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You will understand search engine optimization, its importance and value, and how to achieve great results within a constantly changing SEO environment.
Why Is Seo Important, And What Is Seo?
If you're familiar with SEO (search engine optimization), you can read a Wikipedia article to learn more about it.
However, this definition doesn't help answer the critical questions you need answered for your company and website:
- What are the best ways to "optimize your website" or your business for search engine results?
- What are some ways to increase the visibility of your website in organic searches so that your content is easily found?
- What is the best way to estimate how long you should spend working on SEO?
- What is the difference between "good" SEO and "bad" SEO?
You may be interested in learning how to use SEO to drive relevant traffic to your website, generate leads and sales and, ultimately, increase revenue and profits for your company.
In this guide, we will focus on that.
Why Should You Care About SEO?
Many people are searching for information. This traffic is precious for businesses, not just because it is so large but also because the traffic is very targeted and high in intent.
Would you prefer to buy a giant billboard for anyone who has a vehicle in your locality (who may or may not be interested in buying blue widgets) to see your advertisement, or would you choose to appear every time someone types in "buys Blue Widgets" in a search engine anywhere in the world? Most likely, the second option since those individuals have a commercial intention. They are actively expressing their desire to purchase your product.
Your prospects are looking for all sorts of information that is directly relevant to your business. Your prospects may also search for things only vaguely connected to your business.
This gives you more chances to reach out and connect with them, answer their questions and solve their problems. You've used Google to solve problems four times in the past. Instead, would you get widgets from someone you have never heard of or a resource you trust?
How Does It Work To Drive Traffic From Search Engines?
It's crucial to understand that Google accounts for the majority of search engine traffic worldwide (though the numbers are always subject to change).
It may differ from one niche to another. Still, Google will likely be the most essential player in search engine results. The best practices in this guide can help you position your website and content so that they rank well in other search engines as well.
Search results change constantly, no matter what search engine is used. Google has recently updated its ranking system to include a variety of animal names.
Many of the cheapest and easiest ways to have your page appear in search engine results are now considered risky.
What works? What is Google's algorithm for determining which pages are returned in response to searches? How can you attract all this traffic? Google's ranking algorithm is complex.
We will share some useful links at the end of this article for those who want to learn more about it:
- Google looks for high-quality pages with relevant and valuable information.
- Search engines determine relevance by crawling (or reading the content of your site) and evaluating it (algorithmically), primarily based on its keywords.
- The number and quality of other sites that link to you and your website as a unit are the most important. But if the only websites that link to the blue widget website are blogs to which no other sites have linked, but my blue widget page gets links from places trusted by many then your site is more trustworthy (and presumed to be of higher quality than yours).
Google is increasingly weighing additional factors in determining your website's ranking, including:
- What is the average user's experience on your website? (Does the visitor find what they are looking for and then stay on the site or do they return to the search results page and select another link?) Do they ignore you in the search engine results and not click through?
- The "mobile-friendliness" of your site and its loading speed
- The amount of unique content you have, compared to low-value or "thin content."
Google constantly updates and refines its algorithm, which considers hundreds of factors when determining the ranking for a search.
You don't need to be an expert in search engines to get a good ranking for essential terms. You'll learn how to optimize your website for search using proven and repeatable practices. This will help you attract targeted traffic via search without needing to reverse engineer the core competencies of some of the most valuable companies in the world.
Many great resources can help you learn more about search engines:
- Moz's Guide to the Topic.
- Google's interactive graphics.
Let's get back to the basics of SEO! Now let's move on to the SEO strategies and tactics that you can use to increase your traffic.
Best Practices for Keyword Research & Targeting
First, you need to decide what exactly you are optimizing. Identifying the search terms (also called "keywords") for which you would like your site to be ranked in Google and other search engines is essential.
It sounds simple.We want your widget business to show up in searches for "widgets" and perhaps when users type "buy widgets."
It's unfortunately not that easy. When deciding what keywords to use on your website, you should consider a number of factors:
- The Volume of Search: This is the first thing to look at. How many people are searching for that keyword? More people searching for keywords means a larger audience. If no one searches for keywords, there will be no searchable audience to help you find content.
