Introduction to Search Engine Optimization
Websites across the Internet are the sources of information meant for Internet users. They are ranked by engine bots depending on how they apply the Search Engine Optimization practices.
Every minute, new content is added and can rapidly spread like fire. In today’s world, this is one of the most efficient and preferred sources of quick information.
Acquiring information in search engines is familiar to Internet users and a common way to get informed. Depending on the search engine your site interacts with, these engines organize their results with the associated websites while factoring in different principles. The principles that search engines rely on ranking a website results results is what we call Search Engine Optimization factors.
These ranking principles are what engine robots to filter existing website data value. The first result page consists of websites that engine bots feel are relevant to the user’s request. For your website to earn the top spots, you must implement the SEO factors correctly.
This article outlines the top-leading ranking factors used by search robots in different engines. Before we move further, what are search engines? Let us understand what search engines are with their examples. They are robot systems that help users access existing information from hosted websites over the Internet. Examples of popular search engines active include,
- Microsoft Bing
- Yahoo
- Ecosia
- Yandex
- Baido
, and others.
Search Engine Optimization Practises
All Search engines have similar filtering techniques, but some do differ. For clarity, let us analyze these similar strategies common to all search engines. When applied correctly, these Search Engine Optimization factors bring about results in a matter of time. They include,
1. High-quality content
Our first factor is high quality content. What is it about? It means attractive, relevant, eye-catching, and accurate information in your blogs. For your content to be of value, it should represent such qualities. The first important step before writing anything is to do thorough research. You must clearly understand the topic of your content and the audience.
It is necessary to understand that your content is the connecting point between writers and their audience. Find a good reason to get attention and why readers should listen to you, and you should include it in your content. The first attractive and interactive element should be your topic. Your topic words should ignite engagement in your audience to create curiosity.
The reason behind this is that your headline outlines an overview of what your story entails. Examples of words to include in your topic are new, free, proven, and easy. The next element to pay attention to is your content structure. The content you produce should align with your topic and sub-topics. When writing your content, ensure you include these high quality content characteristics, which are,
- Readability and clarity
To write readable content, ensure that you use simple words. Simple words ensure user engagement, enabling readers to want to read more of your content. Sentences that you construct should be short and well-arranged to create a systematic reading flow. While developing the structure of your content, do not forget to place your sentences in short paragraphs. Ensure that you arrange your paragraphs in an orderly manner for a clean presentation to your audience.
- Originality
While writing, avoid copy-pasting content from other sources to prevent plagiarism. Writing your content in your own words makes the search engines acknowledge uniqueness. When you prioritize this, it develops a positive perception of your content to search engines.
- Relevance
To fulfil relevance in your content, the message you portray should satisfy the needs and interests of readers. Find out what is new and would add value to your audience. Research the frequent questions asked regarding your topic and answer them correctly.
- Accuracy
As search engines filter data, their spider crawlers analyze different contents while factoring correctness. They ensure that they produce the most accurate information for users. Along with complex algorithms, the crawlers confirm the quality and accuracy of site data before ranking them. To be on the safer side, as a content creator, you have to be sure of what you share with your audience.
- Structure and Formats
When analyzing web content, search engines include an overview of how you organize your content. Using the correct HTML structure, search engine robots understand the organization of your content. Including content headings and sub-headings makes your work presentable, and search engines will credit you for that.
- Engagement
Whenever you write your content, including the audience makes your work attractive. Always make sure that your readers feel welcome to participate. Motivate them to leave comments below your content. For them to understand your content better, include other formats like videos, images, or graphs. Applying such ideas portrays the diversity of thinking to readers and crawling bots.
- Detailed in depth
Explaining your content in depth is a positive factor in good Search Engine Optimization ranking. You will notice that search engines prioritize detailed content when ranking. By detailing content in-depth, search engines conclude that readers understand such content better. For this reason, your content will be a priority when ranking.
2. Keyword Research
Keyword research is another Search Engine Optimization determinant to rank highly. When writing your content, you have to ensure that you apply your keywords appropriately. To conduct a successful keyword research, use relevant tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Ubber Suggests, and other relevant tools. These tools let you identify the common words and phrases that users mostly search for. Identifying the right keywords gives you an idea of the content you are going to build around. So, let’s discuss the steps to conduct keyword research.
Define your agenda
You must set your target as you make your first approach in Keyword research. Outline your goal and ensure you specify what you want in return. For instance, in this case, you want to improve your SEO ranking.
Make a list of probable topics.
Take a moment and think about the topics you are interested in writing about. To come up with an attractive topic, consider yourself the reader to discover an interesting topic. Look and identify the attractive words and consider them. You can ask around to get people’s opinions or brainstorm with colleagues.
