Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is one of the most misunderstood and misused terms around. Many people see SEO as a bunch of magic words you say to a search engine so that it ranks you number one. SEO is a genuine strategy that can help you reach your target audience in the most effective way possible in search of results.
What is SEO?
in simple terms, Search Engine Optimization is nothing but creating content which is optimized by rules and regulations of the Search Engine, which can be Google.com or Bing.com or any other.
You need to follow the basic set of rules they are called algorithms, which help these search engines pull up the most relevant information on the internet for you.
SEO is like learning a foreign language. At first you don’t understand how to speak with others, but as time goes on; as you take the time to learn, you spoke clearer and more easily understandable words. In other words: It is important for being able to communicate with potential customers who will be using the internet to find you and talk to you.
How does Search Engine Work?
Before we understand what is SEO, we need to understand how these search engines work. Search engine is a computer program that allows you to find specific information on the internet. When you type in a query, the search engine looks through its index of webpages and returns the most relevant results.
The server also looks for other pages and related content and relevancy of the content and sends them to the search engine. In this way, the search engine collects data about what keywords are used to describe a particular topic or subject.
As you can see, a search engine needs to collect data from many websites. Search engines use various algorithms to determine it should place which pages on top of the list.
This entire process works with the help of a bot called Crawlers or spiders. Job of this spider is to crawl across all the pages and posts of the website and make a copy of the content and put them in server’s as in multiple folders just like how a library would segregate books for various categories.
Some popular search engines included google.com, bing.com, yandex.com
Why is SEO important for business?
The importance of SEO for marketing cannot be overstated. It is one of the most important aspects for any business, big or small, as it can help them reach their target audience and generate more leads and sales. There are many benefits of SEO for businesses, but some of the most important are that it can help you attract more visitors to your website, improve your conversion rate, and increase your brand awareness.
By optimizing your website for the search engines, you can make it easier for potential customers to find you online. And, once they find you, you can help to convert them into customers with a well-optimized website.
Finally, by increasing your brand awareness, you can help to create a more recognizable and trusted brand that customers will be more likely to do business with in the future.
For your business, SEO (search engine optimization) is more than just a marketing tactic. It’s a strategy that allows you to build visibility and credibility for your business. Whether you own a small business, a local business, a national brand or a global brand, you need to have a presence online. That presence has to be easy to find if you want to reach your target audience. And, in order to be found, your website has to be optimized. SEO is not just a strategy that works. It’s a strategy that works well.
Beginner’s Guide to SEO
Before we kick start all those fancy SEO techniques, it’s important to know the fundamentals of SEO. I have stripped apart the SEO for easy of understanding and have put it into chapters that will be the building blocks for your SEO learning.
Chapter 2: How does Google Search Engine works?
Chapter 4: Onpage Optimisation
Chapter 5: Offpage Optimisation
Chapter 7: Tracking and Measuring SEO
Chapter 1: SEO 101
Learn how to SEO
Best way to learn SEO is by building a blogging website and starting to write content, and understand user intent and creating articles which help users to find answers that they have been searching for.
The first step to learning SEO is to understand the basics of how search engines work. This includes understanding how search engines rank pages, what factors they used to rank pages, and how they determine which pages are relevant for a query.
The next step is to learn about the different SEO techniques that can improve rankings.
These include on-page optimization, link building, social media marketing, and content marketing.
Finally, it’s important to learn about the tools that is to be used for SEO analysis and optimization. These include Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools), Google Keyword planners, and a few other SEO tools which will help you track your SEO progress and find out what is and isn’t working.
Google Vs Rest of the Search Engines
Before we deep dive into all the above steps, you need to understand how google search works. As google.com owns the market share (approx 89% ~90%) in the world, it’s imperative that you understand how google search engine has developed over the years and why it’s the most popular search engine.
Google Algorithms
Google constantly keeps updating its algorithm to ensure users find relevant information and stay away from spam websites.
Over the years, Google has submitted major algorithm updates to improve the user experience. Listing out a few over here for reference –
1. Hummingbird:
Google designed the Hummingbird algorithm (2010 update) to provide fast and relevant search results.
2. Panda:
The Panda algorithm (2011 update) is named after the Google engineer, Navneet Panda.
It improved the quality of search results by penalizing sites that provide low-quality content.
3. Mobilegeddon:
In October 2013, Google announced they had developed a new algorithm called “Mobilegeddon” for the mobile search engines.
The algorithm gives websites a boost in Google searches when it is used by users on the mobile, and it ensures mobile friendliness of the website.
4. Pigeon:
The Pigeon algorithm (2014 update) provided results that are relevant in both a structured and unstructured way.
5. Rank brain:
Is an AI-powered machine learning algorithm developed by Google to assist with the ranking of search engine results.
It uses several different signals to determine how relevant a given webpage is to a given query, including usage history, click-through rates, and other forms of engagement. The technology was first released as part of Google’s Knowledge Graph in September 2015.
