bots crawl your web page content to know what it is all about.

Now, let's look at a poor URL structure:

http://www.example.com/path/to/80/myfile.html?key1=value1&key2=value2#

This URL doesn't reflect any information hierarchy in the website, making it difficult for search engines to figure out what the page is all about.

Here is another example of a well-crafted and SEO friendly URL:

https://example.com/learn/seo/on-page-factors

It clearly mentions that the concerned page is a learning resource, and it talks about on-page factors under the SEO category.

Tip: The URL structure should help search engines categorize and index the URL as per its relevance. It should also assist you with appropriate anchor text when linking to your content.

Best SEO Practices

Web pages are the real estate of a website. The content on them is the prime reason why the visitors land and stay on your website. So, make sure it's specific and hyper-relevant to the topic. You can use title tags, URLs, content on-page, and Image alt text to state the web page's objective to search engines.

Here is an example of a web page with SEO-friendly content:

https://www.webfx.com/blog/seo/whats-the-difference-between-mobile-seo-and-desktop-seo/

Search engines love this kind of content. Such web pages have the following features:

1. Unique content that has in-depth, relevant, and topical information

2. Well-written, search-engine friendly URL that mentions the topic

3. Images with alt text‍

4. Liberal use of visuals and graphics5. Well-written meta description

Prerequisites of A Properly Optimized Web Page

An SEO-friendly web page should:

1. Have unique, topical content

2. Contain the topic in the title tag, URL, and image alt text

3. Specify the subject and mention related keywords several times in the text content

4. Link back to the category page, sub-category page (if applicable), and homepage‍

Note: This is made easier when you use theĀ best website builder for small business.

Conclusion

To climb the SERP ladder, you need to start from the beginning that’s fixing your on-page SEO. With your website’s on-page elements in place, you can start working on other ranking factors such as search intent, backlinks, domain authority, user experience, and page load speed. If your website is optimized with your target audience in mind, you’ve already won half the battle.

Google uses sophisticated methods to locate, gather, and consolidate vast data to give users relevant results. The search engine is restricted by response time and various other factors when working with these various data types. The search results vary frequently based on factors such as search history, location, interests, and the device used.

Google search results can vary not only on different devices but also on the same device, even when using the same search term. Google also changes the order of search results based on user experience considerations. Therefore, on mobile phones, various elements are removed and replaced by visual elements to avoid distraction. So, mobile SEO can be vastly different from desktop SEO.

Since people spend more than 70% of their internet time on mobile phones, its impact is visible on Google SERPs. Google has also announced its mobile-first indexing policy. So, it's crucial to know the difference between mobile SEO and desktop SEO.

Search Results

With Google's mobile-first indexing policy, search results may vary on different devices. Google gives you results based on search intent, which changes according to the device you use. Therefore, your mobile SEO and desktop SEO need different strategies for optimal results.

Mobile

Since mobile is not as text-friendly as a desktop, you should emphasize the visual elements such as images and videos. That's why test results are shown in big sizes on mobile devices.

To scroll through the search results, a mobile user has to swipe multiple times. With shorter swipes, users feel reluctant to go to the bottom of search results. That's why Google displays the most relevant results on top of mobile search and removes some elements shown only to desktop users. The results may also vary according to the mobile responsiveness of websites. For example, if a website has good content but isn't mobile-friendly, Google will downgrade its mobile ranking.

Desktop

There are no space issues with desktop screens; they can display multiple search results simultaneously. Since they allow users to see a lot more content, they find it easier to scroll through the results and reach the page’s end. So, the generic SERP layout can be different for desktop users. For example, if you search for “what was the civil war,” the desktop results will appear as shown below in the screenshot.

Meanwhile, the mobile results for the exact search will appear something like this:

It clearly shows that visual elements are prominent in mobile search results. There is one more difference in mobile search results. The “people also search for” section immediately follows the Wikipedia result on top, accompanied by visual elements, including battles other than the American Civil War.

“People also ask” is placed below “people also search for” in mobile search. It means visual elements and search intent are crucial for mobile SERP, as smartphone users have shorter attention spans than desktop users.

