Contact us anytime to know more — Amit A., Founder & COO CISIN
Google crawlers are continuously scanning the internet, collecting, indexing, and storing billions of pages in their index.
When conducting a Google search query, their crawlers retrieve results from their index instead of from actual web pages themselves.
Google's algorithm is an intricate formula that uses several key factors to rank results, including relevance to your search and domain of ownership (website or page).
Google also takes into account how users engage with results through user interaction with results and SEO (search engine optimization) itself as a feedback system between itself and you to surface relevant, accurate, and trustworthy results for searchers.
You must produce content to satisfy E.A.T. requirements which in turn satisfy searchers; search engine optimization refers to SEO in relation to websites specifically.
What does Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Mean For My Website?
- Search: What users do to search for an answer or product that suits their needs.
- A search engine: A site, such as Google or Bing, where an individual can conduct a particular search.
- Search Engine Optimization: What you can do to make a search engine connect with your website.
What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
You can say that R.P.A. means robotic process automation, but that does not mean that I understand what R.P.A. actually is.
The Formal Definition of SEO is:
The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to align a web page's technical practices and content strategy with the ranking algorithms used by major search engines so that it can easily be found, crawled, and indexed.
An Easier Definition of SEO:
Search engine optimization is the process of improving your site's content and structure so that it can be found by those who are searching through search engines for products or services you offer.
A Simple Definition of SEO:
You can use SEO to improve your ranking on Google and to increase traffic to your website. Google is one of several search engines.
There's Bing. Search engines that are categorized. Instagram can be used as a search tool. For the purposes of this article, "Google" is synonymous with "search engine," as it holds 92% of the market share.
SEO Benefits and Importance
There are many things that people search for, both directly and indirectly, related to your company. All of these are opportunities for you to reach out and connect with people.
You can answer their questions, help them solve problems, or become their trusted resources.
- Increased Website Traffic: If your site has been optimized for search engines, you will get more traffic, which leads to increased awareness of the brand.
- Get More Customers: To optimize your website development, you need to use competitive keywords that your potential customers/visitors search for. This will help your site get more traffic.
- A Better Reputation: Ranking higher on Google instantly builds credibility for your company. Google will trust you if you are a good person.
- A Higher R.O.I: You invest money in your website and the marketing campaigns which lead to it. Your investment will be worth it if you have a high-performance site.
If you're looking to increase brand recognition, online visibility, sales leads, or loyalty from your prospective customers, then SEO could be the answer.
You can reach potential clients at any point in their journey.
Different Types of SEO
Google, as well as other search engines, take into consideration a variety of factors when ranking your content.
SEO is, therefore, a multifaceted process. On-page SEO, technical SEO, and off-page SEO comprise the three main types of SEO:
- On-page SEO: Optimizing quality and structure on the pages. On-page SEO is primarily driven by actual content quality, HTML tags, and keywords.
- Off-page SEO: Getting links from other websites and pages of your website to the page that you're trying to optimize. Off-page, your M.V.P.s are backlinks, reputation, and internal links.
- Technical Search Engine Optimization: Improving the performance of your website on search engines. Here, site security (SSL certificate), UX, and structure play a key role.
These three SEO types are applicable to websites, blogs, and other online media. However, they can also be divided into three different subtypes:
- Local Search Engine Optimization: Ranking your local business as high as you can in Google Maps and the local SERP results. Here, the most important things are reviews, Google Business profiles, and listings.
- Image Search Engine Optimization: A combination of technical and on-page strategies that will help images to appear in Google's image search.
- Video Search Engine Optimization: Mix of technical and on-page techniques to help your video rank well in YouTube results or Google videos.
All three types require the three main SEOs, but they vary on how much they depend on each type.
Google Ranking Factors for SEO
What are the requirements for quality content? What is quality, E.A.T. friendly, SEO-optimized content? There are many Google ranking factors.
Google also continually refines its algorithm update. But there are twelve that are most important.
A recent report says that it is the most important Google ranking factor. Here's how it's weighted:
- Publishing high-quality material consistently (26%).
- Meta title keywords (17%).
- Backlinks (15%).
- Niche expertise (13%).
- User engagement (11%).
- Links to internal pages (5%).
- Mobile-friendly/mobile-first (5%).
- Page Speed (2%).
- Site security/SSL Certificate (2%).
- Structured Data/Schema Markup (1%).
- Keywords (1%).
- Keywords in H1 (1%).
Do not overlook the factors listed at the end of the list. In the chart below, you'll see that "Other factors" like domain history, unlinked mentions, and social signals are all 1%.
There are 200 Google ranking criteria, so that means that at least 189 of these "other" elements make up the 1%. In other words, the factors that seem small, such as individual keywords in URLs, but which collectively make up 1 percent, aren't so small.
What is On-page SEO?
It's now time to discuss how you actually perform SEO. You need to optimize your site for all of these factors to rank higher in Google and receive more traffic.
We'll organize our steps to include on-page optimization, technical SEO, and off-page optimization. On-page SEO services optimization:
- Begin by researching keywords.