6. Medic:
The Google Medic update (2018) seemed to disproportionately affect medical websites and other websites that involve life-altering decisions. In light of the recent algorithm update, Google representatives have hinted that one of the E-A-T (expertise, authority, trust) signals is being implemented.
Quality raters have also noticed that some aspects of the Quality Rater Guidelines document are being put into place.
7. Bert:
Poorly written content is often the result of keyword stuffing, which is the act of cramming as many keywords into a piece of content as possible in an attempt to rank higher in search engine results.
Google have heavily penalized this practice over the years, and the Bert update in 2019 seems to be designed to further crack down on it.
Google Ranking Factors
The ranking factors are what Google uses to determine how high your website will rank on their search engine results page (SERP). There are many factors that go into this. In fact, there are over 200 ranking factors which determine the fate of your website’s ranking and google keeps changing these factors on monthly basis. However, there are 10 that have been found to be the most important.
1. Content Freshness:
The freshness of a website’s content is important for a number of reasons. For one, it helps to keep visitors engaged and coming back for more. After all, search engines are always looking for new and relevant content to index. That’s why it’s important to update your site with fresh content. Not only will it please your visitors, but it will also help you attract new visitors and get better placement in search results.
2. Content relevance:
Content relevance is important for several reasons. First, relevant content is more likely to be read and shared by users, which can help to increase the reach and visibility of your brand or website. Second, relevant content is more likely to be engaging to users, which can help to keep them coming back for more. Finally, relevant content is more likely to be search engine friendly, which can help to improve your website’s ranking and visibility in search results.
3. Site Speed:
Site speed is a measure of how fast a web page loads. It is important for both users and search engines. A slow loading page can frustrate users and cause them to leave the site. It can also hurt your search engine rankings. There are a few things you can do to improve your site speed. First, make sure your pages are as lean as possible. This means removing any unnecessary code or content. Second, use caching to store frequently accessed data, so it doesn’t have to be loaded each time a user visits your site. Finally, use a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute your content across multiple servers. This will help reduce the load on your own server and improve your site’s speed.
4. Site Security (SSL):
SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a technology used to create an encrypted connection between a web server and a web browser. This encrypted connection ensures that all data passed between the server and browser remains private and secure. SSL is an important security measure for any website that collects sensitive information from users, such as credit card details or personal information.
In order to set up an SSL connection, a web server must first get an SSL certificate. A certificate authority issues this certificate and contains the server’s public key, as well as information about the server’s identity. Once the server has this certificate, it can create an encrypted connection with a web browser.
SSL is an important security measure for any website that collects sensitive information from users. It is important to ensure that your website has an SSL certificate in order to protect your users’ data.
5. Site Authority:
Site authority is one of the most important aspects of SEO. It is a measure of how well a website is respected by search engines and how much authority it has. A website with a high site authority will rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), and will be more likely to get clicks and traffic. There are several factors that contribute to a website’s site authority, including age, size, popularity, and links.
6. Backlinks:
Backlinks are one of the most important aspects of SEO. They are essentially links from other websites to your website. Backlinks help search engines determine the popularity and relevancy of your website. The more backlinks you have, the higher chances your website will rank in search engine results pages.
The number of backlinks indicates the popularity or importance of that website or page (for example, Google uses this to determine the PageRank of a webpage).
Outside of web directories, backlinks are the primary means by which web surfers discover new websites and navigate the web.
There are a few things to keep in mind when building backlinks. First, make sure that the links are from high-quality websites. Second, try to get links from websites that are relevant to your website’s topic.
Finally, make sure that your links are placed strategically on the page – too many links in one place can look shammy and will turn off potential website visitors.
7. Organic User Interaction
Organic user interaction is all about making sure that your website visitors have a positive experience when they visit your site.
This means creating a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and use. It also means creating content that is relevant and engaging.
In short, organic user interaction is all about making your website as user-friendly and enjoyable as possible.
8. Social Signals
SEO social signals are the social media interactions that help improve a website’s search engine rankings. This can include things like social media mentions, shares, and likes.
SEO social signals can be a powerful tool to help improve a website’s visibility and organic reach. When used correctly, SEO social signals can help to increase website traffic and brand awareness. They can also help to build trust and credibility with potential customers.
However, it’s important to note that not all social signals are created equal. The most effective SEO social signals are those that come from high-quality, authoritative sources.
9. Average Time Spent
If you want your website to rank well in search engine results, you need to make sure that people are spending a decent amount of time on your site. The average time spent on a website is one of the factors that search engines consider when determining rankings.
Of course, you can’t just artificially inflate your average time spent by keeping people on your site longer than they need to be. But you can make sure that your site is engaging and informative enough to keep people interested. If you can keep people on your site for longer periods of time, it will signal to search engines that your site is worth ranking highly.
The logic is simple: if people are spending more time on a website, it must be because they’re finding the content relevant and useful.
And if the content is relevant and useful, that’s a good sign for the website’s overall quality and short average time spent means it’s not capturing users’ interest enough to stay on the site.