- Relevance: A term often searched for can be great, but what happens if the search terms are not relevant (to your prospects)? It seems evident that relevance is essential: If you are selling enterprise-level email marketing automation software, you do not want to appear in searches for terms such as "pet supplies" or "pet food". But how about "email software?"? It may seem that this is a good description of your business, but it's not. If you sell to Fortune 100 companies, most people who search for "email marketing software" aren't interested in your product. You might also think that a keyword such as "best enterprise PPC solutions" is irrelevant to your company because you do not sell PPC software. If your prospective customer is a CMO or marketing director for a company, presenting them with an informative resource about evaluating PPC tools can be a good "first contact" to begin a business relationship.
- Competition: As you would with any other business, SEO is no different. Consider the costs involved and your chances of success. SEO is about understanding relative competition for specific terms (and the likelihood of ranking).
First, you need to understand your potential customers and the keywords they are likely to use. It would help if you started by identifying your target audience, both for SEO and for the business.
You want to know:
- What are their interests?
- What are their problems?
- How do they describe what they do and the tools they use?
- What other companies are your customers buying from? (This could be competitors or even related, tangential tools, for example, if you're an email marketing firm, consider enterprise marketing tools).
After answering these questions, you'll get a "seed" list of keywords and domains. This will help you generate additional ideas for keyword phrases and put search volume metrics and competition around.
Below you will find a list with more keyword tools. The main point is to do a few searches using various tools. Use competitive keyword tools such as SEM Rush to determine what keywords your competitors rank for.
They look at thousands and thousands of search results to show each term your competitors have recently ranked for in Google, a marketing automation company.
This is more than just something to look at when you're looking for content ideas. Look at similar tools and niche publications that discuss your subject (and which your customers are likely to read) for ideas for new content.
You can also see the keywords that these sites use.
Optimize Your Website
After you've created your list of keywords, your next step will be to actually implement your chosen keywords in your website content.
Your site's pages should target a key term and "a basket" of other related terms.
Title Tags
Google has been working on better understanding the meaning of pages and will de-emphasize (and punish) the aggressive, manipulative, and abusive use of keywords.
However, it is essential to include the keyword (and any related terms) you wish to rank in. The title tag is the most important place to include your keywords.
The title tag is not the primary headline of your page. Title tags are usually H1 or H2 HTML elements. The title tag is the text in your browser's top right corner.
It is generated by your source code and stored as a meta tag.
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Google's title tags will be different lengths (based on pixels, not characters). Still, 55-60 characters are generally the best rule to follow.
You should include your main keyword and, if possible, add related modifiers. Remember that the title tag is often what searchers see in results. The title tag will be the headline in search engine optimization results.
It would help if you also considered how clickable it is.
Meta Descriptions
The meta description is your website's extra ad text. It is accessed through your code but not displayed on the page.
Google can be arbitrary with the search results they show. Your meta description might only sometimes appear, but you could increase your traffic by writing a description that will make people click on your site.
Remember appearing in the search results is only the first step. It is still necessary to drive searchers to your website and get them to take action.
Body Content
It is essential to pay attention to the content on your website. The "jobs' of different types of pages are different.
For example, your cornerstone asset content, which you wish to have many people link to, is very different from the support content you wish to ensure your users can find quickly. Google is increasingly favoring specific types of content. As you create any pages for your website, keep these things in mind.
- Unique & Thick Content: There's no such thing as a magic word count. You'll still be in good standing if you have several pages with only a handful of words. However, recent Panda updates favor unique, longer content. You could be in serious trouble if you have thousands of pages with very little content (between 50-200 words) or a lot of duplicated content. The only changes are the title tag of each page and a few lines of text. If you look at your entire site, are many pages low-quality and duplicated? Try to find a way of "thickening" these pages, or look at your analytics and see how many visitors they receive. Then, you can exclude them from the search engine results (using a meta tag called index) to avoid Google thinking that you are trying to overwhelm their index with low-value pages.
