Introduction to SEO

If you have a website or a business, chances are you want to show up on the first page of Google. But how exactly do you encourage Google to pick your site over others? Enter SEO.

In this post, we will cover the basics of SEO, what it is, and why you might want to leverage it for your website. But first, what is SEO?

What is SEO?

The term “search engine optimization” refers to the process of improving a website’s ranking on search engines. SEO focuses on non-paid (also known as “organic”) search engine results

Why is SEO important?

In a nutshell, SEO is important because it increases the visibility of your website, which results in more visits and opportunities to turn visitors into customers.

SEO is (for the most part) all about content marketing. Content marketing is simply the practice of creating content, typically long-form blog posts or articles, around your main topic to rank in Google for a given search phrase, also known as “keyword.” 

If you owned a greenhouse website, for example, and want to rank on page one for “best greenhouse materials,” you might write a series of blogs around that topic. In this scenario, your blog would pop up on google for people searching for “best greenhouse material,” and you’d be able to establish a relationship with those prospects by offering helpful information. For best results, content should be helpful, informative, well organized, relevant, shareable, and entertaining. 

SEO is also useful for increasing brand recognition, cultivating relationships with prospects, and establishing yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy authority in your profession. The higher you rank on a search engine result page (SERP), the more likely people will notice you and visit your website. 

Ideally, you will always want to be on page one. Why page one? There’s an ongoing SEO joke that goes as follows: 

“where is the best place to hide a dead body? – Page two of google.”

I think you get the gist. And it’s no joke. One-quarter of all web users never go beyond the first page of the SERP.

How do you “practice” SEO?

SEO is not just a button that you press on your website–It’s a long list of best practices. But knowing those best practices is not as easy as you may think, Particularly because, well, Google does not tell anyone what they’re looking for. Well, more specifically, they don’t tell anyone what the algorithm is looking for. 

Google does tell webmasters and Developers what it likes to see but doesn’t give you the metrics, like how keywords should be on a page or how long a blog post should be. 

Fortunately, there are many best practices that you can apply to your website to help it rank higher, but for the purposes of this introduction, we’re not going to get bogged down with technical stuff (yet). We will just briefly touch on two critical elements of SEO. On-page SEO, and off-page SEO, and local SEO. let’s discuss.

On-Page SEO

Many of the elements of SEO that you have power over are referred to as on-page SEO. These considerations include your site’s technical setup, code quality, textual and visual content, and user-friendliness. 

Keywords

One of the most important SEO considerations is what keywords you want to target. Keywords are words and phrases that customers use to navigate web content and that advertisers may use to communicate with customers who are searching for their goods and services.

When researching keywords, consider these three types of keywords

• Short-tail keywords (such as “car”)
• Long-tail keywords (such as “used red ford focus for sale”) 
• Local keywords (such as “used for focus in Boston”)

Keep in mind that it is difficult to rank for short-term keywords, such as dog. It’s much easier to rank for something like “best organic Chihuahua food.” Generally, the more specific, the better.

Off-page SEO

Optimization activities that occur outside of the platform rather than on it are referred to as off-page SEO. 

Backlinks are essentially links that go from someone else’s website to your website. Backlink building is the most common off-page SEO strategy because it tells search engines that the site is valuable and high-quality, which creates authority.

Guest blogging, making a lot of infographics that can be widely circulated, and listing influencers in the content are just a few of the latest best practices for developing high-quality backlinks.

Local SEO 

As more people use their mobile devices to search for goods and services, local SEO is becoming increasingly relevant. Tablets and smartphones now account for 57% of all searches, with half of those searches being for local results. This is why understanding local SEO is so important for local businesses.

If you owned a restaurant, for example, a good local SEO strategy will ensure residents in your area found your website while searching for the best restaurants in town. 

Below are 10 tips that will help you rank higher on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and any other search engine.

1. Does your page satisfy searcher intent?

It all starts here. Google’s primary goal is to satisfy searcher intent. So, the best way to be found on Google search is by answering a query. Know what questions you want to answer/rank for and keep them top-of-mind.

