With the wide array of Search Engine Optimization strategies, it can be off-putting for newbies not to know where to start and to learn the best practices.
By sparing you the technical details, which are essential later, you need to know the basics of SEO. At this point acquired you will be able to obtain good places, even the first positions for your pages in the results of the search engines.
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| Principles to Optimize |
In this guide, we offer you the basic principles of SEO in an easy-to-follow structure. If you are already a pro, this will be an interesting reminder of what matters most in your SEO strategy.
Need a team of SEO experts to boost your site traffic? Please do not hesitate to contact us. You will also find in this guide, the 3 essential SEO basics.
First of all, what about organic research for SEO?
53.3% of all web traffic comes from organic search. ( Brightedge )
Organic searches are the starting point for SEO - the natural entry process, usually using a search engine keyword for their search engine query.
Typically, these searches redirect the bulk of visitors to websites. This process helps to acquire potential customers and ultimately generate income.
In organic search, search engines display results in a specific order to provide the best pages for a specific query.
The goal of SEO is to “improve” a page so that it appears closer to first place in the results pages (SERP).
Search engines have a set of criteria, hundreds of factors, for ranking websites, and SEO is all about getting the most out of pages to rank them better, taking into account search engine algorithms.
Now, are you ready to learn more about the three basic principles of SEO naturally? We invite you to read more!
SEO Basics 1: Creating Relevant Content Corresponding to Search Intent
To get a good ranking in search results, you need to understand what Internet users want and how your services or products intersect with their desires.
Search engines don't want you to rely on their algorithms without thinking too much about users. All in all, search engines exist to be of service and help real people with real questions.
In terms of SEO, this means that you have to optimize your pages in a relevant way: targeting keywords and offering quality content.
Let's take a closer look at the SEO relevance criteria.
Keywords
Keywords, essential elements of SEO, are the terms that your content offers to attract Internet users.
If you want them to find your page when they type "best bakery in IDF" into the search bar, that keyword must appear, in some form or another, in your Page Title, Meta Description, and body of your content.
Keywords can be generic phrases - one or two words - or long-tail - three words or more - depending on your content, your competition, and your audience.
Your goal will be to discern the right keywords.
A basic but crucial SEO strategy, keyword research allows you to target the keywords that are most valuable to your business.
And you'll find, as you learn how to rank your website, that keyphrase generation needs to attract users from existing search engines.
There are different SEO tools that can provide you with ideas for queries with data (what people are looking for and, for example, how often), so you can brainstorm 'rationally'.
Competitors in your business are also a reliable source for keyword targeting. Check out their product pages, blog posts... to see what questions they answer.
Researching the main keyword and other keywords are SEO fundamentals that you cannot ignore. Make them part of your strategy.
Research intent
Search intent (also known as "user intent") is the primary goal (or expectation) a user has when entering a query into a search engine.
It turns out that 99% of all search terms fall into 4 search intent categories:
Navigational: Internet users seek to access a particular website or online platform.
Informational: Internet users are looking for information with the intention of learning something.
Commercial: Internet users are looking for information on a specific product or service (most often: opinions, tests, and comparisons on the options available to them…). They intend to find out more about one thing in particular before making a purchase decision.
Transactional: Internet users have a latent purchase intention. This type of search can also be applied to conversion actions (making an appointment, downloading a file, etc.).
Why is purchase intention so important?
Simply put: Satisfying search intent is actually Google's # 1 goal. So, today, if you want to be successful with SEO and content marketing, search intent has to be an integral part of your approach.
It is an essential part of the basics of search engine optimization (ie the basics of SEO). If you don't know the search intent around a keyword, you'll have a hard time ranking in the search results.
In contrast, identifying the intent behind a search will help your content gain a prominent place in search results.
Note that during an SEO Audit, this keyword study is a prerequisite for all the actions that will follow to improve site traffic, its long-term installation among the first results of search engines.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is one of the basics of SEO and one of the most essential aspects of website optimization.
What is On-page SEO?
On-Page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank them higher and gain more relevant traffic from search engines.
On-page refers to both the content and the technical details of a page, which can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals.
Why should you work on On-page SEO?
As said above: Because it is an integral part of SEO basics that can help you achieve higher rankings, reach a wider audience and get more organic traffic.
Unlike Off-Page SEO, On-Page SEO is completely under your control.
What are the criteria for On-page SEO?
On-page optimization consists of many steps.