10. Mobile Friendliness:
It is no secret that mobile devices are increasingly becoming the preferred choice for accessing the internet. In fact, Google has even gone so far as to make “mobile-friendliness” a ranking factor in its search algorithm.
This means that websites that are designed to be mobile-friendly are more likely to appear higher in search results than those that are not.
There are several factors that go into making a website mobile-friendly. Perhaps the most important is responsive design, which ensures that we can easily view a website on a variety of devices, regardless of screen size.
Other important factors include touch-friendly navigation, fast loading times, and readable text.
Making your website mobile-friendly is not only important for SEO purposes but also for providing a good user experience. After all, no one wants to try to navigate a website that is not designed for their device. If you want to ensure that your website is ranking as high as possible in search results, and provides an enjoyable experience for mobile users, then making it mobile-friendly should be a top priority.
Black hat SEO Vs White Hat SEO
When you learn about SEO, you will often come across words like black hat SEO and white hat SEO, black hatters and white hatters. It’s best to understand the basics between these two SEO techniques while you start your SEO journey.
Black hat SEO involves using techniques that are not approved by the search engines, in an attempt to get higher rankings. This includes things like keyword stuffing, link buying, and other unethical practices which are against search engine practices.
White hat SEO, on the other hand, involves using techniques that are approved by the search engines and that focus on providing a good user experience.
This includes things like creating informative and keyword-rich content, building high-quality backlinks, and making sure your website is mobile-friendly.
So, which approach is better? Well, it depends on your goals. If your goal is simply to get higher rankings, then black hat SEO might be a good option.
However, if your goal is to create a long-term, sustainable business, then white hat SEO is the way to go. Not only will you avoid getting penalized by the search engines, but you’ll also be able to build a website that people actually want to visit.
Chapter 2: How Googles Search Engine works?
1. Information Organisation
Google is a comprehensive library of our modern times where information keeps getting organised in an index for us to access.
Libraries have been our go-to source for information for centuries, and Google has become the modern day library for many of us. Google search engine works by crawling and indexing of vast data found on the internet.
Crawling to find results:
Google has created efficient software which is called crawlers.
These crawlers move from one webpage to another, which are publicly accessible, and keep storing information they find in a vault called Google Search Index.
When you input a text, google looks across its servers for images, texts, videos, among the hundreds of billion of webpages and other content which it has stored in its search index and pulls us the most relevant data matching to your query.
Indexing to organise results:
When a crawler moves from one webpage to another, it keeps making a copy of the content and store these contents in a very well organised way similar to how your traditional library would do.
Billions of data points are captured in google vault and this process is called Indexing. Google crawlers constantly look for fresh content and keep updating their index for relevant data.
2. Rank optimized results
The reason google is most loved search engine is helps you find the desired answer to your query infraction of seconds and the ultimate results depend upon below key factors
Search Intent:
If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly asking yourself questions like “What does my audience want?” and
“What are they searching for?”
Well, it turns out that the answer to all of those questions is search intent and google very well understand the intent of the user.
For example, you type the keyword to Manchester United during a live match. Google will bring up a live score of Manchester United as it determines users might look out for the match score or latest update.
Another example if a user searches for ice-cream near me, it will only pull up data basis user geo location and not give information of ice cream stores which are in another state.
There are four main types of search intent:
1. Navigational: The searcher is looking for a specific website or page.
2. Informational: The searcher is looking for information on a particular topic.
3. Transactional: The searcher is looking to buy something.
4. Commercial: The searcher is looking for information to help them make a purchase decision.
Understanding the intent behind a search can help you create content that better meets the needs of your audience. It can also help you target your content to the right stage in the buyer’s journey, which can ultimately lead to more conversions. So, the next time you’re wondering what your audience is looking for, remember to think about search intent. It just might be the answer to all of your questions.
Relevancy:
For content marketing, relevancy is key. This means that your content must be relevant to your target audience, and must also be well targeted to them. If you’re selling products or services to a specific demographic, then your content needs to be geared towards that demographic. For example, if you’re targeting young adults selling tee shirts, your website must have information on a numerous tee shirt with varied categories and not just one type of tee shirt. Google understands the user is also trying to look for varied tee shirt option not just one option.
Your content must be relevant to the keywords that you’re targeting. If you’re selling car parts, then your content should be about car parts and nothing else. This will help you rank higher in search engines, and will also ensure that your target audience is actually seeing your content.
Quality Content:
Is the number one driver for Google’s success. This is because Google’s goal is to provide its users with the best possible results.
In order to do this, they rely on high-quality content to determine which websites should rank higher in their search engine results pages (SERPs). Google determines the quality of content with E-A-T methodology (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness).
Therefore, the more links your site receives from a trustworthy website which has built a reputation over a long time will also enhance your site’s trust factor.
The type of content reflects Google constantly keeps crawling content for the most authoritative and expertise content to ensure users get to read the best of the content.
Usability:
Google also emphasis on usability of the content, where users can navigate the accessible content on your site easily.