2. Does the title contain CTR Increasing modifiers?

Keyword modifiers are extra words that people add to their search queries to get more relevant results. Using CTR modifiers like “best,” “guide,” “checklist,” “fast,” “review,” “for men,” “free,” “review,” and “2021” can help you rank for long-tail versions of your target keyword. For example: “How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform in 2021 (Compared)” The subject is how to choose a blogging platform. The CTR modifiers are Best, 2021, and compared.”

3. Does the post have a unique, click-worthy meta description?

The meta description is the first impression a searcher has of your content. An enticing meta description with keywords and CTR modifiers can encourage a searcher to click your post and increase the click-through rate (CTR). The meta description should be unique to that of any other page. The meta description can just be a short and snappy summary of the post. You can also use it to qualify your reader, e.g., “if you are planning to buy Apple’s new AirTags, you might want to read this first.” 

Meta descriptions can be any length, but it’s best to keep meta descriptions long enough that they’re sufficiently descriptive but not so long that they get truncated in the Search Results. We recommend the meta description length to be between 140–160 characters.

4. Does your post contain H2 Tags?

One of the most important tags on a page (for SEO purposes) is the H1 tag, which is typically set to be the title by default. The next tags Google uses to understand what is important on the page are H2 tags. These tags are meant to be used as subheadings for different topics within your post. Try to include those keywords you would have liked to add in the title but did not have space for. 

Do not skip tags. H1s are followed by H2s, which are followed by H3s. Keep them in this order. Do not choose tags based on color, size, or font-weight. These stylistic choices can confuse Google.

Don’t use one-word subheadings; They provide little value. Instead of “Price” as a subheading, consider ”Are Apple AirTags budget-friendly?”

5. Have you answered at least one additional question related to the keyword?

Content that ranks best in Google tends to cover an entire topic in-depth. For best chances of ranking long term, your post should answer multiple questions around your topic. For best results, wrap the question in a heading tag so crawlers can clearly see you are about to answer the question in the subsequent paragraph. This has the benefit of that specific passage showing up on the search results page.

For best results, make your H2 subheadings a question, then immediately follow them up with the answer to the question. For example, if you’re writing a review of a product and your title is “The Asus Zenfone 8 Is an Affordable, Compelling Option If You Love Small Phones” a subheading can be “Who should not buy the Asus Zenfone 8?” You don’t have to worry about placing the keywords near the front for H2s. 

6. Are your paragraphs short 

No one likes to read a wall of text. This is why short paragraphs outperform long paragraphs online. You don’t want your readers to feel like they’re reading a book. If they feel even slightly overwhelmed, they are one click away from finding something that does not feel overwhelming. Use short paragraphs to encourage readers to hop from line to line, keeping them engaged. Making things as easily digestible as possible is paramount in keeping readers on the page for longer.

7. Does your page have supporting images?

I recommend adding at least one supplemental image to every post. It’s best practice to use your original photos when possible as you will be the only owners of the images, which adds uniqueness and authority to your content. If this is not possible, try to find a similar image that you can use that makes sense with the post. Images have the potential to bring us a lot of clicks. Try to place additional images strategically to break up walls of text.

8. Does your page have at least one embedded video?

Adding embedded videos is an easy way to add relevant content to your posts. Videos also make you eligible to show up on the video section of the search results page. So when a user searches for the title of that video, you are likely to show up as a blog post that contains information regarding that topic. And even if the video in the post has nothing to do with the search query, you will show up on the video section of the search results page. Even adding a 3 second GIF file will work. It’s an easy win. 

9. Does the post have a category applied?

There is an SEO benefit of putting your post in its respective category. Crawlers will understand the link structure of the article and will have a better idea of what this post is about based on the post category and link structure.

10. Does your post use bullet points and numbered lists?

The use of structured data such as bullet points ordered lists, and tables are highly encouraged. Structured data helps readers understand the content more clearly, separates boring walls of text and increases the chances of showing up as a rich snippet on the search results page.

Conclusion

Now that you’re armed with these new, powerful SEO tips, you are ready to conquer Google and, in turn, succeed with your endeavors.