I’ve been asked numerous times about the best SEO tricks and techniques to rank on search engines like Google, so I set out to write a decent blog article to clear up any confusion for anyone trying to optimize their company’s website. I wanted to be thorough in my article, so I’ve seasoned my findings and cooked up an answer to help you get the most from SEO.
First, there’s a lot more to SEO than publishing high-quality, keyword-optimized content. Jot this down: easily defined SEO is the process of getting traffic from the “free”, “organic,” or “natural” search results on search engines. All major search engines have primary search results shown and ranked based on what they consider most relevant to users. Search engine optimization affects only organic search results, not paid or “sponsored” results such as Google AdWords.
Another point to note is that search engine optimization is not a quick fix. Please remember that organic search optimization is a long-term and continuous effort that should be based on quality content that answers specific questions quickly for those searching for specific answers. If you’re able to achieve this, you’ll find increases in traffic and, consequently, an increase in leads without having to pay for it like you would on Google AdWords.
There’s a lot of confusion around marketing online and being seen on search engines like Google by providing good information. Search engine optimization is not supposed to be about getting a competitive advantage over someone else in the search results. Search engine optimization also differs from SEM—search engine marketing—, and should not be consider a quick fix or to be dead.
SEO falls under the SEM umbrella, but they are not the same. SEM often refers to paid search engine marketing techniques like PPC—pay per click. SEO is ongoing and always changing. It begins with research optimizing your website followed by link building. It is evolving and some old practices are dead and have falsely lead some people to believe SEO is dead—well, it is not. I have found that search engine optimization is link-blind, query-neutral, and traffic-oriented.
Right off the bat, your search engine optimization decision should be based on what’s best for the visitors of your site. At the end of the day your optimization works by providing your clients what they’re after, as they are the actual consumers and not search engines. You’re likely already familiar with these topics as they are essential ingredients for any web page, but you may not be making the most of them.
An optimized page does not just provide unique content, but unique value; meaning the usefulness and takeaways derived by visitors. Create unique, accurate page titles, which accurately describe the page’s content. Avoid choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page as well as using default or vague titles. Create unique title tags for each page; this will help Google know how the page is distinct from others on your site. Use brief, but descriptive titles. If it’s too long Google will show only a portion of it in the search result. Make use of the “description” meta tag, which gives search engines and searchers a summary of what the page is about.
Improvements to your website structure enhances the user experience which is a crucial factor on aiding the buyer’s journey. Smashing Magazine wrote beautifully about the user experience (UX) saying is an amazing discipline, but it cannot or will not, accomplish certain things. User experience is not one size fits all. It cannot be directly assessed with traditional metrics nor is it the same thing as usability. At the most basic level, a great user experience means the site includes the following components:
Google Webmaster—a tool that helps you optimize your SEO and user experience—has an array of information pertaining to robots.txt files, which tells search engines whether they can access and therefore crawl parts of your site. The instructions given to these files cannot enforce crawler behavior to your site; instead, these instructions act as directives to the crawlers accessing your site. Changes continue to occur in the very sophisticated algorithm of automated bots. Here are a few guidelines, as specified by MOZ, on helping your pages rank reliably:
It may be the case that perfectly optimized, keyword targeting conflicts with goals around usability, user experience, or the natural flow of how you’d like to present your content. In these cases, a more user-centric approach is desirable. Here are some important elements, for when keyword optimization is the answer:
Blogging is an integral and crucial part of optimizing your site. You probably have a million reasons to blog, not the least of which include building trust among your buyers, positioning yourself as an expert, and simply sharing news with your company’s followers. These can only help you if you know how to use them, so make note of these reasons blogging can boost your SEO:
As the “O” in SEO continues to broaden and what’s “perfect” might change, continuing to optimize for what your viewers are searching for will remain. The best optimization tactic for you might, and should, change over time but following what your viewers are after will ensure you get closer to your target.