This is one of the primary focuses of Google’s algorithm to make sure that users can easily find the content they’re looking for.
Google looks at page experience factors like mobile friendliness so that users logging in their smart phones have no issues consuming content on their phone.
Page speed where the website loads pretty fast and not leave users waiting for an eternity.
Security, you site being secure at all times which ensures users’ safe browsing experience and navigation of the website where users can find the content easily without any hassle.
Personalized Content:
We all know that content is important. But what’s even more important is personalized content – content that applies to your individual needs and interests.
Google has mastered the art of personalizing the type of content you see based on your historical search data, location, the intent behind search.
Based on the historical data of your profile, Google understands you are looking for spectacles when you search for glasses, as you have searched for multiple specs in your last search.
Personalized content is the future of marketing. It allows businesses to connect with their consumers on a more personal level, delivering content that is relevant to their individual needs and interests.
This not only improves the customer experience, but also helps to build trust and loyalty between the two parties.
3. Meticulous Testing and Spam Detection
Google continuously puts an effort to ensure you get to read quality content, Google has over 63000 employees across the world who do manual searches to ensure meticulous testing is done daily and quality scores for websites and webpages are submitted, which has resulted in better search results for the end users.
Multiple live experiments are conducted by these employees who are in search quality raters to ensure you are safe from spammy content, which tries to steal your personal information and end up finding relevant results.
Google blocks spam websites automatically with their proprietary algorithm and in 2020 alone, they blocked over 40 billion websites.
Chapter 3: Keyword Research
If you’re serious about succeeding online, then you need to start by conducting keyword research. This process helps you identify the right keywords which will cause driving the desired traffic to your website. Please understand Keyword research is the foundation of SEO. If you develop fantastic content which no one is looking for online, your efforts will go in vain.
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process of finding out which words and phrases people are typing into search engines to find your content. It is a crucial step in the content marketing process that is often overlooked by businesses.
Keyword research helps you identify what people are searching for and what they are looking for in your industry. It also helps you figure out how to optimize your content so that it ranks higher on search engines.
Why do keyword research?
The main goal of keyword research is to figure out which words are searched for the most and what people look for in your industry. This helps you determine what keywords you should use in your content. It helps optimize your content as well as create content with keywords which users are searching for. Keyword research can also help you identify new opportunities for your business and to better understand your competition.
Types of Keywords
For ease of understanding, I have segmented keyword research into macro-level keyword research types, based on user intent.
Let’s understand the user intent first and later deep dive into micro-level keyword research types.
User intent keywords:
User intent keywords are the defining parts of your website that your users are searching for. When developing your website, these keywords should be carefully thought out, and taken into account when building your website’s content. The better your website’s content is, the higher it will rank.
User intent keywords are categorised as follows:
1. Navigational keywords
These are keywords when a user directly looks for a specific brand or a website. For example:
- DMQNA blog
- Amazon.com
- Where can I find PUMA shoes?
User are very clear about the brand or the website he or she wants to visit. Navigation keywords help your current and future prospects land on your website without much hitch.
2. Transactional keywords
Transactional keywords are keywords that are used to promote specific sales or transactions. They are often used in conjunction with other ad campaigns that are targeting general web traffic.
For example, if you are running an ad campaign for furniture sales, you might include transactional keywords in the ad copy to draw in potential customers who are looking to buy furniture.
When choosing keywords for your transactional campaigns, make sure to target terms that are relevant to your industry and your target audience.
Additionally, be sure to choose keywords that are also searched frequently by buyers in your market.
Example:
- Icecream shops near me
- Buy mutual funds online
- Hayabusa bike for sale
- Buy health insurance policy
- Buy NFT online
3. Informational keywords
Users looking for regular information on the web are called information. The intention of users with use information may not add up to your immediate funnel, however, content built around information keyword can be a successful strategy for your niche websites or to build an authoritative website.
If you are a blogger, information keywords should be your focus area.
Example:
- Bahubali movie boxoffice collection
- Calories in banana
- Microsoft CFO
4. Commercial keywords
Commercial keywords may be valuable opportunities to reach an audience that might be converted into future clients, as they indicate a person’s intention to buy or perform some form of commercial activity.
These keywords are those that are specifically chosen for use in online advertising and marketing.
They are typically specific to a certain product or service, and are used to reach potential customers who may be interested in purchasing or using that product or service in the near future.
Example:
- Tesla car reviews
- Moz Vs Ahrefs
- Amazon Coupon Codes
At the micro level, keyword research types are:
Long Tail keywords
Long tail keywords are simply longer, more specific versions of regular keywords. They’re usually 3-5+ word phrases that describe what someone is looking for in very specific detail. Why are long tail keywords important? Because they help you get found by people who are looking for exactly what you offer.
When you target long tail keywords in your SEO and content marketing efforts, you’re more likely to show up in search results for people who are ready to buy what you’re selling.
Example: Women’s size 8 black leather pumps.
