Have you ever searched for something on Google and a certain website shows up at the top result? That’s SEO in action. It is the process of optimizing a website so that it appears in the top search results of Google or another search engine.
It has grown into a multibillion-dollar sector that benefits both corporations and people. This digital marketing technique involves several aspects. I am going to cover these factors in a comprehensive way in this complete guide article. Let’s start.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization, shortly referred to as SEO, is a form of digital marketing where you manage a website in order to optimize it so that it can get a top position in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
Many factors are involved in this process. An SEO specialist takes care of them in different ways. If done properly, Google ranks the site higher in the SERP.
How Does SEO Work?
To understand the workings of SEO, it is important to discuss how a search engine works. Its basic priority is to help people find content that is useful to them.
Google does it by showing them relevant and high-quality sites according to their searches with the help of its crawlers and indexing method.
While doing so, it analyzes different aspects of the website. Some of the main aspects are its content quality, domain rating, relevant link-building, etc.
If a website has all of these things according to the guidelines, Google shows it to the user so that they can consume useful content from it.
The end goal of every SEO campaign is to make sure your website has all the essential elements. In this way, you can pocket a good revenue through different monetization methods.
Types of SEO
Keeping things concise and beginners friendly, there are two types of search engine optimization.
- White Hat SEO: This type of search engine optimization is approved by Google and improves your site ranking in the SERP.
- Black Hat SEO: Disapproved by Google, Black Hat SEO involves all the tactics you can follow to increase your website traffic.
Most Important SEO Techniques
In the under section, I have highlighted the most important SEO techniques. All of them are approved by Google and lie under the white hat category.
1 – On Page SEO
There is no other purpose of On Page SEO but to perform the content audit and improve the webpages and their content for users and search engines. This includes the following:
a) Keyword Research
Keyword research is the process of finding the topics and titles that are widely searched on Google across the globe. In this way, you can maximize your chances of increasing traffic to your site.
While there are so many types of keywords, you have to focus on the ones mentioned below:
b) High Quality Content Writing
The next important element of On-Page SEO is writing wonderful content that offers value to users and provides them with desired solutions. While writing an article, you should share your experience as it will build trust with users.
Besides writing high quality content, you should focus on some other essential elements as well. These are:
c) Content Optimization
While keyword research and content writing hold the primary place in On Page SEO, content optimization has its own worth. It is purely done for search engines so that it can place your content as high as possible in the SERP.
The key to content optimization is ensuring that you have written SEO friendly content. It is only possible when you place the keywords right in the desired positions. These are:
- URLs
- SEO titles
- Meta description
- Focus Keyphrase
d) Internal Linking
Internal linking improves the worth of your content as you can direct your audience to the topic relevant to your current ones. It will engage your audience and enable them get the complete concept of a specific topic.
Ultimately, your site’s credibility score gets a boost, and the bounce rate will reduce. Google loves these two aspects and lets you float above your competitors as long as you serve value.
2 – Off Page SEO
Off Page SEO is directly associated with the worth and authority of your site or blog. In simple language, it determines how powerful your site is to rank for a certain topic. The best off page SEO techniques are below.
a) Backlinking
Backlinking is termed as mentioning your site on other blogs relevant to your niche. While some blogs may link you automatically, you can also follow some white hat tactics to create backlinks. It enhances the domain rating and authority of your site. These are:
- Blog Commenting – Answering the questions of users on Q/A forums and platforms like LinkedIn while integrating your site link to deliver more value.
- Outreach Marketing – Utilizing the power of email marketing to reach big sites relevant to your blog and asking them to mention your website.
- ABC Link Exchange – Three relevant sites link their relevant content with each other to provide comprehensive solutions to users.
b) Guest Blogging
Guest Blogging is simply defined as writing content for other sites that are relevant to the niches you are experienced in. While providing content, you can integrate the link of a similar article present on your site for mutual benefits.
c) Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing involves promoting your products, articles or blog posts on different social media platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
You have to create high quality social media content to impress your audience and capture the algorithms for higher reach.
3 – Image SEO
Images and infographics are now gaining more importance in blogging as they offer value to your content. That’s why performing Image SEO is essential now. Some of the key elements of this type of search engine optimization to focus on are the following
a) Format and Size
The format of the image plays a key role in determining its size as it should be less than 100kb. WEBP is the most preferred in this fast paced blogging world, while some SEO pioneers are still stuck between JPG vs PNG battle.
b) Copyright Claims
Another thing to focus on enhancing Image SEO is that the images and infographics must not have any copyright claim.
You should research about tools for creating infographics and utilize their help. In this way, you can capture the attention of your audience.
c) Image Identity
Image identity also influence your search engine optimization campaign positively. Therefore, you should properly name them. It would be best if you follow graphic design tips and integrate your primary keyword in the:
- Name of the Image
- ALT Text
- Caption
- Description
4 – Technical SEO
Technical SEO focuses on all the technical aspects of a website or a blog. It is crucial as it makes your site more user friendly and accessible. Google will likely rank you higher when you deliver good user experience.
