This podcast and post focus on white hat link building, how to use spider web brainstorming, how to incorporate tier link building and how to write great article titles. On the podcast, we also chat about using keywords as a strategy to land more brand collaborations and freelance writing gigs and so much more!
My guest is travel writer, blogger, and podcaster Alex Schnee.
White Hat Link Building, Article Title SEO
Listen to today’s episode where Alex and I chat about link building, SEO strategy, and the importance of it for websites and specifically for travel bloggers and content creators.
About Alex Schnee
My guest today is Alex Schnee. She was born and raised in Montana, and at last count has been to over 50 countries.
Alex is a professional writer, blogger, and podcaster. She runs the travel blog, Alex on the Map where she shares her passion of cooking, photography, and traveling as a digital nomad, as well as encouraging conservation and respect for natural spaces. She also runs the podcast, Nomads on the Map.
Her travel writing has been published in USA Today, the Huffington Post, Fodor’s, and featured in Travel + Leisure. Alex has worked as an SEO Expert for Flytrippers, as well as an Editorial Manager at Passion Passport where she headed their entire editorial strategy as well as SEO strategy.
She has worked with brands such as National Geographic, Contiki, Gutsy Women Travel, The North Face, and many more.
Break Into Travel Writing: A podcast and website designed to help you build a travel blog your readers love as well as help you achieve your goals as a travel writer or blogger.
>> Listen to the full podcast; click here!
In this podcast episode, Alex and I chat about her time as a foreign correspondent for USA Today in Italy as well as SEO, writing great article titles, and the importance of a link-building strategy.
How to Write Great Articles Titles that Also Drive Traffic Via SEO
- What do you need to incorporate in the title for SEO traffic?
- The difference between writing a title for a freelance post vs. a personal blog post.
- SEO title vs Post title
- What pieces of your title should be incorporated in your meta description.
- Continuing with SEO for a minute, can you explain H Tags and the best process to incorporate keywords or bits of your title into these headings?
- The best way to incorporate the title or keywords in your additional H Tags?
HTML Heading (H Tags)
These headers are most commonly used as the title and then titles that separate content in a blog post. Most websites automatically use CSS to make the H1 title stand out on the page. The HTML tag for the largest heading on a post is the H1 which is the title of the post.
Then, within the text headings like H2, H3, etc. are the headers of the blog post. These make it easy for Google to understand the most important aspects of the post text and it makes it easier for readers to scan the page and read through the post.
- As a bridge between SEO and link building, I’d love to know if DA/DR matter today? If so, why?
- How to use Keyword research to set yourself apart when you pitch brands campaigns.
Link Building Tips for Bloggers
Alex and I jump into link-building strategies and why it is necessary in order to have content rank with search engines such as Google. Alex explains the basics of link building as well.
Tier link building
Tiered link building focuses on building links from a variety of sources to your website. You can do this in several ways that are white hat (or ethical) tactics. Start by contributing content to higher ranking sites that are relevant to your site niche as a first tier.
Other topics we touch on are:
- Why is Link building an important part of growing a blog?
- How do incoming links help content rank?
- There are good ways and bad ways to go about link building. Can you break down white hat, black hat, and grey hat methods?
- What are your favorite tools for link building?
- Google is constantly updating its algorithm. Can you explain what this means for bloggers?
- Alex’s top advice for content creators to rank in the travel space.
Brainstorming Web (Spider Web)
A spider diagram is a visual brainstorming technique. The main concept is written on a page and lines are used to link ideas. As the name suggests, you lay out your ideas to look a little like a spider. Start with the main topic or article name in the middle and then add lines that branch out to add more article ideas on the same location or topic.
>> Listen to the full podcast; click here!
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So I appreciate the idea of Link Building for improvement on SEO & to raise my DA score which could equal more income as a higher rating can be very attractive to prospective blog clients.
But one of the biggest things I HATE about Link Building is Guest Posting. I understand the benefits but I always feel that I just gave away my best work to another blog for their benefit overall for just a little link juice.
I would rather small round ups or link swaps but not full on guest posting.
It’s hard! One of the main problems with link swaps is that you can get penalized by Google. The likelihood is very low, but it can cause some big problems if you do too much of it.
My recommendation is a healthy mixture of all of it–say, 2 link swaps, 2 guest posts, and 2 collabs. You’ll grow super fast and get more link equity that way.