The importance of SEO, or search engine optimization, for businesses hoping to make them more visible online and attract more customers cannot be overstated. Businesses invest in SEO to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). By appearing at the top of search results for relevant keywords, a business can increase exposure and become an authority in its field by establishing itself as an industry leader. They can therefore increase traffic to their site and convert more qualified leads.
Usually, people use search engines such as Google to find information, products, and services online. Search engine optimization can help businesses adapt to changes in consumer behavior and search algorithms and stay ahead of their competitors. In general, SEO is an excellent investment for businesses that wish to improve their online presence and increase sales.
However, it isn’t exactly easy to navigate the world of SEO. The process involves a lot of complex concepts, relies heavily on Google’s 200-plus ranking factors (which may not always be clear), and requires constant effort on your part. It explains why many companies struggle to improve SEO or their SERP positions and why they often give up on what has become one of the most important digital marketing areas today. The good news is that if you understand them, optimizing your digital presence won’t be that hard.
What is SEO?
The term SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the process of helping your website rank higher in search results. When you type something into Google, it has to decide which websites to show you. In order to do this, it must take into account hundreds of ranking factors. If your website is optimized for these factors, the search engine will use your website first for any Google query related to your business. The process of optimizing your website for these factors is SEO. By incorporating SEO, you can increase organic traffic to your business website.
How does SEO Work?
The purpose of SEO is to make a website more search engine-friendly by improving its design and content. Here, the goal is to have your website appear as the top result on the search engine. In order to determine which websites to present in search results and in what order, Google’s algorithm analyzes hundreds of ranking factors. Though you can’t change your website for every single one, there are a few SEO best practices you can follow. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a professional SEO resource; you can still implement these best SEO practices to improve your SERP ranking.
How do Search Engines Rank Websites?
To determine the most relevant content for a particular search term, search engines such as Google and Bing examine a number of ranking factors. The first step towards accomplishing this is crawling and indexing websites. Crawling and indexing are two different things –
Crawling
Crawling refers to finding updated and new content with the use of search engine crawlers or spiders. Web crawlers examine webpages and follow links on them. As they navigate from link to link, they send Google data about each webpage. The content can be a webpage, an image, a video, a PDF file or a blog post. Nevertheless, links are always used to discover content, no matter what format it is in. Hence, if you want to appear in organic search results, make sure that your website is crawled on every page.
Indexing
Google’s indexing process is the way that search engines organize information before a search so that users can get fast answers. Search engines such as Google and Bing have structured data on content they know about, such as web pages and articles. As soon as these pages are indexed, search engines can decide if they should show these pages in search results based on the information they have about these pages.
What is On-Page and Off-Page SEO?
On-page SEO (also known as on-site SEO) involves optimizing web pages to rank higher in search results. Optimizations are made to the HTML code as well as the visible content.
Off-page SEO refers to any SEO efforts performed outside of a website to improve its ranking on search engines.
Factors that can impact On-Page SEO
Page speed: Page speed, also known as load time, is an important factor in on-page SEO. Google tends to rank faster pages higher than slower ones, so optimizing your pages for speed can also help them rank higher in Google. Caching, images, JavaScript files, and compression are good places to begin improving a page’s speed.
Mobile friendliness: Mobile friendliness measures how well a site performs when used on a mobile device. Pages that are mobile-friendly can be reduced to fit on any device’s screen while providing users with easy navigation. By using responsive design, simple navigation, and fast page load times, they prioritize the mobile user experience.
Title tags: Title tags, also called “page titles,” are HTML tags that describe the title and content of a page. The keywords in title tags are used by Google to determine whether or not a page is topically relevant to a user’s query. Title tags should be optimized using SEO best practices.
Meta descriptions: Meta descriptions are HTML tags that describe what the page is about, similar to title tags. Although Google uses descriptions to determine whether a page is relevant for a query, its main SEO function is to get people to click through to your website.
Content quality: Content is king when it comes to on-page SEO. The key to determining content quality for search engines is to answer the following questions –
- Does the user find it useful?
- Can it be read easily?
- How unique is it?
- Does it relate to the user’s query?
Good content is one that answers “yes” to all these four questions.
HTML headers: Headlines and subheads within a webpage are specified by HTML header tags. Their purpose is to make your website’s content easier to read and understand for your visitors. Search engines use these tags to determine what a page’s content is about and how it relates to a search query.
Image alt text: An image’s alt text is a text description within its HTML tag. The alt text on a page serves as a backup for assistive technologies such as screen readers and browsers when images fail to load. Using alt text, search engines determine how relevant an image is to a search query. This makes alt text an important on-page SEO factor, both for image searches and for traditional web searches.
Internal linking: Internal links to other pages on your site help visitors find related content with extra context or background. Your site’s SEO also improves by helping search engines find new content through internal linking. A link’s anchor text is also an indicator to search engines of what they should expect from the destination page.
Navigation: Navigation refers to ensuring that the content on a web page can be accessed and consumed by everyone.
Factors that can impact Off-Page SEO
Backlinks: Off-page SEO still relies heavily on backlink quality and quantity. Google has made multiple algorithm updates to combat spam and link schemes related to backlinks. Having links on your site helps it appear more authoritative and trustworthy to search engines because they pass “link juice” to it.
Social media: While shares, likes, and comments do not directly affect a page’s ranking, social media is still a valuable channel for promoting your site. You can reach new and existing customers through social media and help people find your company online. Social media posts are indexed by Google, so posting regularly to them helps you control your brand’s SERP.
Google My Business: Google My Business (GMB) is a service that allows businesses to provide important information directly to Google. A description of the business’ location or service area, type of business, contact information, and opening hours is included here. Google uses GMB to populate the local pack and Google Maps search results. Google search engine optimization is a crucial off-page SEO factor for local businesses that rely on local traffic.
LET ZEWEB MEDIA HELP YOU ESTABLISH A STRONG IMAGE ONLINE WITH EFFECTIVE SEO SERVICES
SEO works best if you’ve got good on-page SEO before you spend too much time and effort (and not to mention money) on building links or promoting your site on social media. It takes consistent efforts of a dedicated SEO professional or even a team in the case of bigger websites. The best way to secure SEO help is by either hiring an in-house resource or outsourcing it to SEO service providers like Zeweb Media.
Our website reviews, in-depth technical analysis, and keyword analysis will ensure your website’s foundation is solid. Our SEO services will help you reach a wider audience and increase your website’s traffic with a combination of on-page and off-page SEO.
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There are always repetitive or recurring tasks in every business that takes a lot of time and energy. We can handle such repetitive yet important tasks for you and your team. As a reliable business outsourcing agency, we’ll assign you a dedicated virtual employee or a team to handle your needs efficiently. To learn more about our range of services, click here.
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