Allocate relevant keywords on your headlines.
Ensure you have a list of attractive keywords to allocate to your topics. To come up with attractive keywords, this is where you involve your keyword research tools. Find out the keywords related to your topics and identify the attractive ones. Analyze their search volumes and competition. The main aim is to identify the target keywords with decent search volumes with manageable competition by using:
- High-ranking words in your web content.
This technique can bring about some advantages when ranking. We all agree that high-ranking words are very competitive, but they bring about high search volumes. The idea of considering them in your web content is to help you capture a large audience.
- Low-ranking keywords in your content.
In this scenario, low-ranking keywords, preferably long-tail keywords, are less competitive. They contribute to low search volumes but can generate more traffic to your web content and increase click-through rates.
3. Efficient On-Page Optimization
Page optimization is the improvement of your webpage visibility and appearance. It is among the driving factors because it targets to align with the search engine algorithms. To fulfil this requirement, we are going to discuss the various steps involved, and they are:
Writing descriptive meta-tags
Meta tags play an informative role to both search engines and users. They help in understanding your webpage topic and the overall content inside it. In search results, they are always the first impression for potential visitors. If a meta tag is presentable and attractive to a potential visitor, the chances of increasing your website traffic are high. Apart from traffic, they can also increase the click-through rates of your website. Efficient meta tags are briefly written and should pass the message.
Optimization of images
What is the optimization of images? Images affect the loading time taken by web pages. The larger the image size, the more time it takes to load it. Optimizing your web images means to reduce their file size. It is a fundamental approach due to various benefits to your website. Some of the benefits include,
(a). Requiring less storage space in your site servers.
(b). Improves your site’s loading speed.
(c). Faster website backup creation.
(d). Higher ranking in search engines.
When optimizing your web images, there are two factors to consider. The first is the file format, and the second is the compression type. When correctly implemented, you can reduce an image up to five times. Let us go through the steps for successful image optimization, which include
(i). Choosing the effective image file format.
There are several image file formats supported on web pages. For instance, we have,
PNG – They are sometimes lossy but produce high-quality images with large file sizes.
JPEG – They are adjustable to balance a good quality image with a favourable size but use lossy and lossless optimization.
GIF – It uses less compression but is suitable for animated images.
(ii). Balance between size and quality.
When using a low compression rate, your results produce an image with a large size and quality. On the other hand, when using a high compression rate, the image you get will be smaller in size and low quality. To choose the best image between the two, ensure that your file image size is below 2MB with high quality.
(iii). Use image optimization tools
You can find a lot of image-optimizing tools on the internet. Some of them are free, while others require paid subscriptions. Popular examples include Adobe Photoshop, JPEG Mini, Trimage, and others.
Internal and External linking
For search engine algorithms to understand the structure of your website, internal linking is necessary. It is a technique considered a top-leading SEO factor and is vital for search engines to find the relevance of your pages with their values. Your website users can also use internal linking to navigate through your site. When linking externally, search engine bots will understand what your page content is all about. Ensure you choose high-profile websites for the engines to classify your content as high-value.
Search Engine Optimization Keyword Placement
What do we understand by this term? SEO keyword placement is the strategic implementation of relevant keywords in content and is among the top-leading SEO determinants. Why do we say so? Search engines use algorithms to browse your web content before indexing, and they greatly depend on keywords.
Did you know that how you distribute your keywords in your content matters? The positioning of your keywords makes a difference when engine bots rank your content in search results. There are two things to consider when using keywords in your content. First, how naturally do they fit in your content? And second, how often do they appear?
Ensure you at least apply the main keyword in the first 10% of your content. At this rate, when you get to the first 25%, there should be two appearances. It is recommendable because Google uses the terms appearing at the beginning of any content to grade the value of your blog.
Moreover, the use of keywords does not end there. Including them in your titles, URL, and SEO meta description adds more value. On your title, front load your keyword for Google search bots to identify your content fast.
Keyword placement is not just about populating as many keywords as possible but a natural application in their respective areas. Overusing keywords can be disastrous since search engines may view them as spam, resulting in punishment. As you apply them, consider the keyword density. We measure it by the number of times your keywords appear compared to the number of words in your blog. The effective keyword density ranges between 1% and 2% for single-page content. Your keywords have to keep up with the latest search queries. So don’t take too long before updating your keywords to maintain top ranks in results.