- User Engagement: Google gives more weight to metrics that measure user engagement. This can be influenced by ensuring your content is relevant to the searchers' questions. They will then likely stay on your site and interact with it. Ensure your page loads quickly, and avoid design elements such as aggressive advertisements above content. These are likely to drive searchers away.
- Shareability: Not all content will be shared and linked hundreds of times. You want to make sure that you create a manageable number of thin pages, but you also want to think about who is likely to link and share the new pages on your website. It's not good for your search engine rankings to have many pages with little or no content.
Alt Attributes
How you mark up your images will affect how search engines view your website and the amount of traffic your site receives from image searches.
Alt attribute allows users to view alternative images if they cannot see the original image. Images can break with time. (Files are deleted, or users may have trouble connecting to your website, etc.). A helpful image description can help with overall usability.
You can also use this opportunity to let search engines know the page's content.
Don't "keyword-stuff" your main keyword and all possible variations in your alt attribute. If it fits into the description, do not include it here.
Remember the alt attribute and give an accurate, thorough description. Imagine that you are describing the image to a person who cannot see it. You can improve your chances of ranking for "long-tail" modifications by writing about the topic naturally.
The URL Structure
Your site's URL structure is vital from a tracking and shareability perspective. Shorter and more descriptive URLs are easier to copy-paste.
They are less likely to get cut off accidentally. Try to stuff in fewer keywords and phrases than you can; instead, create a descriptive URL.
If you do not have to change them, then don't. You shouldn't worry if your URLs aren't pretty if they don't negatively affect your users or your business, and if it's not because you want to improve SEO.
Businesses often need help with redesigning their website.
Schema & Markup
Once you've taken care of all the on-page standard elements, consider taking it further and helping Google understand your site (and any other search engine that recognizes schema).
The schema markup doesn't make your site appear higher in the search engine results. (It is not currently a ranking element). The markup does provide your listing with some extra "real estate" within the search results.
This is similar to what ad extensions do for Google Ads ads (formerly AdWords).
If no other sites use a schema in search results, you may have an advantage over others by showing ratings. If everyone uses schema in search results, ratings may not be a big deal, and your Google click-through rate could be negatively affected by leaving them out.
You can use a number of different markups on your website. Most of them won't apply to your company, but at least one will likely apply to some pages.
Link-Building & Content Marketing
Google's search algorithm still heavily relies on links. Having many links pointing to your website is crucial to driving traffic.
You can spend all your time on technical and on-page SEO, but if your site doesn't contain links, you will not appear in the search result listings.
Many ways exist to obtain links for your website; however, as Google and other search engine algorithms have evolved, they are now extremely risky.
(Even if it may work temporarily). These riskier, more aggressive methods of gaining links are unsuitable for businesses just starting out in SEO. You won't be able to navigate and assess the risks and will likely make mistakes.
Creating links to manipulate Google's rankings precisely is not beneficial to your business if the algorithms change and you lose your ranking.
To develop sustainable links, focus on general SEO marketing strategies.
For example, create and promote valuable content with specific keywords you want your company to be ranked for. Engage in PR and traditional media for your business.
It is time-consuming to create and promote content for social sharing and links. You'll also find detailed guides on various content marketing aspects below.
There are many ways to create compelling content and help it get found, as well as rank high in search engine results. The majority of approaches will have you follow some version of these three steps.
1. Identify & Understand Your Linking & Sharing Audience
To get your content noticed, you must first understand who will likely link to your content. BuzzSumo is one of the best tools for identifying influencers in your niche that might share your material.
Other tools that are similar include Little Bird, Ahrefs, and Follower-Wonk. Below are more detailed tutorials that will help you better understand how to use these tools.
To make the most of these tools, you need to identify thought leaders in your field and understand their content and links.
Discover what problems they face, the types of material they share, and how to create content that they will find useful and share.
2. Decide What You Want To Create And How You Will Promote It
You should also try to determine what you are capable of creating and the type of content that is likely to be promoted and shared by others.
This can be done with a content audit.
Shareable content includes a variety of types:
- Reverse-engineer what works. You can reduce risk by creating content that is better than what's already available.