- Use quality content to target these keywords.
- Put your keyword in the text box.
- Optimize your titles.
- Optimize your meta descriptions.
- Include and optimize your images.
- Links to external and internal websites.
Research keywords for SEO
It is important to identify the keyword strategy that you are optimizing. They are the terms your website's ideal visitors will likely type into Google or any other search engine.
Each page should be optimized for a separate keyword list cluster to avoid competing with each.
How to Find Keywords for SEO
Here are the basic steps to finding a list of keywords for your organic content.
Make a Seed List
List the phrases and words that your customers use to search marketing for you. Consider their goals, interests, needs, concerns, and pain points.
Also, consider the language that they use, as it may differ from yours.
Enter Them in a Tool for Keyword Research
Keyword search tools give you information about these terms so that you can determine which keywords you could rank well and what the opportunities are.
The metrics include the following:
- The volume of Searches: How many times a term is searched in a month.
- Competition: How difficult it is for a keyword to rank.
Sorting and Prioritizing:
Insert the terms and results into a spreadsheet. You can now group the keywords into themes and then prioritize them.
You'll need to choose keywords that have a decent search traffic volume yet are not too high, so they become difficult to rank. It's better to rank on the first page for a low-volume, lower-competition keyword than not to at all.
Use Quality Content to Target those Keywords
Keywords will be targeted on your main navigation pages, such as the home page, the contact us page, and the products or services section, but you will get the most keyword-targeting from blog posts.
The best SEO-friendly content includes:
- Content that is Aligned with Keyword Intent: Make certain your awesome seo content contains the information users are looking for when searching this keyword. It is for this reason that you should search your keyword first on Google.
- Offers an Excellent Experience: The affiliate site is free from distracting pop-ups, C.T.A.s, and other elements. It uses images for concepts and loads fast and correctly on all devices.
- Does not do Keyword Niche Stuff: You should write as if you were speaking directly to the audience, not like an SEO writer. Google doesn't care about thin pages, duplicates, or low value. It means that you should have between 1,500 and 2,500 accurate words with current information.
- Organized: Make use of heading tags to show the order in which information is presented on a page.
Put your Keyword in the Text
You can also place the keyword in specific places on your page to tell Google exactly what it is you want to be ranked for.
You can do this by:
- Title tag (SEO title)
- Title of the page (H1 Tag).
- Two H2 headings are required.
- Image alt text.
- Name of the image file
- The body is naturally able to produce vitamin D.
- URL.
- Meta description.
Optimize your Titles
You actually have two titles for any given page of your website. Title tags are the titles that appear on SERPs, and the most effective place to put keywords is in the title tag.
When you click on a page, the H1 tag will appear. It depends on the web page whether or not they are identical.
Read More: 6 Ways Writers Can Become A Of Master Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques
If you want to Optimize the Titles of your Articles, make sure that:
- Add the Keyword. As long as you do so in an attractive and natural way, include some modifiers that are related to this term.
- Only use one H1 on Each Page. This is your main heading. H2s are used for your sections.
- Title Tags Should be Between 55-60 Characters. Google's display of title tags is based not on character count but on pixels. So, make sure to use the keywords in your tag.
- Indicate Value: How does the user benefit from this page? It can influence whether or not they choose to click it on the SERP, on your website, and if they continue reading.
Optimize your Meta Descriptions
The meta description refers to the text that appears below the title on SERP results. Google may not always display the meta description you provide in SERPs; instead, it will build one based on your query.
However, it is still vital to optimize the page for SEO. Google crawls the page and reads its description to determine what's on it.
To Optimize Your Meta Description:
- Use the Keywords: and other related terms if possible.
- Try to Keep it Brief: The ideal meta description is between 155 and 165 characters.
- Be Compelling. Showing up on search results is only the beginning! It's still important to encourage searchers to click. Like ad text, include a brief description, an obvious benefit, and a call to action.
This is an example of real-life meta descriptions in search results.
Images to Include and Optimize
Images play a major role in SEO optimization. Images keep your users on your page, improve the quality of information and give you the opportunity to generate traffic and rank their pages via image results.
Google is also making SERPs more visually appealing.
How to Optimize Images for SEO:
- File Name: Save your file with the keyword in the name, using dashes rather than spaces.
- Include alt Text: is the text alternative to an image. It's the way Google detects the relevance of the image for a keyword. Alt text makes your website accessible to screen readers and will appear even if an image breaks. Do not keyword stuff. You can use it to describe the image for someone who cannot see it.
- Compress: Images that are too large can cause your website to load slowly. Reduce the file size by compressing them and resizing them properly. Images wider than 1000px are not necessary, but each site may require them.
Links to External and Internal Websites
You'll need to include both internal links and external ones when you do SEO for your blog.
- External links: Locate 1-3 relevant pages on sites with high domain authority that are related to your topic and include a link in your article. It helps Google build trust.
