SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the procedure of optimizing the web pages to drive them to reach an elevated rank in the search results of any search engine. So, the visitors will be more likely to discover the website when searching online.
How do Search Engines rank your pages?
Every search engine has its crawlers or bots. Those bots crawl on each page of a website. Search engines have their algorithm to find the content and its relevancy. Finally, they show the web pages and the relevant posts on the search results page.
When a person searches on a search engine using keywords, the search engines use their algorithm and sort the results. The most relevant and trustworthy posts got a higher ranking. You can also find your search results on the Search Engine Results Page or SERP in the same manner.
Types of SEO:
There is a total of 12 different types of SEO. They are as follows.
- On-Page
- Off-Page
- Technical
- White Hat
- Black Hat
- Grey Hat
- Negative
- Local
- Mobile
- E-commerce
- International
- Content
Among those, only three are popular. So let’s start with the first one.
1. On-Page SEO:
On-page SEO depends on whatever elements are available on pages on your site. It refers to optimizing for elements inside of your site. It includes:
1.1. Title Tag Optimization:
Title tags are an important part of on-page SEO. Search engine bots always check the relevance between the title tag and the content. So, always use the H1 tags for the title of the content and make sure that it matches or at least briefly tells about the content. You can also use H2 and H3 tags for other headings. This helps the crawlers to easily understand the structure of the content.
1.2. Link Management:
Content creators usually use the internal or inbound link to link one post with another related post within the blog. It helps crawlers to crawl the pages more easily. It also helps them to reduce the bounce rate.
Whereas external or outbound links are used to provide more information about the post through another website. For a better result, the outbound link should be used for a trusted source or authoritative website.
1.3. Content Moderation:
Always remember content is the king. So, good content has a higher chance to rank better. Good readability and font customization is needed. Use the required amount of relevant keywords within the content for your target audience. Keyword-jammed content does not boost SEO ranking. Use the focus keyword in the title if possible.
1.4. Media Enrichment:
Only chunks of text blocks do not leave any good impression on the readers. Sometimes It becomes problematic and boring too. Use the relevant media files that can describe at least a brief portion of your content. Now search engines prioritise the rich content formats. It means you have to use media files to enrich your content.
1.5. User Experience (UX):
User experience depends on how a visitor feels about using the website and reading the content. A huge chunk of visitors uses their mobile to browse the internet. So the mobile viewing experience should be good.
2. Off-Page SEO:
All the SEO tactics that don’t involve anything within a post i.e. updating or publishing content to your website. There are many off-page SEO tactics you can use, including:
2.1. Backlink Building:
While creating backlinks, make sure it comes from a trusted website. You should always check the spam scores of the site from where you are getting a backlink. Backlinks from a spammy website can decrease the SEO scores and can earn you a penalty from the search engines.
2.2. Influencer Marketing:
You can use other influencers or content creators to promote your website through their content. You can earn a backlink from that. But it should be a no-follow one. Do-follow sponsored backlinks can bring you to the door of penalty.
2.3. Social Media Marketing:
Social media is the hotspot zone for marketing your brand and content. Share them on social media. It can bring you some good traffic and boost your SEO.
2.4. Guest Posting:
You can apply for guest posting to other authoritative trusted sites. If they permit you to write an article for a guest author, then you can link that content to a related post on your site. In this way, you can earn a valuable do-follow backlink.
2.5. Forum Management:
Forums of a reliable non-spammy site can earn you good do-follow backlinks. First, build your image. Answer the questions, create articles, join conversations and when your brand building part is done then only use links in the articles to the content of your site.
3. Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the procedure of securing that a website fulfils the technical conditions of current search engines with the purpose of improved organic rankings. Important aspects of technical SEO include crawling, indexing, rendering, and website architecture.
3.1. Page Speed Optimization
Search engines prefer sites that load fast: page speed is assumed as an important ranking indication. There are several methods you can use to speed up your site:
- Use fast hosting.
- Use a fast DNS (domain name system) provider
- Minimise ‘HTTP requests’ – maintain the use of scripts and plugins to a minimum number.
- Use one CSS stylesheet instead of multiple CSS stylesheets or inline CSS.
- Make sure to upload the optimized version of the image files.
- Use Gzip compression web pages
- Minify the site’s code – get rid of any unnecessary spaces, and line breaks in your HTML, CSS and Javascript.
3.2. Duplicate content management:
Duplicate content can either be confusing for users (and search engine algorithms). You can resolve duplicate content issues by:
- Prevent the CMS from posting numerous versions of a page or post.
- Use the canonical link component to allow search engines to know where the ‘primary’ version of your content resides.
3.3. XML Sitemaps:
An XML sitemap is a file that allows search engines to comprehend your website whilst crawling it as it tells the search engines exactly where each page is. It also includes valuable details about each page on your site, including
- when a page was last revised;
- what importance it has on your site;
- how often it is adjusted.
3.4. Structured data markup
Structured data markup is code that you add to your website to allow search engines better comprehend the content on it. This information can help search engines index your site more effectively and deliver more appropriate outcomes.
3.5. SSL Certification:
Secure Sockets Layer – SSL – is a security technology which creates an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. Search engines had announced that secure HTTPS websites were going to be given priority over non-secure ones in search results.
On-Page SEO | Off-Page SEO | Technical SEO |
---|---|---|
Title Tag Optimization | Backlink Building | Page Speed Optimization |
Link Management | Influencer Marketing | Duplicate content management |
Content Moderation | Social Media Marketing | XML Sitemaps |
Media Enrichment | Guest Posting | Structured Data Markup |
User Experience (UX) | Forum Management | SSL Certification |
If you are a beginner, you can use Yoast or Rankmath to boost your SEO. You have to modify the settings to get a better result.
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