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SEO is an acronym for Search Engine + Optimization
Search Engines are software systems designed to carry out web searches. They crawl and index the world wide web sites data into their database and return the information whenever they are requested by users. Examples are Google, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, and others.
On the other hand, Optimization is the process of structuring web pages and improving your web pages' contents to be the ones that can be accessed by search engines.
Therefore, SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic by enhancing the visibility of a website or a web page in search engine results pages (SERPs).
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, the computer-programmed algorithms that dictate search engine behavior, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines, and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience
As long as an online business is concerned, regardless of what you want to achieve whether to increase its online visibility, drive more sales, lead, revenue, or gain traffic to your website/blog SEO is an important strategy a webmaster need to pay attention to.
SEO is more than just writing and publishing content. The goal of SEO is to optimize a website so that it ranks higher in search engine results when people search for relevant keywords.
As a webmaster, it is important to optimize your web pages and content to ensure they are user-friendly and easily discoverable by search engines.
Frankly, there are three main types of SEO strategies that every webmaster need to follow if they want their web pages to be to stay on top of the search - These are:
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Technical SEO
In this article, we discuss the three types of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and how they can be properly optimized for better results.
For a start, you, first of all, need to understand how search engines crawl, index web pages into their database, and rank them when people search for them.
How Search Engine Crawler Works
Whenever a new website has been launched or updated, a search engine like Google uses its crawler called Googlebot to look for them to index them.
According to Google, they discover URLs by following links, reading sitemaps, and by other means
Most search engines are fully automated search engine that uses web crawlers to explore the web constantly, looking for sites to add to their index. You usually don't even need to do anything except post your site on the web.
On a note, Googlebot doesn't crawl all the pages it discovered. Some pages may be disallowed for crawling by the site owner, other pages may not be accessed without logging in to the site
To know if your site is on Google do a site: search for your site's home URL. For example, site:www.Google.com. If you are, it will return a list of URLs connected to your website.
If you are not on Google, you will see pictures like this one below.
Google can find your site on their database For more details on how Google crawls and indexes your web page, refer to this article - In-depth guide to how Google Search works
Now that you have known some basic understanding of how web crawlers work, let's talk about ways through which we can help them rank your web pages.
Type of SEO
1. On-page SEO:
On-page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing personal web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. This includes optimizing elements such as content, meta tags, images, and HTML source code
On-page SEO is the first type of optimization every webmaster need to implement on their website.
On-page SEO is important because it helps search engines understand what your page is about and whether it is relevant to a particular search query
Elements of On-page SEO and How to Implement to your website/Blog Page
Use a unique and descriptive title
A unique title tag help search engine understands what a particular topic is on each page of your website. A unique title help to differentiate between other topics.
Your title text should read naturally and effectively communicates the topic of the page's content.
Make sure the title does not exceed the Google title snippet. An excessively long title can be caught and truncated by Google and other search engine operators
Recommendable, a page title words count ranges from 50 to 70 words. You should follow this pattern when you want to write the title tag of your post.
Add meta tag
To optimize your page for search engines, it's important to incorporate relevant keywords. This helps search engines understand the topic of your page and can improve its visibility in search results.
To achieve this, it's recommended to include the main keywords in the first paragraph of your content or within the first hundred words. Additionally, you should use them in subtopics that support the main topic. However, be cautious of overusing keywords, as this can result in keyword stuffing, which may lead to your content being flagged and not ranked by search engines.
If you're a developer, ensure that you include the meta-keyword tag in the head of your HTML for each page on your website. This tag should contain relevant keywords separated by commas. By following these guidelines, you can increase the chances of your page appearing in search results and driving traffic to your site.
Optimize your image
Optimizing your images is crucial for ensuring fast page load times when search engine bots crawl your site. Slow-loading websites can discourage users from staying on your site and may cause them to move on to another. This is often due to poorly optimized images.
If you want to improve your website's performance, you should focus on optimizing your images.
Websites that take too long to load are less likely to be ranked by search engines and have their images indexed.
By optimizing your images, you can ensure that your page loads quickly and provides a better user experience for your visitors.
A recommended approach for incorporating images into your blog or website.
To ensure the proper display and accessibility of images on your website or blog, follow these guidelines:
- Use the HTML <img/> or <picture/> tag to add images to your page.
- Include the alt attribute in your image tag, and use a descriptive filename as the alt text. This helps visually impaired users and search engines understand the content of your images.
- Stick to commonly supported image formats such as JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, and WebP.
- When adding images, avoid these common mistakes:
- Do not use CSS to display images if you want them to be indexed by search engines.
- Do not use generic filenames like "image1.jpg" or "pic.gif." Instead, use descriptive filenames that accurately reflect the content of the image.
- Do not use long or spammy alt text, and avoid stuffing keywords into your alt text.
Remember that oversized images can cause slow loading times for your website. To check the rendering of your images on different devices, use the Chrome inspection tool by right-clicking on your computer and selecting "inspect," or by pressing Ctrl + Shift + J. Additionally, you can use PageSpeed Insight to audit your image rendering and optimize your site's loading speed.
Optimize your site URLs
To create user-friendly and SEO-friendly URLs for your website, follow these guidelines:
- Use descriptive words in your URLs instead of random letters or numbers. The words you choose should accurately reflect the content of the page and be relevant to your site's overall structure. According to Google, URLs with relevant words are easier for visitors to navigate.
