Business has always revolved around appealing to the market, and today is no different – only the method has changed. No business can survive today without having a website. Being online doesn’t automatically guarantee an increase in business. Looking at it logically, your website isn’t the only one on the internet, meaning you have to work to make it easily available to your audience. This is due to the usage of Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO. This is one of the most important marketing points today as it allows your site to come up in the top results on Google, giving you a wider audience.
Good optimisation makes the site easy to use and readable to both your potential customers and the search engines, which in turn allows you to score high in the results query. Other things to take into account is the beauty of the design, good content, coherent structure, fast loading time, and mobile optimisation. Overall, great user experience and high-quality and relevant content is the essence of good SEO. Of course, other segments of SEO are just as important.
To understand everything that goes hand-in-hand with SEO, we first must define it. Search Engine Optimisation refers to improving organic search results, i.e. those you haven’t paid for. Thanks to this invention, it’s now easier than ever to come to the relevant results for any query. For that to happen, though, a website needs to meet certain standards. As a business owner, you must do everything in your power for your website to fit your audience.
The main reason for learning SEO is pretty evident- it helps you get more business. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. We all know we click the first or second site that shows up in the search query after we Google something. By mastering the principles of SEO, your company can be one of those first results.
On-site and Technical SEO are irreplaceable components of SEO. In the past, it was enough to have a decent website with a few main keywords and interesting content, but search engines have become more sophisticated since then. In 2020, the most important factor to take into account is user engagement.
These two terms refer to everything you can do on your website in order to make it more appealing. The first thing to focus on is content. Your users need to search for something, and having good content will automatically make your site more researched. Next, pay attention to title tags. They’re displayed as search engine results and should be a concise description of the content of your page. This way, your users are more likely to click on them and improve your SEO.
URLs can’t be forgotten, either. They are a powerful tool which can be used to represent the category hierarchy of a given website. This information is used to determine the relevance of your content by the search engines. For example, if your URL contains “film-history”, the search engine will be able to conclude your content is not about history in general, but the history of films, thus showing your site in more relevant queries.
On-site and Technical SEO mean little without the proper keywords to back them up. The traditional usage of keywords has changed though, and today, they’re used as a roadmap to high-quality content. Researching keywords allows you to reach the right audience, not just a wider audience. Simply put, the right keywords allow you to predict the shifts in demand and respond to the changing market. This way, you’re always providing what your customers are looking for.
The key to researching keywords is to find those of average value but high clickability. The best way to determine the value of the keyword is by determining how relevant it is to your business. Before you make any decisions, it’s advisable to search the keyword you’ve got your eyes on in the major search engines. This way you’ll get a feel for the competition and understand what you have to do rank as high as them.
On the other hand, we have Off-Site SEO which entails everything you have to do outside of your website in order to improve your ranking. Basically, you have to influence the way search engines and your audience perceives your site.
Link building is the essence of Off-Site SEO. Search engines determine whether a site is relevant or not by reading its backlinks. The higher the value of your backlinks, the higher your ranking. Depending on how they were earned, there are several types of links.
The page owner has no authority over the natural links as they are given editorially. If a makeup blogger links towards the lipstick they prefer, this would qualify as a natural link. It is possible for your users to link your website or for influencers to share it, too. In this case, we’re talking about manually built links. Finally, there are self-created links. These are created by adding backlinks in any type of content such as blogs, press releases or online directories with optimised anchor text.
All of this is done to build authority, trustworthiness, and relevance. Being perceived as an expert in your field helps a business more than anything else.
In the past, it was enough to lace your content with buzzwords and keywords, but today, it’s all about quality. We’ve already mentioned how search engines have become more sophisticated. What this means for your content is that they can essentially rank you based on what they pick up from the context. Content is the perfect opportunity for building authority and trustworthiness, which is why you should aim to be as relevant as possible. If you are distinguished as an expert, people are bound to look to you for help, advice, and most importantly, service.
This means that all of your content should have an air of expertise about it. The title should not be disregarded, as it is the first thing your readers will see. Hence, aim for something interesting and descriptive, so as to give your reader an insight into what to expect. Satisfying information should be easily available, too. If you’re selling a product on your website, for example, make sure that the satisfied customer reviews are easily visible.
In 2020, it’s also important to have an eye for visual content. Images, podcasts, and videos all help your reader stay present and interested, thus building your name as a relevant and informative company.
Now that most search queries happen on our smartphones, it’s not enough to have your site optimised only for computers. If your users can’t navigate the website on their small screens, they’re bound to give up on you entirely. In fact, mobile SEO is considered the backbone of Google’s index. In simple words, this means Google favours mobile search. Even though the index was introduced relatively recently, they have been dropping hints for years. This year is definitely the year to keep up with the mobile SEO trend.
Your strategy should entail more than just having a mobile-friendly site, i.e. one your customers can easily read. First of all, there is a difference between desktop and mobile URLs. The URLs respectively match desktop or mobile queries. This does not mean you will lose your ranking, though, as the mobile-first index does not affect rankings. That being said, mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor as it is closely tied to UX.
The titles and meta descriptions need to be optimised, too. Because you are working with less screen space, you can’t use the same descriptions and titles as you do for the desktop version. The key is to be as concise as possible without sacrificing valuable information.
With mobile SEO, page speed becomes even more important. You’ll need to optimise your visual content and minify code to increase the loading speed. Reducing redirects should also be on your list of priorities.
Finally, don’t block JavaScript, CSS, or any images. In the old days, this was necessary because not all devices could handle these features. Today, this is no longer an issue so there’s no reason to sacrifice the quality of your content. It should just be optimised and easily visible. This is especially important for any videos you might have on your website, as you’ll not to make sure they don’t block the rest of the content or slow the page down.
To complete your SEO strategy, it’s important to shed some light on one of its most important factors- UX. As it was already mentioned, the human factor is extremely important for high rankings. The more your users like your website, the more likely they are to do business with you. Good user experience should, therefore, be high on your list of priorities.
Similar to mobile optimisation, the loading speed should be rather fast. This is why a good organization is very important on your website. If it’s content-heavy, it’s bound to slow down the loading time. A good idea for this issue is to create separate categories for the type of content you provide.
As far as titles and meta descriptions are concerned, you have room to play with them in the context of desktop searches as there’s simply more screen space.
The way your users interact with your website is also part of UX. Old websites usually require readers to actively click and search for the things they want to read, but today, this method doesn’t keep their attention. That’s why you’ll notice most modern sites have slideshow designs, where all the information is neatly presented to the user, and they can easily choose what they want to know more about.
There has been a lot of talk about the evolution of search engines and marketers, and user experience is the cherry on top of that development. It is the main thing that decides how high your ranking is due to what people think of your website. The key to good user experience is listening to your audience and understanding what they want and expect of you.
There are a lot of things to take into account when you’re developing your SEO strategy. It’s even harder now in 2020 when technology has developed so much that the human factor in the searches has become non-omissible. A whole team is required in order to make sure your SEO is on point. Though this digital marketing strategy may be hard, it’s essential for your business to flourish. It’s helpful to know that you are not alone, though, as you can always turn to companies such as Green Web Marketing for help. With a highly-qualified team and numerous satisfied customers to back them up, you can trust high-rankings are headed your way.
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