Some people say that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important factors in a site’s success. That may seem like an exaggeration, but consider the fact that when you Google something, you wouldn’t be looking at the site you see right now if it wasn’t for SEO. But what is it, why should you care and how does it work?
What Is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. It is a process of optimizing your content to make sure it ranks high on Google, Bing and Yahoo. An SEO-friendly site increases your chances of getting more traffic simply because more people are likely to find it when they search on a particular term through the search engine. SEO is therefore a process where you ensure your website’s visibility among both your target audience AND the search engines.
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Why You Should Care About SEO?
As a business owner or marketer, you should care about SEO. It can help grow your company’s revenue and traffic by attracting more visitors to your site and converting them into leads or customers. For example, if you want more traffic from organic search (people who type keywords into Google), then you need to optimize your website for those keywords.
How Does SEO Work?
Search engines such as Google use complex algorithms (a set of rules) to determine which websites should appear at the top of their search results for any given query (keyword). These algorithms look at hundreds of factors when determining where websites should rank in their listings — including how often a keyword appears on a page, whether the content on that page is relevant.
Beginner’s Guide To SEO
SEO is actually quite easy to learn. It does not require any special skills or knowledge of code-writing in order to implement it successfully on your website or blog. In this beginner’s guide, we’ll cover everything from what SEO is to how to get started. This guide will also give you an overview of some of the most important Sydney SEO factors that influence search rankings.
On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization is a set of SEO tactics. It improves your website content so that search engines can understand what your website is about. The main purpose of on page optimization is to improve the ranking of your website in search engines. It can be done by either changing the content of a page or by altering its HTML code.
There are many different types of on-site optimization, including:
1. Content Optimization
This involves creating relevant, useful and engaging content for your website visitors. It can also include adding keywords to your content so that they appear in search engines’ autocomplete features and search results.
Content should be relevant and unique. It should not be copied from other websites. Use appropriate keywords in titles, headlines and descriptions that are related to your business.
2. Structural Optimization
This refers to the way you structure your website’s HTML code so that it is more easily crawled by search engines. For example, you might want to make sure that all pages have relevant titles and descriptions but avoid stuffing them with keywords or unnecessary information.
3. Title Tags
The title tag is the first thing a visitor sees when they come to your site, so it’s important that it’s clear and descriptive. Most themes will have an area specifically for this, but if yours doesn’t you can add it manually into the <head> section of your template file.
4. Meta Descriptions
Each page should have a meta description that describes what the page is about in 25-50 words or less. You can enter this into most themes’ sidebars. If yours doesn’t have an area specifically for this, then you can add it manually into the <head> section of your template file.
5. Keywords
Keywords are one of the most important elements of on-page optimization because they tell search engines what content should be included in their search results for certain terms.
6. URLs
URLs should be short, descriptive and meaningful. Keywords should be included in URL whenever possible.
7. Internal Linking
Internal links are links from one page to another within the same website. These links are very important for SEO as they help search engine bots crawl deeper into your site and index its contents better than external links alone would do.
8. Outbound Links
Outbound links are links from your website to other websites or resources outside of it. These links should only be used when they really add value to the user experience and provide information that cannot be found on your own site (no keyword stuffing).
Off-Page Optimization
Off-page optimization is the process of creating good quality links to your website. This is one of the most important aspects of SEO, as search engines use links to determine a page’s popularity and trustworthiness.
There are many ways to build backlinks to your site, but the most effective are:
1. Link Building
Link building today is completely different that what it used to be. It’s now not only about a massive link juice flowing from one site to the other. But also about getting quality, contextual links. The method has changed but the goal remains the same – to get quality backlinks for your website or blog.
2. Social Media
The more social media profiles and followers you have, the better chance you have of getting links back to your site from these profiles (especially if they’re popular). Sharing content on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can help increase awareness of your business and bring in new visitors. If you’re not using social media to drive traffic to your site, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with potential customers and build the brand awareness that helps you rank higher in search engines. The most popular platforms are Facebook and Twitter, but there are many others to choose from.
3. RSS feeds
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a technology that allows websites to automatically update a feed of new content that can be used by other websites or blogs. It allows people who subscribe to your content to get notifications whenever new articles are added, which in turn increases the chances that they’ll visit your site again in the future.
Conclusion
SEO is a powerful marketing tool for any business. But it’s especially powerful for small businesses because of the limited resources these organizations may have to invest in advertising and marketing campaigns. Using SEO as part of your overall strategy can help you build your brand organically and create more leads, which ultimately helps to grow your business. While the best way to implement SEO strategy changes over time, there are some basic building blocks that never change. This complete guide will walk you through those basics, and help you tackle each new part of your SEO strategy one step at a time.