The internet is by far one of the smartest inventions of the modern-day. Whether you’re a scholar, a businessman, a professional, or just an ordinary citizen, you will never lack use for the internet.
Now, the modern-day consumer heavily relies on information they get from the internet to enlighten themselves or make purchase decisions.
When looking for a service or product, the first thing that most people will do is go to the internet and perform a search about what they need. While thousands of results will probably be generated for this search, most consumers are only interested in the first few pages of the results on Google.
This means that if you have a business website, you are more likely to be found by your prospects if a page to your site is listed on the first or second page of search results. If you guessed right, this is exactly where SEO comes in!
In this piece, we’ll take a quick look at various aspects of SEO to understand what it is and how it works.
Defining SEO
The acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It entails a set of digital marketing tactics aimed at improving a website’s online visibility on search result pages of search engines such as Google (and Bing).
Remember, the ease at which your prospects find you are an important determinant of your brand’s popularity, sales, and client base.
This is largely determined by your rank on search engine result pages (SERPs) and the traffic your site receives over a certain period.
With an understanding of how SEO works, you can easily promote your site’s ranking and keep it high to gain an edge over your competition.
Types of SEO
SEO is generally categorized into two different tactics: on-page, and off-page SEO! As you can tell from the names, on-page SEO refers to strategies used on the site whereas off-page SEO refers to tactics that occur off your website. Both of these are important as far as ranking your site high is concerned.
They involve making the site friendlier and more trustworthy in the eyes of internet users, as well as search engines. With that in mind, let’s now look at the various factors that matter in SEO to understand how it works with the help of the pointers that follow.
1. Link Building
Backlinks are links used within the content on a site to point to another site or a page within the site. If you have guest posts and articles posted on other sites, including a backlink in that content can help lead users to your site.
Backlinks are among the most important factors that Google considers when ranking a site on the search engine results. The folks from SirLinksalot point out that if you want to dominate the SERPs, you need to have a solid link building strategy in your SEO approach.
Professional link-building can help your site to establish authority and please Google while directing users to pages and resources they might gladly appreciate.
Proper use of backlinks can also make it easier for users to navigate the site, making them more likely to come back. With high-quality links (from authority sites and blogs) pointing to your website, you can rank better and get more traffic from organic search on Google. Other benefits of link building include:
- Faster indexing in search results
- Building positive relationships
- They help in building your brand
- Sending referral traffic to other sites
As you can already see, investing well in link building will have a huge positive impact on your SEO efforts.
2. Great Content Wins
Content is the flesh and bone of SEO. Without relevant and optimized content, even backlinks are as good as useless. To achieve high ranks on SERPs and receive more traffic to your site, you will need to provide quality content that is well-optimized and relevant to your prospects.
It is where you place your quality links for better ranks, which means that content and links literally need each other. In simple language, Google and other search engines rank sites based on the relevance, reliability, and quality of the content it contains.
To craft content that will win you a spot on the first pages of search engines, some things you’ll need to be keen about include keyword optimization, proper formatting, and regular updates.
Also Read: 11 Best Content Idea Generator Tools
3. Keyword Optimization
When searching the net, users type in a set of words in the search bar. In this phrase are certain keywords that Google uses to generate the results.
This means that for your site to appear in the first few results in different searches, you have to be smart with the keywords you use in your content. The keywords in your content can affect your site’s visibility on search engines.
These days, search engine crawlers are smart enough to analyze your content, the keywords used, and secondary keywords so that the results generated are in context with the searcher’s intent.
Unlike in the past where dropping keywords blindly could easily gain your site a top spot on Google, over-optimization is a serious offense these days. Not only does it affect the flow of content, but using a keyword multiple times within a piece of content could easily get your site penalized or shut down.
Here are some smarty keyword tips in SEO:
- Conduct proper keyword research
- Avoid over-optimizing your content with keywords
- Avoid including too many variations of the main KW
- Try using LSI keywords where possible
4. Formatting and Description
A great piece of content should be well formatted and described for search engines to easily understand what it’s all about. In addition to URLs, your content should contain a title, a meta description, and H1 tags in your formatting.
Other than these, remember to vary the length of your content based on the topic and not just your needs. Also, focus on increasing your expertise, authority, and trust.
Keep your audience updated with fresh content as much as possible depending on the niche you cover on your site. Existing content may also require regular updates like removing dead links, updating facts, and adding some spice to it.
5. Other Crucial Aspects of SEO
Once you get your content, keywords, and links right, do not forget these tactics:
- Improving the user experience (UX): This entails approaches to make your site friendlier to visitors and search engines through web design. Make it responsive and easy to navigate. Keep it updated and focus on increasing site speed.
- Include social signals: Ensure that your site’s content is easy to share and like on social media. To boost your social media SEO, you can also look for shares and likes from influencers. Most importantly, make sure you have a commanding presence of various social media platforms for your business or website.
Also Read: Tips for Mobile First Marketing Strategies for your Business
SEO is all about being present, attracting an audience, and building trust from internet users. It’s about proving your worth to search engines that you can indeed add value to the lives of internet users.
The above is a brief summary of how SEO works and things you can do to get the most out of your search engine optimization efforts.