Short Tail keywords
When it comes to keyword research, there are different types of keywords that you can target. One type of keywords is called “short tail keywords.” Short tail keywords are basically single words or phrases that are very specific to what you are trying to rank for.
For example, if you are a plumber, a short tail keyword could be “plumbing services.” The advantage of targeting short tail keywords is that they are usually much easier to rank for than more general keywords. The downside is that they tend to have less search volume than general keywords. If you are just starting out with your website or blog, it is probably a good idea to focus on short tail keywords at first.
Example: Leather pumps
Medium Tail keywords
Medium tail keywords are those that are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum in terms of length. They’re not as short and general as broad keywords, but they’re also not as long and specific as long tail keywords.
These keywords are a great option for many businesses because they can be targeted more specifically than broad keywords, but they’re not so specific that they’re difficult to rank for.
Example: Women’s leather pumps
How to do Keyword Research?
As a content creator, your job is to create content that is both interesting and useful to your readers. To achieve this, you need to know what keywords your readers are likely to use and what are they searching for and whats the volume of that search.
To help you with this process, I’ve put together a keyword research over the top guide that will help you identify the keywords you need to focus on when writing your content.
Step 1: Identify and understand your niche/business
It’s important to first identify who is your audience before you can brainstorm keywords. Knowing your audience is vital to making effective content.
It’s important to know who your audience is and how they’ll respond to certain words or phrases.
When making content, it’s important to take into consideration what your audience wants to see, how they want to see it, and how you can cater to their interests.
When it comes to making a product, it’s important to consider how the audience will respond to that product.
Are they looking for something that is highly functional and can perform as expected, or are they looking for something stylistic or luxurious?
Do they want something that’s on a budget or something expensive that will make a statement? These are some things you need to take into consideration when you’re making content.
Step 2: Research Keyword Suggestions
Once you’ve identified the topic area of your blog, it’s time to look for keyword suggestions. There‘s a lot of competition out there, so it is imperative that you get down to the finer details while doing keyword research. There are a few key steps to keyword research can help you identify the best keywords for your website or blog.
First, start by brainstorming a list of potential keywords that apply to your topic. Then, use a keyword research tool to get more data on each of those keywords, including search volume and competition level. Once you have that data, you can narrow down your list of keywords to the ones that are most likely to generate traffic for your site.
Step 3: Analyze Keywords
There are a few different ways that you can go about analyzing your keywords. The first step is to identify which keywords are most relevant to your business. You can do this by looking at your website traffic data, or by using a keyword research tool.
Once you have a list of relevant keywords, you can analyze them in more detail. Look at how often each keyword is being searched for, and how much competition there is for each keyword. You can also look at the average cost per click for each keyword, to get an idea of how much it would cost to bid on that keyword in Google AdWords.
By analyzing your keywords, you can get a better idea of which ones are most likely to bring you traffic and conversions. This information can help you focus your marketing efforts, and to make sure that you are targeting the right keywords.
Step 4: Come up with a list of relevant keywords
There are a few things to keep in mind when brainstorming a list of relevant keywords. First, consider the overall topic or theme of your website or blog. What are some words or phrases that would be associated with that topic?
For example, if your website is about tennis, some relevant keywords might be “tennis,” “racket,” “ball,” “match,” etc. Next, think about who your target audience is. What words or phrases would they be likely to use when searching for your website or blog? For example, if your target audience is tennis players, some relevant keywords might be “tennis tips,” “tennis lessons,” “tennis equipment,” etc.
Finally, consider your competition. What keywords are they targeting? You’ll want to choose keywords that are both relevant to your website or blog and that you can realistically rank for in search engines. For example, if your competition is targeting the keyword “tennis,” you might want to target a different keyword, like “tennis tips” or “tennis lessons.”
Once you have a list of potential keywords, you can use a keyword research tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner to get more information about each keyword, including how many people are searching for it and how much competition there is for it.
Step 5: Write Your Content Around the Suggested Keyword
Once you’ve found a keyword that is relevant to your blog, it’s time to start brainstorming what content you would like to write around this keyword. Write a couple of sentences about why someone should use this keyword in their search query and how your blog can help them find information on this topic. If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas for content, try thinking about what questions people might have about the topic. Chances are, if you’re wondering about something related to the keyword, someone else is too. Answer these questions in your blog post and provide helpful information and resources.
Step 6: Roll Out A Testable Blog Post
Now that you know the key elements of your content, it’s time to begin writing up a blog post around this keyword. Make sure that your blog post is well-researched and testable so you can see if people are actually using this keyword in their search queries. If they are, great–if not, you can always refine the content until it’s perfect. You can also experiment with different keywords or re-write your entire blog post to ensure the most success online.
Step 7: Analyze The Data
Now that you know which keywords are performing well and how effective they are at getting traffic, it’s time to analyze this information so more optimization of tweets can be made in future campaigns.
For example, you may want to research what types of keywords are working best for your blog post and use those more frequently in the future. You can also analyze which social media platforms are performing the best with regard to attracting traffic from potential customers through your keyword.