4. Mobile-Friendly Design
A mobile responsive website is a similar phrase to a mobile-friendly design. It is a design favourable to the mobile device view. Statistics reports indicate that most users access the Internet through mobile devices. Always ensure that your website is mobile responsive to appear in mobile search results. Google reassures that mobile responsiveness page experience is a SEO determinant to content and website ranking.
It is vital to Google search engines because this is the source of most visitors. When your website is mobile-friendly, many visitors consider staying on the page. What does this mean? traffic increase, more conversion rates, and click-through rates to represent favourable aspects of search engine rankings. To attain a mobile-friendly website, work on
(i). User Experience
Always ensure your website is easy to navigate, read and interact with users on small screens. Incorporate a bottom or top navigation and search bars. The navigation technique ensures a proper representation of content on small screens. You can also include personalized features in your mobile user interface. Eye-catching sections on the mobile interface are most suitable for personalisation.
(ii). Page speed
For a quality page speed, you should optimize the loading time of your pages to attract users instantly. Do not test users’ patience with slow-loading pages to force them to opt for other web sources. If you want your website speed to improve, you have to make some necessary adjustments. To achieve the desired result, we encourage you to work on,
- Compress and optimize images.
- Minimize HTTP requests by reducing the number of elements in pages.
- Deliver content from servers closer to the user’s location through a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
- Reduce the size of files sent from your server to users’ browsers through Gzip compression.
5. Backlinks
Backlinks are the linking connections from other websites. The more valuable backlinks connecting to your website, the higher your website ranks in the results engine. While some technology experts refer to backlinks as inbound or incoming links, they remain among the top-leading SEO factors. Their impact on search results ranking is felt immediately depending on their values.
A high-value backlink imposes a higher SEO impact on engine robots in comparison to average and low-value ranking. Search engines need to trust that your web content is valuable, depending on the source of your backlinks. When you receive backlinks from low-profile sites, search robot engines learn and classify your website on low-rank search results. For you to determine that our backlink is valuable, there is a set of characteristics featuring it. They are,
- Relevance – When two sites are linked together, it portrays relevance since they share a common content ground.
- Trustworthy – It is evident that search bots often trust high-profile websites. When you link your website from such sites, search bots understand it as a request to consider your content for reference. As you apply this method severally, search engines gain confidence in your content, and as a result, they improve your results ranks.
In writing content, all backlinks are never the same. The text content industry labels them according to their sources. What are the types of backlinks? Let us view some examples that include,
Organic backlinks – They are natural links that humans place on websites.
Press release backlinks – When press outlets publish their content, they can link their articles to your website at your request. If not correctly done, search bots can interpret the links as spam sources, leading to penalties.
Guest blog backlinks – As one of the writing techniques to generate backlinks, blog writers write on foreign websites and then link back to their websites. Developing such links requires content relevance and connection between the two pages. Search algorithms should identify the content connection to approve its viability and impact.
Community forums and Q and A websites – Online users often engage in topic contributions when looking for quick answers. On these platforms, contributions are short and precise. For more clarity, you may find links attached to a website requested by contributors, directing readers to specific sites. Despite their differences, backlinks are among the leading SEO determinants. But what do they imply?
(i). Increase traffic generation – Reputable websites always engage with constant traffic access due to popularity. If you connect through links, several audiences might want to see what your content offers, as a result, driving more traffic to your website.
(ii). Domain Authority – Quality backlinks from reputable website platforms contribute to a strong profile view by search engines. The more you strengthen your domain authority, the more likely you rank well for various keywords.
6. Making use of Analytic tools
Analytic tools are reference tools for your website performance. Through these tools, you can identify performing areas as well as the weak ones. Analytic tools are among the top-leading SEO tools you can use to improve your search rankings. They help users identify the current search trends, improving the search ranks of websites. To get the desired results from these tools, you must stay in line with their current trends. So, how do you get the best from them?
Monitor traffic
Always check on the organic traffic leading to your website. Monitor the trends of your visitors to understand what interests them. Identify and analyze any pattern behaviour of your visitors.
Track any Keyword impact
Investigate the performing keywords implemented in your pages. Check the keywords attracting your visitors and leading to revenue or conversion rates.
Identify top landing pages
Investigate the content structure of the most attractive pages to your visitors. Realize the elements and eye-catching sections that bring positive impacts on your website.
Bounce rates and dwell time
Do visitors only view a single page of your website, or do a number navigate to other sections? Analyse the results and research on improving any negative-driven scenario.
Conclusion
The above characteristics are top-leading SEO detailed techniques you can apply to your content. The only requirement is good research and correct implementation. Implementing these ideas takes research, time and accuracy, but the results are automatic and assured. Once you implement them well, it can take time for any adjustment, proving to be long-lasting SEO techniques.