Click-Through Rate

The placement of the search results in the SERPs is SEO’s ultimate objective, and it’s crucial to figure out how you can help your website appear in the top three results, especially for mobile devices.

Mobile

The click-through rate (CTR) for SERPs drops at a slower pace on mobile devices than on desktops. Several reasons can explain a CTR drop on mobile search results. The results that appear like individualized cards have higher visibility; visual elements such as photos and video thumbnails further boost it. A visually appealing graphic attracts attention even if the result appears lower in the SERPs.

Desktop

Since desktops have bigger screens than smartphones, search results have more space and clarity, allowing you to view several results at one time. But the CTR sharply drops as you go down the page. For example, if the first position has a CTR of 31%, the second will most likely have just 15%. It mainly happens because users can see more results at a time on a desktop.

Search Layout

Search layout also affects your website's SEO. Let's discuss it for both the mobile and desktop versions.

Mobile

Google displays search results differently on mobile phones and desktops. On smartphones, it shows text and pictures with more room for visual elements. That's why you can't see more than 2-3 results on your mobile screen at a time.

Mobile also offers more features than desktop in terms of search results. For example, "knowledge panels" appear on top of mobile devices, whereas they appear to the right on desktops. As a result, the other organic results are pushed down.

Mobile results also have "Interesting Finds" snippets to display relevant web pages that a user can find helpful and exciting. Mobile results also show the site path and the website's name with a favicon. However, it doesn't display the URL.

Desktop

The desktop offers almost all the features that mobiles do, such as featured snippets, people also ask section, knowledge panels, and local 3-packs. However, other organic results don't get pushed down as desktops have enough space to display several listings.

Why are Google search results different on mobile phones than desktops?

User experience is a prime concern for Google, and that's why search results appear differently on different devices. However, it's important to note that it doesn't affect the website rankings. The only difference is the way search results appear.

The search results also vary because people want information quickly on mobile devices. As a result, the search engine has to break up listings and add visual elements like images to make it convenient for users to go through the results and find the most appropriate ones. Desktop users have more time to browse and analyze. Therefore, desktop listings have fewer visual elements and more text-based content because users can spend more time.

Desktop and Mobile SEO Strategies

Given the difference in the search results for both mobile and desktop, you should develop SEO strategies accordingly. But the best practice would be to develop a comprehensive SEO strategy that works for both device types. When you have a device-specific SEO strategy in place, you are more likely to rank higher and attract steady traffic.

Here are a few steps you can take to build an effective SEO strategy for mobile and desktop:

1. Plan a Local SEO Strategy

The best SEO strategy starts with ranking well on local searches. So, focus on the local and "near me" keywords and Google My Business listing.

2. Create a Responsive and User-friendly Design

When you create a responsive design, you optimize your site for all device sizes. You won't have to design different versions of the same website for every device. It's an important Google ranking factor; the better the user experience, the better will be your rankings.

3. Create a Website That Loads Faster

Your website speed is of paramount importance for higher rankings and a better user experience. Therefore, you must remove all elements that can affect its loading time. You can use page speed insights to improve website performance.

4. Focus on Keyword Selection

Research and understand user intent to find the best keywords for mobile and desktop versions. Voice search keywords are also important for mobile users. Use it to see if it works for you.

Conclusion

When forecasting traffic for your SEO campaigns, you must also consider mobile CTRs and search volume. Mobile SEO can be vastly different, as a mobile user is more engaged than a desktop user because of factors such as urgency and accessibility.

However, mobile users are more reluctant to scroll down compared to desktop users. So, if you don't rank on the top spot and haven't optimized your website, you must implement mobile SEO. You should add more visual elements to a mobile site for greater visibility.

