Are you looking for a guide to SEO that can help you better understand what it is, improve your rankings, and create a strategy that works?
Well, you’ve reached the right place!
Here’s your master guide to everything you need to know about SEO – from keyword research to backlinking, to tips and tricks on how to create quality content, and everything in between,
The Master Guide to SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of bringing traffic to a website from search engines. This traffic is considered ‘organic traffic’ and differs from paid traffic that comes from ads.
Whether a blog or online store, any website must have an SEO strategy to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). A good SEO strategy can attract quality traffic to a website, resulting in more leads and conversions.
SEO is all about understanding what audiences like, what they search for, how they are searching for it, their intention behind searching, and more.
What Ranking Factors Does Google Take into Consideration?
There are many different ranking factors that Google considers, including off-page strategies performed outside of a website to improve rankings and on-page actions performed on a website. Some of Google’s ranking factors include:
- Keywords
- Meta tags (meta titles, meta description, etc.)
- Links
- Alt attributes
- Relevance
- Site speed
- Internal links
- Backlinks
- Mobile optimization
- Meta tags
- Headers
- Image alt attributes
People use search engines to answer questions. Google crawls websites to find answers to these questions in a process that is called indexing.
An indexed page goes into an algorithm that helps it rank on Google.
Your Content Matters
The quality of the content on a webpage is one of the most important ranking factors in Google. The content should be well written, provide answers to questions, solve problems, and contain keywords users search for.
Keywords
Keywords are the words people search for on search engines. A well-optimized website is likely to rank higher with keywords that people are searching for.
There are two types of keywords in SEO: short-tail and long-tail keywords.
Short-Tail Keywords
Short-tail keywords are phrases made up of one to three words. They can drive traffic to a website but should not be used more than long-tail keywords. Searches with short keywords are more broad and difficult to rank for because you compete with multiple other websites that want to rank for these keywords.
Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are phrases that are longer than three words. They are more descriptive and specific, which means that they cater to a more targeted audience. Long-tail keywords are much easier to rank for because they are not as competitive.
Long-tail keywords may not generate as much traffic, but they are more likely to attract traffic that converts. This is because people who search for long-tail keywords are looking for specific products, services, or information.
Keyword Research
To find the keywords that your audience is searching for, you need to perform keyword research.
Keyword research can help you find the keywords people are searching for and other similar search terms related to keywords that people are using. This is one of the most important parts of any SEO strategy because keywords are constantly changing.
Keyword research also allows you to see the average amount of monthly searches each phrase gets, how difficult they are to rank for, and more. Here are a few examples of great keyword research tools:
- MOZ
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- Google Keyword Planner
What if I Can’t Find My Website on Google?
For Google to find your website, it needs to index your website. If your website is not appearing on
Google, it can be for many reasons:
- Your website is too new
- Google cannot crawl your website because of a poor design
- There are errors on your site
Creating a sitemap is a great way to help Google find your website. A sitemap is a file that shows
Google all of your website’s content and helps bots crawl and index it. A sitemap also informs search engines of any new changes on your website.
It can take a few months for a website to start seeing results with SEO.
Backlinks and Internal Linking
Backlinks are an essential part of off-site SEO. A backlink is when a website links to another website. These links signal to Google that the web page it links to has useful content that provides value to users. Websites that have more backlinks rank higher in search engines.
Link building is an essential part of any SEO strategy. Websites that receive backlinks from pages with high authority rank higher than pages with less authoritative backlinks.
Internal linking is also an essential part of any SEO strategy. When you link to other pages within your website, you tell Google about the structure of your website and spread each page’s authority to the page it links to, which tells Google the pages that are the most valuable.
Images
Images require alt text that tells users information about the image if the page does not load. Alt text should contain keywords that explain what the image is.
Meta Tags and Headers
Meta tags provide information to Google about what the website is about. These include the meta title, meta description, and headings. Meta tags should always contain a keyword and should accurately describe what a page is about.
Mobile Optimization
Google considers mobile-friendliness a huge ranking factor for SEO, as it significantly affects the user experience. If your page is not optimized for mobile, your rankings will take a direct hit.
At the end of the day, if you have a website and are struggling to gain quality organic traffic, it is likely that your SEO strategy needs some tweaking. Use this guide to SEO to top up on your SEO knowledge or tweak your SEO strategy to get the results you want. The right SEO strategy will drive quality traffic to your website, generate leads, and turn those leads into conversions.