For example, compare these two URLs:Bad URL:https://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/folder1/22447478/x2/14032015.htmlGood URL: https://www.brandonsbaseballcards.com/article/ten-rarest-baseball-cards.html
- Keep your URLs short and readable. Avoid using excessively long words or phrases that can be confusing for users or difficult to remember. Use hyphens to separate words in your URLs to make them easier to read and understand.
Make use of meta description
To improve your website's search engine optimization (SEO), it's important to create a unique and accurate meta description for each blog post or page. According to Google's algorithm updates, this helps search engines understand what your page is about and display a relevant summary in search results.
A good meta description should summarize the content of the page and highlight what users can expect to find there. It should also be concise, ideally between 150-160 characters to fit within Google's search page snippet.
If you're using a Content Management System (CMS) like Blogger, WordPress, Drupal, or Wix, you can write the meta description in a provided textarea for each post or page. Be sure to check that you're doing it correctly to ensure your content is accurately represented in search results.
For developers, you can add the meta description tag to the HTML code of each page. This tag should be placed in the head of the HTML, and you can define a variable name to hold each unique meta description. You can then provide a text area on the body of each post page where the description should be written.
It's important to remember that each meta description must be unique and accurately summarize the content of the page.
2. Off-page SEO
According to Open AI chatGPT, Off-page SEO refers to all the activities and strategies used outside of your website to improve its search engine ranking and visibility. It involves optimizing your website's presence and reputation on other websites, social media platforms, and other online channels.
Off-page SEO techniques typically include the following:
Link building
Link building is a technique used in off-page SEO to increase the number and quality of inbound links to a website to improve its search engine ranking and visibility. The process involves acquiring hyperlinks from other websites that lead to your site and also maintaining existing ones
Google and other search engines follow links to crawl web pages. When crawling and they found many relevant links pointing to your website, the more authoritative and trustworthy it appears to search engines. As a result, the website is likely to rank higher in search results for relevant keywords and topics.
There are different ways one can build links. Some ways include broken link building, resource page link building, and other methods to acquire links from authoritative websites in your industry or niche
Guest blogging
Guest blogging is a popular marketing and SEO tactic in which a person writes and publishes a blog post on someone else's website or blog. The purpose of guest blogging is to build relationships, gain exposure, and improve search engine rankings.
As a guest blogger, you can reach a new audience, establish yourself as an authority in your industry, and gain valuable backlinks to your website
To commence guest blogging, you must pinpoint blogs or websites that are pertinent to your industry and cater to a comparable target audience. One way to do so is by exploring blogs within your niche using search engines or social media platforms.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing is the practice of promoting a brand, product, or service through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others. It involves creating and sharing content, engaging with followers and potential customers, and running advertising campaigns to reach a targeted audience.
The goal of social media marketing is to build brand awareness, increase website traffic, and ultimately drive sales or conversions
Befriend Influencers to reach a wider audience
Influencer outreach is a marketing strategy that entails partnering with influential individuals or organizations in your industry or niche to promote your brand, product, or service. These influencers usually have a significant following on social media or other online platforms, and their endorsement can be a potent tool to expand your reach and enhance brand recognition among new audiences
Typically, influencer outreach entails initiating contact with relevant influencers and proposing a mutually beneficial partnership or collaboration. This can include offering complimentary products or services in exchange for an endorsement or review, compensating for sponsored content or social media posts, or collaborating on a project or event that benefits both parties.
3. Technical SEO
Technical SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website's technical aspects and infrastructure to improve its search engine ranking and visibility. It involves analyzing and optimizing the website's backend and server-side factors that affect its crawling, indexing, and ranking by search engines.
Making a website faster, easier to crawl, and more understandable for search engines are the pillars of technical optimization.
Elements of Technical SEO
Optimize your website speed: You need to optimize and make your web pages faster when they are viewed by users otherwise, you will high bounce rate which could lead to a decrease in ranking. As a webmaster, it is your work to always audit the health of your website. Page speed insight is a great tool you can use.
Make your website Mobile-friendliness: For users to come to you for content, you must make each page of your site mobile friendly. website Mobile-friendliness refers to the ability of a website to display properly and function efficiently on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. With mobile devices accounting for a significant percentage of internet usage, having a mobile-friendly website is essential to improve user experience and increase visibility in search engine rankings.
Add a site map to your website: Sometimes Search engines may not be able to crawl your web pages. To help them to find your website, you need to create a site map that contains a list of all pages available.
Sitemaps is a protocol in XML format meant for a webmaster to inform search engines about URLs on a website that are available for web crawling.
Inform search engines about your site robots.txt file: robots.txt is a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the website they are allowed to visit. It has two flags - allow and disallow. Allow is used to tell search engines like Google to crawl your website but If your robots.txt is disallowed, that means you are telling search engines not to crawl your website. Learn how to create, edit and update your robots.txt file - an article Google
Other technical aspects are Structure data markup and Canonical tags.
For more details on technical SEO, check this article: What is Technical SEO?: The Ultimate Guide to Maintaining Your Site's Health
Conclusion
SEO is an important aspect that each webmaster needs to implement to enhance the quality and quantity website, increase online visibility, drive more sales, leads, and revenue, or gain traffic to their website. All three types of SEO - On-page, off-page, and techniques are important and are recommended to be followed by each web owner.
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