Furthermore, it's essential to optimize your mobile site for local SEO, as most searches made using mobile devices are local. Instead of creating and maintaining a separate mobile site, choose a mobile configuration first involving a responsive web design that Google recommends.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. What is a White Label Agency?
3. How is it Different from Hiring Freelancers?
4. Can My Agency Be Profitable with White Label Services?
5. Why Should You Use White Label Services for Digital Marketing?
6. Allows You to Run Business at Optimal Size
7. Facilitates Expansion
8. Reduces Workforce Management Hassles
9. Bridges the Information Gap and Delivers Data-Driven Solutions
10. Ensures Profitability
11. Boosts Client Retention
12. Helps Get More Business
13. Offers Cost-Efficiency
14. Allows You to Leverage Cross-Functional Expertise
15. Conclusion
16. About DashClicks

Digital marketing companies face several challenges. Sometimes, you have an influx of clients and want to scale. Meanwhile, at other times, you experience periods of slow business. Recruiting in-house staff or hiring freelancers may not always be a feasible solution to manage such volatile fluctuations.

With white label services, you don't have to worry about any of this. When you hire a white label agency, you outsource your business services to a third party, resell those services under your brand, meet your business goals, and keep your clients happy.

Your ability to succeed as a digital marketing agency depends primarily on your ability to scale business and reduce overall costs. It is essentially why most companies prefer to remain lean, thin, and agile so they can focus on their core strengths in the face of fluctuating demand and other market uncertainties.

What is a White Label Agency?

A white label agency works as an extension of your team. It provides you with its dedicated team of digital marketing strategists, software professionals, designers, developers, writers, SEO professionals, and people trained in other disciplines such as email marketing, social media marketing, web designing, paid advertising, and analytics.

By giving you quality services, a white label agency allows you to quickly expand your current offerings and fulfill other marketing services under your brand. Contrary to global outsourcing, where you might end up hiring generic and cheap talent, a white label agency makes sure that you get all kinds of quality services under one roof.Ā  When you hire a white label agency, you don't need to buy expensive tools. They use the best tools available in the market to offer you the best in class services.

How is it Different from Hiring Freelancers?

According to a study by Upwork, 57 million people in the United States are engaged in freelancing, which makes up a whopping 36% of the country's entire workforce. It is contrary to the trends prevalent in the early industrial age when most people went to a factory or an office to earn a living. The information age has changed the way we earn our livelihood.

According to WITI (Women in Technology International), freelancers will be 50% of the total workforce by 2025. Currently, their annual contribution to the US economy is approximately $1.4 trillion.

Some confuse white label services with hiring freelancers and subcontractors, but it's different. When you hire a freelancer or a subcontractor, you make them work as an in-house team member on your clients' accounts. Freelancers either charge hourly rates or on a project basis.

But when you hire a white label organization, you outsource work outside of your business and use your logo to rebrand the services provided by a third party. From a client's perspective, it doesn't matter what your business model is. They are chiefly concerned with achieving the results you have agreed on. White label services maintain quality and branding guidelines shared by your agency. Though you can inform your clients that you use a white-label service, most agencies prefer not to.

Related reading: Complete Guide to White Label Reselling

Can My Agency Be Profitable with White Label Services?

In the digital marketing industry, everything boils down to the return on investment your marketing agency can achieve for you. So, whether it's a quick fix or a long-term solution, white label services allow you to achieve marketing objectives and focus on other business aspects. No wonder digital marketing agencies and software companies are increasingly using white label services and have satisfied customers without investing in extensive office infrastructure or hiring expensive resources and tools required to succeed in a highly competitive environment.

Why Should You Use White Label Services for Digital Marketing?

There are numerous benefits of white labeling. Every small business or digital marketing agency should consider using a white-label service because it:

1. Allows You to Run Business at Optimal Size

Hiring is a time-consuming and expensive process for most businesses; working with a white label agency allows you to skip it entirely. White label services enable you to scale up or downsize as per your business requirements without worrying about resource crunch, recruitment hassles, or overtasked workforce. It can be a boon for fast-growing digital agencies with a highly low-risk factor.

2. Facilitates Expansion

Most marketing agencies excel at one type of service; it's usually because most solopreneurs sell something they are confident they can deliver value for. As the company expands and gets more clients, the focus shifts to a bundle of services the marketing agency wants to provide under one roof. For example, if you are an agency for SEO services, working with a white label provider will allow you to add additional services such as PPC, social media marketing, and email marketing.