By analyzing your keywords, you can get a better idea of which ones are most likely to bring you traffic and conversions. This information can help you to focus your marketing efforts, and to make sure that you are targeting the right keywords.
Chapter 4: On page SEO Optimization
If you want to ensure that your website is as visible as possible in search engine results pages, then you need to focus on onpage SEO optimisation. This simply refers to the process of making sure that each individual page on your website is as optimised as possible for search engine ranking factors.
By taking care of onpage SEO, you can improve your website’s visibility and organic traffic levels.
Few things to keep in mind while doing Onpage SEO
Title tags
The title tag of a web page is one of the most important elements in terms of on-page SEO. The title tag is the first thing that a search engine sees when it crawls a web page, and it is also often the first thing that a user sees when they perform a search. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your title tag includes your target keyword.
If you’re optimizing a web page for a specific keyword, you should include that keyword in the title tag. This will help to ensure that your page is relevant to the user’s search query, and it will also help to boost your page’s search engine ranking. Including the keyword in the title tag is also a good way to help users to quickly identify the topic of the page.
Meta description
If you want your website to rank well in search engine results, it’s important to include relevant keywords in your meta descriptions. A meta description is the short text that appears beneath your website’s title in search results.
Including relevant keywords in your meta descriptions can help to increase click-through rates, as searchers will be more likely to click on a result that is relevant to their search query.
Header tags
Header tags are used to indicate the headings and subheadings on a web page. They are important for both search engine optimization and usability. The most important header tag is the <h1> tag, which is used to indicate the main heading on a page. Other header tags include the <h2> tag for secondary headings, the <h3> tag for tertiary headings, and so on.
Header tags are usually used to structure the content on a page.
For example,
the <h1> tag would be used for the main heading,
the <h2> tag would be used for a subheading, and
the <h3> tag would be used for a tertiary heading.
This helps to make the content on a page more organized and easy to read. Search engines also use header tags to help determine the structure of a page. This is important for SEO because it helps the search engine to understand the content on a page and how it is related to other content on the web. Header tags are important for usability because they help to make the content on a page more accessible.
For example, screen readers can use header tags to navigate a page. This is especially important for people who are blind or have low vision.
Header tags are an important part of both search engine optimization and usability. They help to make the content on a page more organized and accessible.
Page title
When it comes to optimising your page title, there are a few key things to keep in mind. Foremost, your title should reflect the content on the page. If your page is about dogs, then your title should mention dogs.
Additionally, your title should be as unique as possible to stand out from the rest of the crowd. Finally, your title should be keyword rich, to attract the attention of search engines. By following these simple tips, you can ensure that your page title is optimised for both search engines and users alike.
Page URL
Your page URL is one of the first things that search engines look at when they’re trying to determine what your page is about. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your URL is clear, concise, and relevant to the topic of your page. There are a few things you can do to optimise your URL.
First, make sure that your URL is short and to the point.
Second, use relevant keywords in your URL.
And third, make sure that your URL is easy to read and understand. By following these tips, you can help ensure that your URL is optimised for search engines and that your page is more likely to rank highly in search results.
Alt text
The alt text is the text that appears in place of an image if the image cannot be displayed for some reason. The alt text should be descriptive and explain what the image is showing. It is important to use keywords in the alt text so that search engines can index the image and people can find it when they are searching for relevant keywords.
Internal Page Links
When creating links between pages on your website, be sure to use relevant keywords in the anchor text. This will help search engines understand the relevance of the pages and improve your site’s ranking.
For example, if you have a page about dogs, and you want to link to a page about cats, you would use the keyword “cats” in the anchor text. This will tell search engines that the page you’re linking to is relevant to the keyword, and they will be more likely to rank it higher in search results.
External Page Links
When linking to external websites, it is important to link to authoritative sites. Authority sites are those that are respected and trusted by experts in their field. By linking to an authority site, you are lending credibility to your own website. This can be helpful in boosting your search engine ranking and driving traffic to your site.
Optimise your website for mobile
Most internet users now access the internet from mobile devices, so it’s important to make sure your website is optimised for mobile. This means ensuring that your website design is responsive, and that your pages load quickly and correctly on mobile devices.
If your website isn’t optimised for mobile, you could be losing out on a lot of potential traffic and customers. So make sure you take the time to optimise your site for mobile users, and you’ll be reaping the rewards in no time.
Chapter 5: Off Page SEO
If you’re new to SEO, then you may be wondering what off page SEO is and why it’s so important. Off page SEO refers to activities that take place outside of the search engine results page (SERP), such as link building, back linking, and social media outreach. By optimizing your off page strategy, you can improve your search engine ranking and potentially increase traffic to your website.
What is off page SEO?
Off-page SEO is the process of improving a website’s ranking and visibility by attracting links from high quality websites. This can be done through a variety of techniques, such as guest blogging, creating positive content, and paid advertising campaigns targeting relevant keywords.
The goal is to increase traffic to your site and turn visitors into customers. It can be a time-consuming process, but it’s definitely worth it!
