SEO for Crypto

What SEO is

A search engine helps users access information they need by displaying some of it in snippets along with links to websites. On a search engine results page (SERP), websites are shown depending on their ranking: from more relevant to less relevant.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a technique of tweaking a website for better ranking and promotion in search engines. It is carried out to improve the website’s position on SERPs for certain queries and receive more organic traffic.

Companies use SEO techniques to gain the trust of search engines. This is an important part of digital marketing that helps get almost-free visitors. Though search engines index and rank websites at no charge, optimization—as well as SERP promotion—is still a cost item.

Here are some up-to-date statistics on SEO costs:

• $77.6 billion — annual spending on SEO by all companies worldwide
• $41,305 — average company spending on SEO
• $5000 to $30,000 — one-time SEO service cost
• $750 to $2000 — monthly spending on SEO
• $500 to $4000 — monthly spending on local SEO.

Despite this, SEO is considered a cost-efficient digital marketing tool because it pays off after about a year. Further, these costs can be curbed, when the website wins more trust and gets more backlinks.

How SEO is useful for crypto and blockchain projects

Not a single business—especially a fintech project—could blossom without digital marketing. And every vertical has its own specifics. For example, a crypto project can barely be hyped only by means of the Bitcointalk forum or promotion on Telegram.

Crypto projects used to rely on PPC campaigns. But this marketing channel got truncated in 2018, when Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter restricted everything related to cryptocurrencies on their advertising networks. In 2021, Google and Facebook revisited their policy and lifted the ban on ads of some crypto products and services but imposed some strict requirements (e.g. a project has to provide a licence).

In view of this, why would one limit themselves to social media and advertising networks while there is a way to achieve mid- and long-term results? If you don’t plan to give up on your crypto project in a few months after launching, make sure to include SEO in your overall marketing strategy. This will ensure a better ROI than paid advertising on Telegram and YouTube channels.

Benefits of optimizing a crypto project website

Search engine optimization is a rational way to boost audience awareness of your cryptocurrency, blockchain, NFT, DeFi, dApp, or crypto wallet. It will help your website earn a great reputation in the crypto ecosystem.

A sound strategy for promoting cryptocurrencies in search engines will let you:

• Boost organic traffic and conversions on the website
• Build a growth system for your project
• Bring the website to the first SERP or even to the top 3 results.

Implementing such a strategy will step up the sales of your cryptocurrency or the number of users of your blockchain app. Having focused on your tactic and achieved the expected results, you will be positioned as a crypto expert who deserves a good SERP ranking.

It may be challenging for a crypto business to do SEO in-house: the industry is more than intricate. Polygant is ready to take over some or all SEO tasks for you. Let us know how high you would like to see your crypto project in search engine ranking.

Components of SEO

To give you an idea how SEO is implemented, we will list the cornerstone methods that no crypto project or website could live without. These are the fundamental tips based on Google Search Central’s Documentation to Improve SEO and the know-how of famous SE optimizers and our specialists.

Optimization of a crypto project website starts with an audit that helps find out whether the website’s structure and content meet the requirements of search engines, whether the website is user-friendly and intuitive, and what hinders its good ranking. During the audit, the following aspects are analysed:

• Semantic core
• Usability
• Errors and bugs
• Website ranking
• Competition.

The audit will identify all points of growth, evaluate the website, and help develop a strategy for improvement and further promotion. Usually, a SEO strategy consists of 4 stages:

1. Building a semantic core.
2. Internal optimization.
3. Technical optimization.
4. External promotion.

Semantic core and keywords

A semantic core is an ordered set of words and phrases that define the website’s subject. It has a central keyword (usually, a high-volume one), while all other keywords are ranged by decreasing volume.

Keywords are words and phrases that appear on pages and describe their content. They are collected by studying relevant queries in search engines. Google has tools titled Keyword Planner and Google Trends. But we also use some third-party services, such as ahrefs.com, keywordtool.io, spyfu.com.

Search queries are words and phrases people type in the search bar to find what they need. There are 4 types of search queries:

1. General.
2. Informational.
3. Transactional (commercial).
4. Navigational.

Internal website optimization is impossible without collection relevant keywords. You will also need them for external promotion.

Internal SEO

This includes optimization of content, meta tags, headers, URLs, and internal linking.

Content optimization

Before 2015, specialists used to optimize content by placing a certain number of SEO and LSI phrases of different morphology, scattered across texts. But in 2015, Google introduced the RankBrain algorithm that determined the relevance of content to a user’s query. In 2019, Google released the BERT algorithm that understands and monitors natural language. With these algorithms in place, pages with useless texts infused with relevant keywords can no longer make it to top SERP positions.

Today, search engines only rank a page high if its content is completely relevant to a visitor’s expectations. It turns out that their bots like it when people don’t have to get back to the SERP to check out other pages in a bid to find more valuable content. This is why the bounce rate and behavioural patterns are analysed.

Now the postulate ‘content is king’ implies not that one should create a multitude of pages each of which is devoted to the main keyword and additional long-tail keywords. Quality, not quantity, is what is rewarded. This means one can create fewer pages but keep them well-structured and helpful.