3. Reduces Workforce Management Hassles

When you buy white label services, you don’t have to worry about hiring, training, attrition, retention, paying employee benefits, leaves, and bad-hiring costs. With a white label agency, you don’t have to face the following HR challenges common among small businesses:

• Legal and regulatory compliance
• Finding the right employees
• Retaining talent
• Training employees
• Resistance to organizational change
• Workplace diversity (cultural, ethnic, and demographic)
• Employee compensation (the cost of benefits, taxes, and training together may add up to as much as three times the employee’s salary)
• Low employee motivation
• Resistance to technology adoption
• Developing a competitive benefits package

4. Bridges the Information Gap, Delivers Data-Driven Solutions

With markets getting saturated worldwide, it is challenging to forecast demand and identify newer markets. More and more businesses are now using big data sets and artificial intelligence for data mining and analytics. In such an environment, only data-driven campaigns drive results. If your business strategy is based on intuition alone instead of statistical analysis and data patterns, you can't expect actual results.

A white label agency has a skilled workforce that includes data-driven marketers who are well-versed in web analytics and AI. So, they can deliver lasting solutions for their client's marketing campaigns using sophisticated tools.

5. Ensures Profitability

The market offers you a flood of opportunities once you start delivering quality services aimed at client satisfaction. Businesses prefer B2B partners that can provide all related services under one roof as it saves them the time and the hassle of dealing with multiple service providers.

When marketing agencies focus on expansion and outsource services to white label companies, they get fantastic bundle deals. Furthermore, it also helps them cut the exorbitant costs associated with recruitment, training, offering employee benefits, and adding infrastructure, ensuring profitability.

6. Boosts Client Retention

Hiring a white label agency also helps you retain clients, especially when your competitors want to lure them with additional services. The more aggressive agencies generally push a bundle deal, and most often, businesses buy them as it saves them time. A white label company allows you to expand your service portfolio by helping you keep clients without increasing your current headcount and related training cost.

7. Helps Get More Business

As you add more services to your portfolio using a white label arrangement, you start getting more business at a rapid rate. Some niches have a longer sales cycle; others are more competitive. But when you offer a bundle of services, you can white-label the ones that have a shorter sales cycle and sell them quicker than your primary service. It will help you maintain your cash flow throughout the year, seize fresh opportunities, generate leads, and expand your client base.

8. Offers Cost-Efficiency

According to Deloitte's 2020 global outsourcing survey, 70% of respondents cited cost reduction as the primary reason for outsourcing. Hiring white label service is akin to business process outsourcing, where cost reduction becomes a significant competitive advantage. That's essentially why more and more startups and small digital marketing companies are switching to white label services.

9. Allows You to Leverage Cross-Functional Expertise

White label services work on a B2B model; they hire the best professionals in various domains to serve diverse businesses. So, they use economies of scale to their advantage. For example, they have many trained SEO professionals, developers, writers, and designers working under one roof. When you work with a white label agency, you get to leverage their cross-functional expertise.

Conclusion

In today's competitive business environment, cash-strapped startups and small marketing agencies can't afford the expensive tools, skilled resources, and continual testing needed to implement data-driven strategies. It limits their ability to make relevant decisions and restricts them to a handful of clients. A white label agency can be the lifeboat for such startups, keeping them afloat and allowing them to expand and forge new business deals.

About DashClicks

As a white-label service, we take your worries away, so you have more time to expand your business. You can use our platform to resell white label Facebook Ads, SEO, website design, funnel building, social media posting, content marketing, PPC, and directory listings. You can check out our website to see the full range of white-label services we offer. If you want to get in touch, fill in our contact form, and we will get back.

To attract traffic and to become a successful brand, you need to rank high up on search engines. But there is no standard benchmark to tell you how well your site is doing. Sometimes, you may try your best to rank on top of search engine results but not succeed. Domain authority can be of immense help in such situations.

What is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority (DA) is a popular metric used worldwide to assess a website's performance. It is a search engine ranking score developed by software giant Moz. DA predicts a website's likelihood of ranking high on search engine results. It assigns a score between one and 100; the higher the score, the higher a website's probability of ranking on top. Finding out your ranking score helps you build a website that your customers love.

