SEO, also known as Search Engine Optimisation is a series of techniques that you can use to increase your site’s visibility in the online world. The focus here is to make sure that you acquire the highest Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rank in the long run.
There are 2 main types of Search Engine Optimisation, black hat and white hat SEO. Black hat SEO uses techniques that are disapproved by search engines with the idea of cheating your way up to the top of Page 1 and staying there for a little while. This is not a good internet marketing technique. What you want is white hat SEO. These are the best techniques that you can use as they are safe and they will not hamper your online presence in any way.
By applying SEO to your website you make it easier for search engines to understand what your site is about and therefore list it in the searches you want to rank for. The goal of SEO is to get your website on the first page of the search results because the top of the first page attracts over 72% of all traffic and therefore higher rate of client conversions.
How do search engines work?
You can find more than 50 billion web pages online, and they are all indexed by search engines. It’s impossible to find the stuff you want without any helper tool. And that’s what search engines do for you. They classify these pages using a variety of techniques and rules. You have to study the rules and ensure that you reach the first page of that search engine result to gain as much targeted traffic as possible.
The search engine uses crawlers in order to find your website. Once your website is found, the web page is indexed and processed. Do keep in mind that not every type of content will be processed, elements like dynamic pages and rich media types are not going to be indexed all the time. The website is then ranked based on every search engine’s unique ranking system. There are lots of factors to take into account, and if you know these factors, then these will be crucial for your organic SEO.
Which are the most important ranking factors?
There are both on on-page and off-page ranking factors. In the case of on-page factors you need to find the right keywords, and you need to add them everywhere in your website and content. You need content that has a great quality, which is engaging, fresh and focused on solving a problem. When it comes to the HTML structure, you want to add keywords in your titles, descriptions, headers and so on. Having a robots.txt page helps, you also need to optimise the ALT tags for images with your keywords, and you also need a website speed that’s extremely fast to ensure you always have the best possible results.
In regards to off page SEO, these are factors not connected to your website directly. In this case, you need to add share buttons so people can share your content on social media. Having a fully connected social presence on your site helps a lot. You can also add YouTube links and videos to your website too. In addition, adding personal information and including links in your website helps a lot. At the same time, you also want to build links towards your website, as these will bring in front a great website authority. The more links come towards your website, the more highly regarded you are, and that’s going to grow the importance of your business in the long run.
Does website age matter?
Of course, the older your website is, the more website authority will you get. Of course, this also means your website needs to have lots of links coming towards it, as this does boost website authority. And it’s also very important to write content frequently, as that’s one of the best ways to ensure people will visit your website and enjoy your content adequately. Otherwise, you will not be able to achieve the results you expect.
Do Google algorithms change?
The number of websites released every day changes all the time. And some of them want to bypass the Google/Bing rules and cheat their way up. That’s why search engine providers tend to make some algorithm changes from time to time. Google, for example, made some major algorithmic changes in the form of Penguin and Panda.
Does mobile SEO matter?
Yes, mobile SEO does matter a lot. You do need to make sure that you optimise your mobile presence for SEO because more than 50% of all users come from mobile. And you always need to make sure that you optimise your online presence adequately to achieve amazing results. In this situation what matters the most is to have a responsive design. You also need to have a single URL for both mobile and desktop sites, which is where responsive designs and templates can really shine. Some of the other important factors include a very fast website speed, among others.
Search Engine Optimisation places a lot of emphasis on local SEO as well as regular SEO. You should always try to improve your online presence as much as you can because this will bring in front rewarding results and the outcome will shine no matter what happens. One thing is certain, your website needs SEO if you want to reach the first results page. Which is why you have to start doing keyword research right away, and once you start doing that you can optimise your online presence a lot easier!
