Ranking better: Fundamentals of SEO

Fundamentals of SEO

The Internet brings with opportunities, options and room for growth. There no aspect of life that is untouched by this technology. The truth is that it has changed our lives upside down and the journey looks nothing close to the destination. The growing influence of the internet meant that it took more and more room in our lives leaving little to nothing untouched, unaffected or uninfluenced by the internet.

While it reshapes our lives it has been an integral part of the market growth. There are more than a billion people using the internet and all of them are hungry for entertainment, knowledge, opportunities, and a chance to showcase their talent.  The internet gives everyone the platform that was unavailable in the past and is a chance for everyone to prove their mettle.

The race for attention

The growing number of internet users meant that the influx of available resources had to meet the increasing demand. This resulted in a large number of websites that were now competing for attention, recognition,and money. Search engines started to make algorithms that would separate the best from the rest and this gave some the race for attention some rules. These rules that we will reveal in a little while, were initially meant to be broken without consequences. However, as search engines grew in power their user-focused algorithms became sophisticated and the breaking the rules came with penalties and consequences that would take away recognition, money, and results.

The Search engine rules

Before we delve into the algorithm details, there’s one thing you need to know. There are multiple search engines but Google takes the biggest share of the market. The changes into algorithms and search engines are similar but the details that matteris related to Google.

It is time to know about the Google algorithms. This is a complicated combination that forms a system which is used to retrieve data against the query you generate. This is a complicated explanation. Let’s make it easier with an example. Say you have to look for something very specific. You look for At&t phone. You type the same in the search bar and hit enter. The search engine uses a combo of algorithms and ranking signals to deliver results. These results line up and you see a string of websites that best match At&t phone or any other phrase you may have typed. These web pages are ranked by relevance based on search engine results pages (SERPs).

The real race is to get to the top. Why? Getting to the top means a larger number of people will get click to visit and this may, in turn, get a sale. Even if it is not the sale, revenue can be generated by just a visit through Google ads. Makes sense? It should now. These algorithms are updated. Most of these updates are announced but there are a few that come as a surprise. Every update comes with aset of instructions that helps maintain or improve search engine rankings. Changes to the website in light of these updates are called SEO.

SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is the art and science combined to elevate the quality and quantity of traffic to your website and get organic results. It is simple when put into such words but let’s take a closer look at some of the terms:

Quality Traffic: What if you are selling apple products and Google gets visitors that are apple farmers. The search results may be a relevant bit the traffic landing on your page is anything but quality. You can only benefit from visitors that want your products.

The quantity of traffic: Once the appropriate traffic gets to you through SERPs. It is now time to look at the number of visitors.

Organic Results: Typing in a phrase gets a lot of results. The top spots are usually taken by ads. SERPs following them are organically ranked and no ad costs were incurred to get those results.

A closer look at SEO

We’ve mentioned before that SEO is a combination of art and science. There’s an area that requires more of your brain and then there is that part that would want the delicacy of the heart. What exactly are we talking about? Here’s what a closer look at SEO brings to the surface:

SEO-Friendly website

Let’s start by saying that you can start whenever you want. You can optimize an old website or work on an existing one. No matter what the case is, you will always have to be on your toes and keep making those tweaks.

The first step would be to select a domain name that is SEO friendly which can then be followed by internal links.

On-site SEO

On-site or On-page SEO is a series of tweaks and optimization practices implemented on a website to rank better. This better ranking helps get better traffic, both in terms of quality and quantity. This includes two elements, the content,and HTML. Some of its elementsare:

Content

Now that your domain name is SEO friendly what’s the next step? Website content. A crawler gets to the domain name and then the content. This is not that simple and requires a little digging in to. You need to put on your curiosity cap and look around for some answers. Once you have SEO friendly content, you will see a big change in your ranking.

Keywords

The term is self-explanatory but there are two aspects. One is search engine centric while the other offers hints toward the audience. This is a word or multiple words that are strategically placed that a search engine can pick up when a query is run. You can refer to the same example that we have quoted in the earlier section. These keywords are then placed in the content to show the readers what the content is all about.

Links

We are referring to internal links at this point. To make it easy, it is like citing a reference or taking the reader to another page of the book to make understanding easier or make more sense. This may also take you to separate string of data which somehow relates to the original one. Now remove the word book and read the same sentences replacing it with a website.

Page load speeds

It refers to the time it takes for the user to see the page and after they have landed on it. Meaning? How fast does the page load after a visitor arrives? Faster is better!

Mobile friendly

An increasing number of users are using smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices to visit websites. This refers to the key ingredient that defines how a webpage adapts to the changing screen sizes.

Metadata

This refers to the details that describe a page or websites and images on it. For example, if you add an image to a website you need to add a description. Why? What if someone opts to look for images related to a query? The search engine is unable to understand the image but the Metadata helps it understand what the image is about and populate SERPs accordingly.

Off-Site SEO

This should be easy now. Off-site or Off-page SEO is the process that mainly revolves around building backlinks. It is about connecting your website to the ones that rank better than yours. There are many ways to create those links. Create backlinks involves:

Social media marketing

Guest blogging

Influencer marketing

Conclusion

This is a world where millions of dollars are spent on marketing and promotions to achieve sale targets. It is almost hard to believe that SEO exists in the same world and offers no ad costs and still boost sales. This mixture of science and arts believes that charity begins and home. It all starts with the domain name and the never-ending cycle keeps moving to the point where links with other websites have to be established. SEO is like a journey to perfection. It is not a destination but a race to keep improving and keep getting better.

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