Here is a list of the 12 important criteria of On-Page SEO that have a direct or indirect influence on the success of your website:
1. Searchable website - and indexed by search robots
2. Site architecture - there is a clear structure and logic in the architecture of the pages
3. Quality outbound links - the website is linked to high-quality external resources
4. Website speed - pages load quickly on all devices
5. Mobile adaptability (Mobile-friendly site) - the page displays correctly on every device and browser
6. Use of HTTPS - the site is secure and has an SSL certificate
7. Friendly URLs - SEO URLs are simple and user friendly
8. Well-targeted content - the page targets a specific search intent
9. Keyword optimization - the page uses relevant keywords in relevant places
10. Image optimization - images are optimized for search engines
11. Readability and user experience - the text is well optimized, readable, and user friendly
12. Click-through rate (CTR) - the page has an optimized Title tag and meta-description tag
While not all of the criteria mentioned are ranking factors, they do correlate with higher rankings. This means that the top-ranked sites generally perform very well in these strands of page optimization.
SEO Basics 2: Strengthening the Authority and Reliability of Your Site
Optimizing your page doesn't mean you should just focus on keywords and site content. You need to take action outside of your own website to impact your ranking on search engine results pages and improve your site's Domain Authority.
We are referring here to the field of “Off-page SEO” (also called “Off-site SEO”).
Optimizing Off-page Ranking Factors involves improving search engine and user perception of a site's popularity, relevance, reliability, and authority.
This is accomplished by other reputable places on the Internet (pages, sites, people, etc.) linking to or promoting your website, and effectively 'guaranteeing' the quality of your content.
Why is off-page optimization important?
While search algorithms and ranking factors are constantly changing, the general consensus within the SEO community is that the relevance, reliability, and authority that an effective off-page SEO brings to a website always play a role. major in the ability of a page to rank.
The link building
Building backlinks is the foundation of Off-page SEO.
Backlinks, literally “backlinks” or “inbound links”, refer to hypertext links within content pointing to other sites, other domains.
Search engines use backlinks from sites as indicators of the quality of linked content, so a site with many 'high value' backlinks will generally rank higher than an otherwise equal site with fewer backlinks.
There are 3 main types of links, defined by how they were acquired: natural links, manually created links, or self-created links.
1. Natural links are attributed in an editorial manner without any action on the part of a page owner. For example, a health blogger adding a link to a post whose theme is healthy cooking and sports is a natural link.
2. Manually created links are earned through deliberate link-building activities. For example: getting customers to link to your website or soliciting influencers to share your content.
3. Self-created links are generated by practices such as adding a backlink in a blog comment, online directory, forum, or press release with optimized anchor text.
And there is a set of self-created linking techniques that tend towards black hat SEO (i.e. questionable, unethical, and/or punishable optimization techniques by search engines or SEO professionals), so go lightly.
Off-site SEO without links
Although acquiring backlinks from other websites is basically the most practiced Off-site SEO strategy, almost any activity taking place outside of your own website and helping to improve your ranking (position) in SERPs could be considered Off-page SEO.
Partner sites must be chosen with the greatest care. For example, the traffic of a weak site offering inbound links is a waste of money and time.
This includes:
1. Social networks
2. The Guest blogging / The “Guest Blog Posting”
3. Linked and unrelated online mentions (quotes) of your brand
4. Influencer marketing / Collaboration with opinion leaders
Note that the net result of each of these activities is to create, whatever the way, an 'external' reference for the benefit of your site.
SEO Basics 3: Designing an Engaging User Experience
Over the past few years, user experience (or UX for User eXperience) has become a basic SEO factor that influences your ranking on Google.
Therefore, more and more SEO specialists have taken an interest in UX.
When we talk about “user experience” in the context of the web, we define a great user experience as one that:
Give users a satisfactory answer to their question:
It means an answer that massively helps their quest - or maybe even ends it, because you answered their question.
To know how to craft the response your users are looking for, you need to understand their "search intent" (see details on this earlier in the article).
If you fail this step, you will fail in everything: delivering a great user experience, generating organic traffic, and making sales.
Very quickly ...:
Your On-page SEO is optimized, your Off-page SEO too, and your quality content is appreciated… yet you are not on the first page of Google!
>> A slow website is likely to scare your visitors away.
Google considers fast-loading pages to be good. And, subsequently, that the speed of sites is one of the ranking factors (and has been for years).
For SEOs, this is really a cornerstone of their SEO best practices.
… Via an easy-to-use site on any device:
While ensuring that pages load quickly, Internet users want websites that are easy to use, with, among other things, clear structures (navigation, titles, etc.) and great readability on all devices.
By fulfilling these requirements, you will therefore offer your visitors a quality user experience.
Master the basics of SEO and generate organic traffic with Digidux
These three categories sum up the keys to SEO. The basics of SEO are just the start, and a team of SEO experts is helpful in implementing these principles and delivering compelling results.
As a digital marketing agency for many sites, we are focused on generating revenue for your project. Contact us now! We support you in generating a qualified traffic flow thanks to our SEO services.
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