Multiple factors, such as the total number of links and linking root domains, are considered while evaluating Domain Authority. You can use this score to measure a website's ranking strength and its performance against competitors. However, it's important to note that Google doesn't use Domain Authority as a metric to rank a website. Google uses its algorithms to determine search rankings.

How to Check Domain Authority?

You can check your website's Domain Authority on:

1. Moz's backlink checking tool Link Explorer

2. MozBarāMoz's free SEO toolbar used in the browser

3. Moz keyword tool Keyword Explorer's SERP analysis section

How is Domain Authority Scored?

A 100-point logarithmic scale is used to score Domain Authority. At lower stages, when the score ranges from 10 to 30, it is easier to increase your website's Domain Authority. It starts getting more complicated at the later stages, i.e., from 75 to 90.

What is a Good Domain Authority?

A website with a lot of quality backlinks gets a high score on the Domain Authority scale. Meanwhile, since small business websites have fewer inbound links, they have a low DA score. For new websites that need to be built from scratch, the Domain Authority is 1.

However, you shouldn't aim for a high DA score alone. You also need to focus on improving your website's overall SEO. DA score helps when it is used as a comparative metric when assessing the backlink strength of different websites rather than an absolute number. Since it's primarily used for comparison, no DA score is "good" or bad.ā

How to Use DA Correctly?

To use this metric correctly, you need to understand the concept of Page Authority (PA). Let's discuss the difference between the two metrics:

Domain Authority vs. Page Authority

Domain Authority assesses a website's predictive ranking strength. Meanwhile, Page Authority measures an individual web page's ranking strength.

How Does Domain Authority Work?

Link Explorer provides the data that's used to calculate the DA score through machine learning. It compares thousands of actual search results with link data to set standards to scale the website. Since it is based on machine learning, most of the DA score calculation is subject to fluctuation.

As websites acquire fresh, high-quality backlinks, other websites' DA and page authority may fall in comparison. SEO experts consider DA as a relative metric to compare against the link profiles of other websites. DA doesn't give you the absolute value scores against your SEO efforts.

How Can I Influence Domain Authority?

It is not easy to influence DA using direct methods. Since its developers use various metrics and linked data to impact the DA score, collectively, these metrics decide an individual website's competitiveness to rank on SERPs. As Google also uses hundreds of ranking factors, a metric designed to clone Google algorithms must also work in the same way.

The ideal way to positively influence the DA score is to improve the website's overall SEO, including its link profile. You should try to earn or engineer as many high-quality backlinks as you can.

Why Did My Domain Authority Change?

Since your DA score is constructed using a complex set of metrics and calculations, figuring out the exact reason for its rise or fall can be difficult. Many potential factors can cause sudden fluctuations in your DA score. Some of them are:

1. Your freshly built links haven’t been updated on Moz’s web index.
2. Possible link growth in high authority sites that you are targeting may negatively impact the scaling outcomes.
3. You have earned links from various websites that Google doesn’t approve for ranking.
4. Sometimes Moz crawls through your backlinks when scanning your link profile, resulting in a sudden fluctuation.
5. Your DA is susceptible to fluctuations if it ranks low on the scoring system, i.e., between 10 and 35.

Conclusion

The metrics that cause fluctuations in DA can be highly complex and depend on many positive and negative factors. Sometimes your score may not reflect any of the changes you made to your website's SEO.

After regular updates in Moz's metrics to decide DA score, re-calculations may affect a website's score, regardless of whether it has improved SEO and link profile. It is a relative scaled system, with DA scores more comparative than the absolute values.

Google defines duplicate content as the content that appears in more than one place on the internet. Identifying duplicate content is way more complex than it sounds. The content doesn't always need to be identical; similar content can be considered duplicate too.

Search engine crawlers identify duplicate content by tracking a webpage's source code. Substantive blocks of duplicate content can exist both within and across domains. Though duplicate content is often considered malicious, it is mostly not. A few examples of non-malicious duplicate content are:

1. Products on an eCommerce portal shown on different web pages or interlinked with multiple distinct URLs
2. Pages generated by discussion forums intended for regular desktop use and a more simplified version for mobile devices
3. Web page versions created only for printers

If you need to maintain identical content across different web pages for a better user experience, you should mention your preferred URL to Google. It is known as canonicalization.