Why do you need off page SEO?
There’s no question that search engine ranking is key to any business. If your website is not ranking high in search engine results pages (SERPs), you’ll struggle to attract traffic, no matter how well-designed your content or marketing strategy may be. That’s where off page SEO comes in – it’s the cornerstone of a successful online marketing strategy. Off page SEO is the practice of improving your website ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) through various strategies. There are many methods you can use to improve your ranking, so find the one that’s best suited to your business and start implementing it today. Not only will off page SEO help you rank higher, but it can also help attract quality organic traffic from sources other than the main search engine results pages (SERPs). So, if you’re looking to take your business to the next level, start improving your off page SEO today!
Types of off page SEO
There are many ways of off page SEO techniques with which you can optimize your website for better search engine results. We will discuss a few techniques here.
Social media optimization:
This is the use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to promote or build relationships with key individuals or groups who might be interested in your product or service. Through networking, you can often learn about new people and opportunities that could lead to more traffic to your site.
Link building:
Building links is one of the most important aspects of off page SEO. Links are links! If a link from a high authority site is linking to your site, it means that your site is worthy of being linked to. Links can come from blog posts, article submissions, webinars and more.
Blogging:
Blogging is the best way to get your message out there and start building relationships with potential customers who might be interested in what you have to say. Not only do blogs provide valuable content for readers, but often times these influential sites will promote or link back to your website can result in a 100% increase on your off page SEO rating.
Paid search advertising:
Paid search advertising is one of the most effective off page SEO techniques because it can drive traffic directly to your site from the search engines. By placing ads with reputable paid search companies, you can target potential customers who are specifically looking for what you have to offer.
There are many other off page SEO techniques that could be mentioned, but these represent some of the most common and advantageous approaches. If your website does not currently rank well in online searches, paying attention to these techniques could help you improve your ranking quickly and effectively.
Organic search engine optimization:
Organic SEO is an effective off page SEO strategy because it may help your website rank higher in search engine results pages, much similar to paid search ads. The same principles of targeting and web design apply to using Google AdWords content to drive traffic and increase your off-page SEO rating.
However, successfully running an organic SEO campaign requires patience, consistency and time. Typically this strategy can also range in cost from $0 to a high hundreds of dollars.
There are different techniques you could use including:
- Commenting on other site’s blog posts
- Submitting your website link into forum threads
- Creating optimized press releases covering the subject matter that relates to your industry
All these methods help get people searching for what you offer via the Internet search engines each day at no additional cost.
Content marketing:
Content marketing is also a great off page SEO strategy that you can use to generate high authority website traffic by providing helpful and original content.
This could be accomplished by writing blog posts in your industry that cover relevant topics or issues,
Interviewing important figures within the field of your website’s niche and combining it with videos to make a tutorial for future reference. This video could be posted on YouTube; additional these techniques can help improve the volume of traffic coming from search engines even more.
Content marketing is yet another great off page SEO strategy because you don’t need any financial resources other than time.
By optimizing your website in these different ways, you can increase your websites ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). Additionally, social media marketing, link building, and paid search advertising can help you drive traffic to your website and increase brand visibility.
Keep in mind that organic search engine optimization is still the most effective way to reach new online customers. So, no matter which type of SEO you focus on, make sure your website is well-optimized for the search engines.
Chapter 6: Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website for search engines using technical methods such as improving the structure and content of your pages, adding keywords to titles, descriptions, and anchor text, and employing other techniques that focus on enhancing the appearance or function of your website.
It’s a subset of SEO that focuses on making sure that Google can crawl and index your website properly.
There are many ways to approach technical SEO however, for ease of understanding below are few important ones to start of with
1. Site Structure
Site structure is the way your website is organized and how its pages are interlinked. Site structure is important for two main reasons:
1. It helps search engines understand your website
2. It helps users navigate your website. If your website is well organized, both search engines and users will be able to find the information they need easily.
On the other hand, if your website is poorly structured, it will be hard for both search engines and users to find the information they need.
2. Redirects
Redirects are an important part of technical SEO. They tell search engines where to find the correct page when there are multiple URLs for the same content. Redirects can also help improve your site’s search engine rankings.
There are two types of redirects: 301 redirects and 302 redirects.
301 redirects are permanent, while 302 redirects are temporary.
If you’re planning to make changes to your website’s URL structure, it’s important to implement redirects to ensure that your site’s traffic and search engine rankings are not affected.
Here are some tips for using redirects: Choose the right type of redirect. If you’re making permanent changes to your URL structure (such as moving an entire subdomain), use 301 redirects. If you’re changing the page name or location of your web pages, but aren’t planning to make any changes in the document’s content, use 302 redirects instead.
3. Page Speed
Site speed We all know how important site speed is to the success of our online businesses. A slow loading website can frustrate visitors and lead to lost sales.
There are a few factors that contribute to site speed, including server response time, page size, and code efficiency. Server response time is the amount of time it takes for your server to respond to a request from a visitor’s browser. The faster your server responds, the faster your pages will load.