- Showcase the great tools that you use, share the content you get from people who are experts in your field, and ask them tough questions. If you highlight someone's product or service as an excellent resource, it's likely that they will help promote and share your content.
Create content that is of value and promote it. Don't hesitate to let people know about your resources or the ones you have featured.
3. Keyword Mapping Is A Great Way To Map Your Assets
Don't forget your keywords. It doesn't necessarily mean you should cram a keyword into every resource. Instead, you can do keyword research to discover pain points.
As you develop new assets, you should consider how you could incorporate language that your customers and prospects use. This is especially important for those assets that are likely to be shared and linked.
The Best Technical SEO Practices and Issues
Although the fundamentals of SEO, such as the best ways to create links that drive rankings in search engines, have evolved in the past few years (and the importance of content marketing is growing), what most people consider "traditional" SEO still has a great deal of value in driving traffic to search engines.
Keyword research, as we have already mentioned, is valuable. And technical SEO problems that prevent Google from understanding the content of sites and ranking them are also prevalent.
Even small and mid-sized companies can learn from the mistakes made by more prominent sites.
Page Speed
Fast-loading websites are increasingly important to search engines. This is good for users and for the conversion rate of your website.
Google created this tool to help you make changes to your website to improve page speed.
Mobile Friendliness
Your rankings will be affected by how mobile-friendly your website is if your site generates (or can generate) significant traffic through mobile searches.
This is an area that is rapidly growing. Mobile traffic is already greater than desktop traffic in some niches.
Google announced a recent algorithm update that focused explicitly on this. In the most recent blog post, we provide some recommendations about what to do to improve your mobile site.
You can also find more information on the type of traffic from mobile search engines.
Header Response
The header response code is an important SEO technical issue.
This can be an extremely complex subject for those who could be more technical. If you get these codes incorrect, it can give the impression to Google or other search engines that your "Page Not Found" or "404" pages are functioning, making them look thin, duplicated, or worse, that your entire site is a 404 (as none of your web pages will be indexed or eligible for ranking).
Use a server header to check the codes your pages return when search engines crawl them.
Redirects
Incorrectly setting up redirects can negatively impact your search engine results. Whenever you can avoid it, you want to keep from moving your site's content from one URL to another in other words, if your content is on example.com/page, and that page is getting search engine traffic, you want to avoid moving all of the content to example.com/different-url/newpage.html, unless there is a solid business reason that would outweigh a possible short-term or even long-term loss in search engine traffic.
You should only use temporary (302) or permanent (301) redirects if you need to move your content permanently. This is because Google will interpret these as temporary moves and not consider them permanent.
They may also stop transferring all the ranking and link power from the old URL to the new one. Further, changing the URL structure can create broken links that will hurt your referral traffic and make it hard for your visitors to navigate your website.
Content Duplicating
Google Panda's latest updates have also focused on thin and duplicated material. Duplicating (or putting near-identical) content across multiple pages dilutes link equity, which is better concentrated on one document.
This gives you a lower chance to rank for phrases you are competing with. Search engines will perceive your website as cluttered and containing low-quality content (and perhaps manipulative content) if you have large amounts of duplicated material.
A variety of factors can cause duplicate or thin content. It can be hard to diagnose these problems. Still, Webmaster Tools' Search Appearance> HTML Improvements can help you make a quick assessment.
Check out Google's breakdown of duplicate content. Analytics and Screaming Frog's SEO Spider are two paid tools to help you find duplicate content.
Sitemap XML
XML sitemaps help Google and Bing to understand and locate all the content on your website. Be sure to exclude pages that you need help finding helpful.
Also, submitting your sitemap to search engines does not guarantee that the page is ranked. You can generate XML Sitemaps using a variety of free tools.
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Conclusion
You are likely to have made the same mistakes as me. You are here reading my blog, and we spent most of the time writing about tactics rather than teaching you strategies.
From the beginning, SEOs have been brainwashed to believe that traffic and higher rankings matter most. PPC specialists have the right mindset. Instead of optimizing for pure traffic, they optimize their campaigns to maximize revenue, leads, and ROI.