However, sometimes marketers deliberately copy the content that's ranking on top and publish it as their own. They also often add some of their own content to it to manipulate search engines. It's malpractice; it may lead to poor user experience and a Google penalty.

Google seeks distinct, fresh information and has zero tolerance for deceptive practices. According to a Google Search Central document, the search engine filters and chooses one of the pages if your site has a "printer" and a "regular" version of a webpage, which you haven't blocked using a noindex tag.

Google penalizes websites that deliberately use duplicate content to manipulate search engines by downgrading their ranking. In more severe cases, it may remove the site entirely from the Google index. In that case, the site will no longer show on search results.

How to Fix Duplicate Content?

To fix instances of duplicate content, you can take the following steps:

1. Use 301s: You can use 301 redirects in the *.htaccess file on all the pages with duplicate content to divert the traffic to the desired pages. It will also redirect Google crawlers to ensure that the search engine doesn't index that page.

2. Manage internal linking: Sometimes, website builders and developers erroneously or deliberately create several versions of the same page to build internal links. However, Google recommends that your internal links should point to a web page's main version. Therefore, you need to streamline internal linking and keep it consistent.

Internal links help users to navigate between relevant pages. Internal links that point to irrelevant or duplicate pages confuse search engines and may affect rankings and traffic on the main page. Efficiently managing them becomes even more critical when you have a big website with hundreds of pages.

3. Use top-level domains: To make Google use a web page or a document's most appropriate version, you should use top-level domains, especially if you manage websites with country-specific content.

The domain Amazon.de is the German version of Amazon's eCommerce portal. It uses *.de as a "top-level domain" to reflect a website that is region and language-focused.

On the flip side, domains like http://de.xyz.com are the subdomains of the main site xyz.com and don't reflect whether it is the website's country-specific version. Similarly, http://www.xyz.com/de is a subdirectory, it doesn't clearly indicate that it's a country-specific website.

Using a Hreflang tag in the website code (i.e., rel=" alternate" hreflang=" x") is the best way to tell Google that you're using a specific language on that page, so it can show the page on SERPs when users perform a search in that particular region or use that language.

4. Be cautious while syndicating content: Google shows the most appropriate web page version as per the search query during content syndication. But it may or may not be the page you want.

You can add a canonical tag to the syndicated page to suggest Google the right page to index. Here is an example of how a canonical tag looks like. You can insert the target URL inside the quotes:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://xyz.com/wordpress/seo-plugin/" />

Google wants you to provide the original article's link on each site that you're using for content syndication. Should anyone seek your permission to syndicate your content, you can add instructions using the noindex tag. It will help prevent Google from indexing the version used by third parties. So, even if other sites syndicate your content, Google SERPs will show your original version.

5. Avoid content repetition: When you need to include lengthy copyright text, terms and conditions, product features, and benefits on every page, add a summary and then link it to the page where the user can find detailed information.

‍6. Manage URL parameters: Developers use URL parameters for a better user experience, but multiple parameter combinations can create numerous URL variations with the same content. It can be an SEO nightmare. To manage URL parameters efficiently, use the Parameter Handling Tool. It will suggest Google bots the right way to treat URL parameters.

7. Understand your content management system: It's crucial to know how your website content is displayed. Different website templates for blogs, forums, and related networks often show the same content in various places. For example, a newly published blog may appear on your home page, in the archive, or some other page. But Google won't consider it as duplicate content.

‍8. Avoid similar content: If you have many pages with similar content, you can:

A. Expand each page, so it appears unique

B. Consolidate all the pages into one page

For instance, if you have a fitness website with separate pages for similar workouts, you can either merge them or add fresh content to each page to create several unique pages.

Should You Block Crawler Access to Certain Web Pages?

Google doesn't like it when website owners use robots.txt files or some other code to block crawler access to web pages with duplicate content. It can lead to indexing issues.

Instead of blocking the bots, Google recommends using the rel="canonical" code to mark duplicate pages. You can also use the URL parameter handling tool or 301 redirects.

If there are numerous pages on your website with duplicate content, you can adjust it by changing the Googlebot crawl rate.