4. Mobile-friendliness
If you want your website to rank well in search engines, it’s important to make sure it’s mobile-friendly. Here are some tips to make sure your website is optimized for mobile users:
1. Use a responsive design: This will ensure that your website scales properly on all devices, from smartphones to tablets to desktop computers.
2. Use large font sizes: Mobile users often have to zoom in to read content, so using large font sizes will make your content more accessible.
3. Use shorter paragraphs: Mobile users have shorter attention spans, so it’s important to keep your content concise.
4. Use images and videos: People are more likely to engage with visual content, so including images and videos in your content.
5. URL structure
The most important part of technical SEO is your website’s URL structure. This is the foundation that your website is built on and it is important to get it right from the start. Here are some tips on how to create a URL structure that is both effective.
1. Use keyword-rich URLs. One of the most important aspects of a URL is the keywords that are used within it. By including relevant keywords, you can increase your website’s chances of being found in search engines.
2. Keep URLs short and sweet. URLs that are too long and complicated are more difficult for users to remember and for search engines to index. Keep your URLs short, sweet, and to the point.
6. Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a text file that is used to instruct robots, or web crawlers, on which pages of a website should or should not be accessed. The file is placed in the root directory of a website, and it can contain one or more directives. Directives are instructions that tell the robot what to do with a particular URL.
The directives are as follows:
- Noindex: This directive tells the robot not to index the page. If a page is not indexed, users won’t be able to find it using search engines.
- Robots nofollow: This directive tells the robot not to follow links from this page. If links from this page are followed by search engines, they will probably show up in results even if the link referral isn’t clicked on.
- NoFollow is primarily used on pages that contain affiliate links or other promotional content (the content of which should naturally generate traffic).
7. Site Maps
A site map is a list of all the pages on your website that are available to be crawled and indexed by search engines. Creating a site map helps search engines understand the structure of your website and makes it easier for them to crawl and index your content.
There are two types of site maps:
- XML sitemaps: These sitemaps are designed for search engines and help them understand the structure of your website.
- HTML sitemaps: These sitemaps are designed for website visitors and help them navigate your website.
Creating both an XML sitemap and an HTML sitemap can help improve your website search engine rankings, especially if you have a lot of content on your site. Search engines index multiple types of files in an effort to show the most relevant results based on what’s included in each file.
Chapter 7: Tracking and measuring SEO results
The only way you can assure yourself that your SEO techniques are on point is by tracking visitors and measuring the performance of the strategies. In this final cchapter, I show you how to track and measure your SEO results so that you can continue to improve your website and drive more traffic.
To track your SEO results, you need to set up Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you to track your website traffic and see where it’s coming from. You can also see what keywords people are using to find your website, and which pages they’re landing on. Need to create a Google account and then add the Analytics code to your header of the website. Once you’ve done that, you can start tracking your SEO results.
There are a few different ways to measure your SEO results. however below are few metrics that you need to be aware of:
Organic Traffic:
Organic traffic is the lifeblood of any website. It is the traffic that comes from unpaid or natural search results. This means that people have found your website through a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
Site Speed:
A slow website can cost you visitors. Site speed is important for a number of reasons. First, slower sites tend to have higher bounce rates. This means that people are more likely to leave your site without exploring it further. Secondly, slower sites can also negatively impact your search engine ranking. Google and other search engines have stated that site speed is a factor in their ranking algorithms.
Bounce Rate:
Why You Should Care! When it comes to your website, your bounce rate is one of the most important metrics to keep an eye on.
A high bounce rate means that people land on your website and then immediately leaving. This could be for a number of reasons, like did not find relevant content, user journey was complicated, slow page load time, but it’s generally an indicator that something is wrong. A low bounce rate, on the other hand, means that people land on your website and then stick around. This is a good thing!
Time Spent on Page:
If users are spending quality time on the website, that means you have resourceful content/product on the site. More time the user spends it’s a healthy metric to track by. This again can be tracked easily with google analytics.
Conversions:
Conversions are nothing but turn visitors into customers. A conversion is when a visitor to your website takes the action you want them to take. This could be signing up for a newsletter, buying a product, or registering for an event. Basically, anything that you want your visitors to do on your site is considered a conversion.
Conclusion:
Optimizing your site for search engines can be difficult, especially if you don’t know where to begin. We hope this guide has given you an overview of some things you can do to optimize your site for search engines. By following the tips in this guide, you can improve your websites visibility and organic search rankings.
Some of the most important things to focus on include creating high-quality content, maintaining a consistent tone and style throughout your site, using keyword-rich titles and descriptions, building a strong online presence with relevant social media accounts and links back to your website, developing effective SEO strategies that are tailored to your specific needs, using appropriate keywords in both your site content and your site Title tags and Meta Description tag (if applicable), and regular updating of all content on your website.
By taking these simple steps now, you can ensure that potential consumers find what they’re looking for when they search for information about or reviews of products or services related to your industry. Thanks again for reading!