The key factors Technical SEO deals with involve the following:
- Site Can’t Be Reached: if the site speed is too low, this error may occur. You should follow effective steps to get rid of this error to maintain website’s performance.
- Google Search Console Indexing: Make sure that all of your posts and pages are indexed in the Google. Check for “no index” tags and remove them from your website to ensure crawling and indexing.
- Broken Links: Technical SEO enables you to find broken links, both internal and external. In this way, you can tackle this challenge and stable your blog by removing them.
- URL Length: Avoid creating long URLs for your posts. While integrating primary keyword in it is useful, you should concise it to 3 – 5 words.
- Duplicated Content: There are chances that your website contains same content twice or thrice. These are called duplicated content and it is one of the common technical SEO errors. You should avoid them as much as possible.
- Breadcrumb Navigation: This technical SEO element significantly improves the structure of your website. Thus, search engines can crawl the pages quite effectively.
- Mobile Friendliness: One of the common technical SEO errors is not focusing on mobile friendliness of your site. You should install flexible WordPress theme like the one available on WPDevShed on your blog which is suitable for different screen sizes.
- SSL Certificate: To ensure online security, SSL Certificate verifies all the requests made to your site. That’s why you should install it.
- Sitemaps: Sitemaps are important in enhancing the website visibility in the SERP by helping search engines find and crawl all the pages.
- Favicon: A favicon represents the identity of your site when it appears in the search results. So, you should add it.
5 – Local SEO
Local SEO is, more or less, a part of digital marketing campaigns. It involves targeting the audience residing in a specific location to promote products and services and driving local traffic to your website.
For example, you have a blog where you post about the latest events happening in California. Local SEO lets you rank for specific queries in the specified region so you can get maximum audience.
Google has set the standards for ranking the sites locally. So, it would be best to understand ranking factors for Local SEO and implement them effectively.
Upcoming Trends in Search Engine Optimization
The above mentioned SEO trends are ever green as they have never lost their importance in the past. However, some others are making their way into this competitive digital landscape. Below, I have provided a short overview of them.
1 – Voice Search Optimization
With the advancements in technology, people are now more biased towards the voice assistants like Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri. These online AI virtual assistants, when asked to browse, capture the information from zero result or featured snippet only.
Therefore, you have to focus on Voice SEO and integrate long tail keywords to write curated content. Ultimately, it will maximize your chances of getting the desired outcomes.
2 – Video SEO
Video SEO is something very exceptional and groundbreaking in this blogging world. Google has now started showcasing the videos in the search engine results pages. Therefore, you should find the keywords that can help you rank your videos.
The essential elements that determine whether your videos can hit the top 10 positions are channel authority, video quality, information, and utilization of keywords.
Best Tools for SEO
SEO is not a manual process. Thanks to the technology that has provided so many high end tools and platforms that can help you to optimize your site.
In the under section, I have placed the top tools for SEO.
- Semrush – Lets you pocket all the social media marketing pros
- Ahrefs – Helps you analyze backlinks profile under different pricing plans
- Moz – Best for finding spam score along with Moz Keyword Explorer tool
- Keywords Everywhere – Enables you find the search volume of keywords
- Yoast SEO – Benefits you during content optimization
- Grammarly Plagiarism Checker – Assist you in removing plagiarism from content
- Search Console – Provides insights into websites indexing
- Google Analytics – Top tool to determine traffic metrics
- Surfer SEO – Optimize content marketing strategy
- UberSuggest – Budget friendly SEO tool
Besides, you can utilize the potential of SEO Site checker tools and AI blogging tools for optimal outcomes. Also, AI plagiarism checker tools are there to enhance your content writing ability.
Final Thoughts
If you are an owner of a website, you should understand SEO. A higher ranking in the search results of search engines is something that billions of websites are vying for. That is what SEO is helping them with. It maintains different aspects of a website in order to do that.
I have elaborated on them in detail in the information given above. Besides, I have mentioned the top tools. So now, it is your turn to take a stand for your site and start researching. That’s the only way to survive in this saturated digital marketplace and make the most of your investment.
FAQs
How long before I start seeing the results of SEO on my site?
Ranking a site on search engine results is a time-consuming process. So, results will take time to show up.
Can I do SEO on my own?
Yes. You can do it if you have proper knowledge of SEO.
Is SEO necessary for entertainment sites as well?
Absolutely. SEO is necessary for entertainment sites as well.
Are all SEO Tools free?
Not all SEO tools work without purchasing a premium plan. Although they offer free plans, you have to purchase the membership to unlock full potential.