- Internal links: In the text of your post, link to another blog on your website. Just like in my last bulletin, where I used "high domain authority" for the anchor text. It gives Google more ways to find a particular post and makes your website easier to crawl. The number of links you include depends on how long the article is and what other content there is to link. Make sure the anchor texts and the pages you link to are relevant.
What is Off-Page Optimization?
On-page strategies include all of the above. Off-page is anything you do to improve your ranking on pages outside of your site, such as other sites or other platforms.
Off-page SEO is a great way to help your page rank.
Backlinks are a Great way to earn Money
Google's ranking factors consider backlinks or the links that other sites make to your website. The value of backlinks is obviously higher for sites with higher trustworthiness.
You'll be ranked higher if you have more backlinks of high quality.
Image source
How can you increase your backlinks count? There are many strategies. Here's a list of a few:
- Produce original and authentic content that is worthy of backlinks.
- Reach out to websites that would benefit from a link back to your site.
- Postings by Guest
- Publicity
Social Media is a Great way to Share your Content
You should share your posts regularly with your RSS feed, in addition to linking your profile to your website. You will receive referral traffic, and as more people view a particular post, you are likely to generate backlinks.
The social media platform itself doesn't directly affect your Google rankings, but the engagement of your users with your content on these platforms does.
Brand Reputation is Important for your Business
Google does not just rank the page that you have on your website. Google considers your entire brand, including reviews, ratings, and listings.
It also looks at unlinked mentions of the brand. It is, therefore, important to build your brand's reputation by optimizing listings, getting positive press, and asking for customer reviews.
Many of these strategies fall under local SEO, but many of them can be applied to businesses that are not brick-and-mortar.
What is SEO? Technical optimizations
The technical optimizations of your website are performed on the backend to ensure that it meets Google's security requirements and to improve user experience.
They also make it easier for Google to perform its tasks on your site. These are the most important technical optimizations you should be taking care of.
- Page Speed: Includes image size, code, and order of loading. Here, page-speed optimizations and lazy loading come into play.
- Safety: Ensure that your website uses HTTPS instead of HTTP.
- Mobile First: Simply being mobile-friendly is not enough. Google Indexes is now mobile-first, which means that your website must be responsive.
- Core Website Vitals: The three metrics used are to measure the user experience on your site. Here you can find out how to enhance your Core Web vitals.
- URL Structure A well-structured site makes it easy for Google crawlers to find your website, users to navigate, and you to segment the data for reports.
- Site Architecture: In an ideal world, users should be able to access every page of your website in just three clicks. The key is internal linking.
- Canonical URLs. The canonical URL represents a group of identical pages. Google will try to determine the canonical link for a set of duplicate pages, but you may also specify this by using canonical tags and 301 redirects.
Search Engine Optimization Tools
To do effective SEO, you'll need data. And to collect data, tools are needed. Most of these tools are available for free.
For an optimized SEO strategy, the best SEO tools are:
- Google Analytics: This free tool is the standard in website traffic analysis. You can use it to track all your SEO metrics, including relevant traffic, time spent on a page, engagement, the number of pages you view per session, and much more.
- Google Search Console: G.S.C. is important for technical and content SEO. Google Analytics includes some Search Console information, but the platform offers a great deal more. You can use it to get Core Web Vitals and granular query analyses. It is also great for indexing.
- Keyword Research Tools: These tools are essential to finding real estate keywords for your business based on search volume and competitiveness. Find the perfect keyword tool for you by using my list of paid and free tools.
- Software for SEO: To get deeper SEO metrics, such as backlinks and competitive data, or to see more sophisticated keyword information, you will need paid SEO tools like Ahrefs. Moz Pro. Screaming Frog. SEMrush. These tools offer trial versions and free services of up to 500 links.
- Website Graders: While the tools mentioned above are complex and often require that you know how to interpret the data, site graders simplify SEO and provide more guidance.
Best Practices and Strategies for SEO
We'll finish with some tips, strategies, and best practices to make the most of your time.
- Search the keywords always: You may be wrong about what users want when they search for something in Google. Always search for the keyword intent you are trying to match.
- Be Patient: SEO takes time. It takes a long time. You may need to wait a while before seeing results, but the rewards will compound as you continue.
- Quality is the Key: Google's algorithm changes constantly, and it comes up with new features to improve the SERPs. But, in the end, they all aim to bring the most relevant content first. Your focus should be on consistently creating valuable, reliable content. This is your best SEO strategy.
- Keep your Content Fresh: Consistent publication of high-quality content, while a major ranking factor for Google, should not come at the cost of old content becoming stale. Refresh your evergreen content regularly to maintain its SEO value.
- Measure and Track: Report your site and traffic data on a regular basis to see which topics are most popular, identify issues and set traffic goals.
Conclusion
To truly make your website stand out among millions of others, go beyond "what is SEO." Instead, set out an SEO strategy.
Cisin offers courses to teach SEO from its inception; becoming an SEO master from day one becomes possible through these classes; mastery includes organic traffic generation from keyword research/management techniques as well as on-page/off-page/link building/URL creation/analytics, plus much more.
You can freely connect with Search Engine Optimization consultants of Cisin.