For content to be truly helpful, it should be detailed and illustrated. Proper formatting may come in handy:

• H1 header is the page name that conveys the subject of the text. It’s useful to incorporate a keyphrase into it.
• Headers of other levels (h2, h3, h4, h5, h6). There should be a strict hierarchy between them, since they head the paragraphs of the corresponding nesting levels.
• Numbered and bulleted lists. There must be consistency in syntax between them, and they must all reveal or follow the generalisation above them.
• Bold spelling for terms and important details.
• Italic spelling for citations and source names.
• Tables containing stats, comparisons, and ratings.
• Stand-alone paragraphs with longer quotes, excerpts, or ads. They should be enclosed in the ‘blockquote’ tag.

Do: Use not only images (photos, diagrams, infographics) but also tables, lists, excerpts, and citations — everything that can provide more examples and details. Make sure your text is diverse and readable.

Don’t: Deploy all keywords you clustered for a certain page. Just take high-volume and transactional keywords, or high-volume and navigational keywords, and place them in the title meta tag and h1 header. You can also infuse some medium-volume keywords in h2 and h3 headers.

Internal linking

Linking between pages allows you to distribute link weight across the website and tell search engines which pages do matter and which are related to each other. There are the basic terms in this process:

• Internal linking is making pages of the same website interconnected through hyperlinks
• Weight is a conditional page rating indicator that depends on the number of internal and external links to this page
• A source page is a page that gives part of its weight to the acceptor
• An acceptor is a page that gains weight from links from source pages.

Internal linking is a necessary website indexing element, even if you have a sitemap. It gives search bots an additional opportunity to crawl through all pages. It allows visitors to navigate through sections and pages more easily, which improves behavioural patterns. And for SE optimizers, it helps promote pages for medium- and low-volume queries.

There are three types of internal references:

1. Contextual. Scattered across the text, they lead to other pages devoted to other subjects.
2. Navigational. Placed at the beginning of the text as a table of contents, they lead to paragraph headers. Sometimes, they are deployed at the end of the text but lead to other pages devoted to the same subject.
3. Sitewide links are placed in the menu and the footer, usually unchanged. Sometimes, they are deployed in the sidebar, but only if it is static (rather than dynamic like on blogs).

Do: Use anchor and anchorless links. Add the _blank attribute to the ‘a’ tag so links are opened in a new tab.

Don’t: Use too many internal and external links only in texts. It’s a good practice to incorporate up to 3 links into a small text, and up to 10 links into a larger text. The number of interface links isn’t counted. This limit is conventional and ensures that weight is evenly distributed between all links.

Technical SEO

Technical optimization is called to fix errors and improve the website structure. As a result, it helps search bots crawl and index pages and improves user experience. It doesn’t affect the content of the website.

Here’s what you do in terms of technical optimization:

1. Add an SSL certificate.
2. Create or configure the robots.txt file.
3. Create or update the sitemap.xml file.
4. Delete page duplicates or add the canonical attribute to their code, specifying the priority page.
5. Accelerate page loading.

Mobile SEO

Your website must be displayed correctly on any device: smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Since mobile traffic has outpaced desktop traffic, developers and designers have stuck to the mobile first concept.

But if your website doesn’t have a mobile version yet or its mobile version is out of date, you need to fix this as soon as possible. Back in 2015, Google started implementing the Mobilegeddon algorithm to prioritise mobile-friendly websites. In 2018, the search giant released the algorithm officially. This is why mobile first is not just a designer trend but a must.

External SEO

Some project owners put off this important stage, others disregard it at all, believing they can make do with internal optimization of their blockchain project, after which traffic will appear for sure. We are convinced that a blockchain website won’t reach the top 10 of SERP without external promotion. And you should invest some effort in it once you have built your semantic core.

The main thing here is to receive as many high-quality backlinks as you can. Here are the ways to get them:

• Publish guest posts on crypto blogs and media platforms
• Publish press releases in crypto media
• Order reviews
• Order outreach and crowd marketing
• Appear on forums and Q&A websites (no spamming)
• Exchange links using cross or webring exchange.

Backlinks can be beneficial and harmful. Let’s discuss what search engines consider black hat SEO and what for they can punish. These are the methods you shouldn’t put to use:

• Joining link lists with dozens of links on a page
• Listing on non-thematic web directories
• Creating numerous profiles on forums and websites where you can add a link to your profile
• Spamming on any websites where you can leave comments or create discussions
• Creating satellites where you place external links to the target website
• Generating doorways from which traffic comes through direct links
• Buying links on backlink marketplaces.

Link building is a stand-alone process that requires a load of time and resources. Usually, internal SEO specialists aren’t concerned with link building. This task is often delegated to a dedicated manager called link builder. They are rather a marketer or promoter than an SE optimizer.

If you lack some kind of professional to promote a blockchain project, we can provide you with a specialist of ours. Polygant’s seasoned team includes specialists in semantics, internal and technical optimization, SEO writers, and link builders. We will be pleased to answer your questions on Telegram or in the feedback form, and help your business with SEO.