When Does Duplicate Content Not Hurt Your Website?

Duplicate content hurts a website's ranking if search engines perceive that it's used to manipulate search results. However, if you have created several versions of the same page unintentionally when structuring your website, you need not worry about it. Google usually does an excellent job of filtering the best version of a web page to display on their SERPs (search engine results pages).

What if Someone Else Copies Your Content?

Though it's rare, however, if you find a site copying your content without your permission, you can:

1. Contact the webmaster and request its removal.
2. File a report under the Copyright Act. Google removes all content that infringes copyright laws from its search results.

Conclusion

Duplicate content can be a major issue for your website if used to manipulate search engine results. In most other cases, it won't harm your site's rankings or indexing. However, it can significantly diminish the user experience. Therefore, you must work proactively to ensure that your website is free of duplicate content.

If you're a manager or a business owner handling your social accounts, you must have often wondered about the best times to post on social media.

Recency is a significant ranking factor used by both Facebook and Instagram algorithms. So, the best time to post your content is when most of your followers are online.

But it is easier said than done. There's no unique or universal "best time to post" as it changes drastically across different platforms and demographics. So, it's better to use analytics and the right tools to figure out.

Here we share a few tips to help you find your own best time to post on various social media platforms for maximum reach and visibility.

Facebook

You should use your posts' past performance and follower activity to find the best time to post on FB.

Source: Hootsuite's Social Team

According to the heatmaps of Hootsuite Analytics tools, most of HootSuite's Facebook followers are available around 3 PM EST every weekday. However, according to another metric past post-performance the best time to post on Facebook is 6:20 AM and 12:20 PM PST during weekdays. These posting times can be considered the best as they highlight the widest gaps in the routine of HootSuite's social media followers when they spend time scrolling through their social media feeds.

For better decision-making, you can refer to Facebook statistics.

Instagram

According to the Hootsuite social media team, the best time slots for publishing content on Instagram are:

1. 11:00 AM-3:00 PM EST
2. 7:00-8:00 PM EST

The first slot is during mid-morning when people go to offices in New York or evening when they log off from their workstations and check social feeds on their smartphones. For more in-depth insights, you can check out Instagram statistics.

Since Instagram's algorithm works a lot like Facebook's, recency is a primary ranking factor here too. So, to increase your click-throughs, ensure that the content you publish in these slots is fresh and engaging.

Understanding user behavior is essential in social media marketing. Let's have a look at an Instagram-generated heatmap.

Source: Hootsuite's Social Team

When formulating a posting strategy, you can't just rely on a single factor, which is online behavior in this case. You should also consider the past performance of your posts and experiment with different time slots.

Twitter

According to the Hootsuite social media team, the best time to tweet is between 9 AM and 12 PM EST on weekdays. Click-through rate is the most crucial metric on Twitter for engagement. The 9 AM to 12 PM slot receives the highest click-throughs since it coincides with the office hours in the UK and the East Coast.

Though the morning hours on weekends are the busiest, marketers prefer to schedule posts a bit later to avoid the social media rush hour.

However, using the best time to post metric is not suitable when your audience is spread across the globe in different time zones. According to Nick Martin, Global Social Engagement Specialist at HootSuite, you should tweet content round the clock in small intervals for most traction.

Tip: There is no best time to post on Twitter because of its global audience. Schedule tweets round the clock, preferably every hour. You should do the same when running ad campaigns. Target people according to their time zone. For comprehensive Twitter stats for 2021, you should refer to Twitter statistics.

Linkedin

According to the Hootsuite social media team, the best time to post on LinkedIn is between 11 AM and 2 PM EST during weekdays.

According to Iain Beable, Hootsuite's Social Marketing Strategist, people are usually more active on LinkedIn during mornings, lunch hours, and evenings, but the pandemic has changed this. Now, the pattern is more scattered and spread over irregular intervals.

During the pandemic, users have been active even on weekends, especially Sunday evenings. Therefore, your LinkedIn strategy must be more data-driven and based on past performance. Also, keep experimenting to know what works.

Unlike Facebook and Instagram, recency is not as crucial on LinkedIn. Factors such as relevance, quality, and trending content matter a lot more.

