In today’s world, we all know that Google is king. With pretty much all of our questions, we turn to the search platform. So it’s no wonder that everyone is trying to do what they can to make their information discoverable. This is exactly what SEO is – the practice of optimizing your content to appear higher within search results.
That’s why it is important to learn all the skills needed to become a certified SEO & SEM Master I™
It takes a lot of work and effort to create a website, from implementing SEO tactics to writing the proper metadata. Getting your information out there is simply not enough. According to studies, 75% of clicks on search engines go to the top three results. 25% of clicks are dispersed across the thousands of other results. It has become a top priority to be ranked amongst those top three.
That’s why it is absolutely crucial that you are paying attention to the small details on your site. Let’s cover the basics of what it takes to implement clarify meeting SEO standards.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing websites or blogs so that they rank well on search engines through organic (non-paid) searches. This is of the most important types of marketing for any business.
Your website needs to satisfy certain cues that platforms like Google look for. Google is looking to provide a positive user experience for its searchers and aim to present the best possible information available. SEO is the process of making sure search engines recognize your content as the best information on the web for a particular search query.
How do SEO and search engines work?
Robots that crawl on web pages are used by search engines across the internet in order to determine what content they contain. They add these pages to their index once they’ve gathered enough information. Their algorithm matches a user’s search query to the relevant information in their index, providing searchers with an accurate answer.
It is impossible to know for sure exactly how various SEO strategies are considered because Google does not release specifics about their algorithm.
To comprehend the essence of SEO, let’s break the definition down and look at the parts:
- Quality of traffic. You can direct all the visitors you desire, but if they’re coming to your site because Search Engines tells them you’re a resource for ice when really you’re an ice distributor, that is not quality traffic. Instead, you want to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in the products that you offer.
- Quantity of traffic. Having the right people clicking from those search engine results pages (SERPs) you’ll enjoy more traffic that is better.
- Organic results. A noteworthy part of many SERPs incorporates ads. Organic traffic is those traffic that you don’t have to pay for.
On-page vs. off-page SEO
Not surprisingly, SEO is impacted by a number of different factors. There is no way to exactly know what influences search engine rankings the most. Experts recommend that your SEO strategy contains a cocktail of tactics. Tactics can largely be broken down into two categories: on-page and off-page SEO.
On-page SEO refers to the strategies that you implement to transform your site, including everything from the design, text to your metadata and alt text. Off-page SEO refers to the steps you take outside of your website. This includes things like external links, social posts, and other website promotion methods.
Both on-page and off-page SEO are essential in driving traffic to your site and in ultimately signaling Search Engines that your site is a significant player. You are helping your pages rank higher and gain more traffic by letting Search Engines know that your site is important and that people are interested in learning about what you have to offer.
How to implement SEO
While this may sound evident, it’s important to note that the first step in implementing the best practices of SEO is creating an outstanding website. Make sure it’s easy to navigate your website providing a good user experience clearly presenting the information that you want to convey. This ensures that you are starting off on the right track to providing an excellent answer to searchers’ queries.
However, SEO is much more than just a professional-looking website. Here are a few of the most essential SEO tactics to take into account:
- Keyword research
- Mobile-friendliness
- Page speed
- Authoritativeness
- External linking
- Internal linking
- Metadata
- Alt text
Keyword Research
Keyword research is perhaps one of the most important parts of understanding and implementing SEO is. The process of keyword research is finding the most relevant words to use on your web pages. Do some investigating, and use professional keyword research tools to understand how people around the world tend to search for things related to your product or service. When it comes to how much traffic your site gets choosing to use the right words can make an enormous difference.
Let’s say your name is Sally and you sell flowers. You may think to title your page “Sally’s Flower Store.” However, quick keyword research would tell you that the keyword “flower store” gets searched on average 2,000 times monthly, while “flower shop” gets searched an average of 30,000 times a month. Instead of using the word “shop” as opposed to “store” on your web pages will send Search Engines the message that your site is in fact what people are looking for.
Continuing with the flower shop example, you may notice that the search results page for “flower shop” is dominated by big-name brands that your small store can’t compete with. Instead, focus on your geographical location (local SEO) or a niche that you specialize in. Including this information on your web pages shows you are a strong option when people are searching for something that you provide.
Mobile Friendliness
Shrinking a regular website down to be small enough to display on a mobile device is a mobile-friendly website. A smaller version of your website. The site displays and functions albeit with a lot of zooming, pinching, and scrolling going on.
Page Speed
If you want a quick answer, the Google recommended page load time is under two seconds: That is the threshold for eCommerce website acceptability. Google aims for under a half-second. When it comes to customer service fast matters.
Authoritativeness
Authority is more than just how confident you speak on a topic, or how many links you use. It’s also about your general reputation on a subject.
For that reason, “authority” is a treasured asset for a brand or website and one that takes work and dedication to acquire.
To be an established authority on a topic showing that you’ve acquired significant recognition as a credible source of information on a topic. That’s the reason why Google and other search engines put such a value on Authority and the reason why it’s a crucial part of E-A-T. Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness or Page Quality.
External Linking
Hyperlinks that point to any domain (target) other than the domain the link exists on (source) is external linking, thus it’s other websites linking to you. Likewise, if you link out to another website, this is also considered an external link.
Internal Linking
Internal links are links that go from one page on a domain to a different page on the same domain. They are commonly used in the main navigation. These types of links are useful for the following reasons: They allow users to navigate a website and they help establish a hierarchy of information for the given website.
Meta Data
Metadata is data that describes other data. Meta is a prefix that most information technology usages. It notes an underlying description. Metadata summarizes basic information about data, which makes it easier to finding and operating with particular instances of data easier.
Alt Text
Alt Text (alternative text) can be described as a word or phrase that’s inserted as an attribute in an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) document. It tells website viewers the nature or contents of an image.
The focus of IIDM is to provide individuals with the knowledge they need to be successful in the ever-changing digital world through a change in mindset, a fresh perspective, and approaches that enable imagination and creativity as well as leveraging the experience and the openness to learn.
Written by Daniël Brink
Digital Marketing Analyst at International Institute of Digital Marketing.