To know more LinkedIn facts and stats, visit LinkedIn statistics in 2021 and LinkedIn demographics.

How to Find the Best Time to Post on Social Media?

1. Research When Your Audience is Most Active Online

Though most social media algorithms consider recency when determining organic ranking, you must know when your audience is online on Facebook and Instagram for better reach.

Twitter and LinkedIn are less transparent; they don't reveal too much information about their user activity. Therefore, you should use third-party tools to research audience behavior on these platforms.

Tip: Popular social media tool Hootsuite offers a built-in feature, The Best Time to Publish, which provides hour-by-hour user activity through heatmaps. It will fetch your posting history and help you figure out the optimal times to post that you haven't experimented with in the past few weeks.

2. Study Your Best Performing Posts

You need to use a data-driven approach to meet your social media performance goals. Learn how to use various social media analytics tools to maximize your engagement and reach on different platforms. You should focus on your most successful posts and study all the critical metrics. You can create a social media report to find the top-performing posts.

Use the following metrics to assess your best performing social posts:

• Awareness (consider the number of impressions)
• Engagement (posts with high engagement rates)
• Sales and traffic (posts with highest click-throughs)

Analytics for Social Platforms

A. Facebook Analytics

Facebook provides three analytics tools:

• Facebook Page Insights: It contains information about page and post engagement, post and story reach, video views, and recommendations. It also provides data about follower growth, orders and revenue, and when your audience is online.
• Facebook Audience Insights: It tracks your audience’s demographics such as gender, age, job title, and relationship status.
• Facebook Ad Center: It covers information about ad spend, post engagement, audience reached, and click-throughs.

B. Twitter Analytics

Twitter analytics is also divided into three parts:

• Account home overview: Gives information on monthly highlights and the best performing content
• The tweet activity dashboard: Tracks your tweet’s engagement and impressions for a selected period
• The campaign dashboard: Tracks your Twitter ads so you can measure important metrics such as impressions, reach, engagement rate, and cost per action

C. Instagram Analytics

Instagram insights can also be divided into three significant sections:

• Content: Helps you track the performance of your posts and Stories.
• Activity: This allows you to track the audience’s response to your posts and Stories.
• Audience: Gives information about your audience’s demographics and user-behavior by assessing when they are most likely to be online.
  

3. Get Competitor Insights

To get competitor insights:

1. Scroll through the feed of your major competitors
2. Find out their best-performing posts; assess the number of likes and shares
3. Do a competitive analysis to study the patterns
4. Reverse-engineer the strategies that led them to succeed; apply them to suit your specific needs

You can also try social listening to decide what kind of content you should post and when you should post it.

4. Post According to Your Audience's Time Zone

When you target a global audience, make sure to schedule your posts according to their time zone. Or else, publish round the clock. Use a social media scheduler to do it efficiently.

How to use a social media scheduler like HeroPost?

HeroPost helps schedule posts for all social platforms from a single dashboard. It allows you to publish posts directly or schedule them for posting at a later date. It has many valuable built-in features such as ‘Geolocation’ and ‘First Comment to Post.’ HeroPost facilitates unlimited scheduling for months ahead.

5. Test and Optimize

Even after due diligence, you would need routine A/B tests to achieve the desired results. Post the same content at different time slots to see when you get the best response.

According to Nick Martin, testing should be a continuous process. You should test for multiple variables such as the images used, the post's copy, and the posting time.

6. Keep Monitoring and Experimenting

Social media is constantly evolving, and so is the user behavior on these platforms. For instance, businesses resorted to remote work in 2020 following the coronavirus outbreak. It led to increased social media use. Earlier, people checked their feeds during lunch hours, but when they started working from home, they checked it even during their zoom meetings. When user habits shift so drastically, your social media strategy should also follow.

Conclusion

There's no standard or global best hour to post on social channels, especially when time is a variable factor. The ideal time to post may vary according to your audience's social behavior and the platforms you choose. However, a data-driven approach with continuous A/B testing and experimentation will help you get the best results possible and improve your ROI. You need to assess your past post-performance across all social channels. But for Instagram and Facebook, also consider when your audience is online.