Interesting Fact: Google processes about 40,000 queries every second which translates to more than 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year. This largely contributes to website traffic and significantly impacts businesses in a positive way. However, the deal is that Google is constantly tweaking its search algorithms. And therefore SEO practices that worked in the past may or may not work in the future.
But hey, the basic fundamentals remain the same. So, once you master the essentials, be rest assured of getting noticed by your target audience. Intrinsically, SEO boils down to simply structuring and optimizing content while communicating the value of your offering.
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Here’s a quick start guide to SEO on how to follow the basic rules and finally nail it.
Simple Basic SEO Rules For 2023!
SEO (search engine optimization) is a practice to increase organic traffic and make your content rank higher in search results. Google dominates the search engine space with over 90% market share. SEO focuses on optimizing the content with a goal of deriving more visitors and leading to more conversions.
At core, the meaning of SEO is to get visibility with the top three aspects.- Technicality, quality content and backlinks. The efforts of SEO can take a while to materialize, but once it does, it helps to attain high ranking and great visibility.
How to build up a strong SEO strategy?
- Titles, tags & URLs!
Titles, meta descriptions and URLs are amongst the strongest SEO ranking factors.
One must craft precise URLs to crack SEO as they are a significant ranking factor. They provide a great user experience when optimized perfectly. Include the target keywords, keep it short and separate words with the help of hyphens. Make sure to incorporate words that are relevant and have lowercase letters.
Speaking of meta descriptions, it’s a summary of content that’s positioned below the title in the search results. It must be around 160 characters with absolutely appealing and informative content for readers to click in a jiffy. In the case of titles, sequencing your focus keyword in it and mostly in the beginning is very important.
- Optimize your content
Without drafting an awesome and well-optimized content; it will certainly not rank. Some of the aspects to factor in are- including target keywords in your content and while doing so keeping the density in mind. Go all out to focus on your content quality. Make it readable, conversational, structured and super engaging. Write catchy titles and incorporate small paragraphs. Also, remember to incorporate internal and external links. And while you do so, remember to add links that make sense.
Besides concentrating on the readability aspect, it is important to focus on the visuals as well. For instance, use rich images, videos and infographics. Make it engaging in every possible way.
- A speedy site speed
A relatively slow website can ruin your SEO remarkably. Remember that Google is always trying to deliver the best experiences and a lightning fast website is the way to make it user friendly. The slower your page uploads the quicker visitors will bounce off your website. Some ways of cracking this is by keeping compressed images, reducing your redirects, caching your web pages, choosing a performance-optimized solution and enabling browser caches.
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Working on this is crucial because slow websites can predominantly reduce your site’s potential to make leads.
- Build backlinks
Building backlinks is one of the most important things to do while working on off-page SEO. Primarily, in the case of newer websites, backlinks are extremely important as it’s the only way for Google to build trust. Some of the ways of working on this is by reaching out to other websites and asking them to guest post. Sharing content across all social media channels helps big time. Also, get backlinks from your visual assets like charts, infographics, statistics and more.
- Mobile-friendly content
Reason being, at present, the mobile internet usage sits at 56% globally. And therefore, even Google is ranking mobile-friendly websites higher. Also, Google has started to penalize non-mobile friendly websites. So, it is important to craft a responsive website and design a layout that’s user-friendly.
Make use of tools like SE Ranking Website Audit to evaluate mobile optimization and Accelerate Mobile Pages to curate content that loads instantly.
- Deliver an enhanced user experience
Delivering an enhanced user experience should be your priority because Google keeps a close eye on how visitors engage with your page. With a great user experience you can expect the search ranking of your content to boost. Besides the page speed, there are some factors to consider. For instance while structuring your content, remember to incorporate SEO-friendly headings and subheadings. While making use of visuals (images/videos) be careful about only using appropriate ones.
Pop ups can really irritate visitors and therefore Google has penalized websites featuring intrusive pop-ups in the past. Hence, be very heedful about staying miles away from them. And lastly, using white space is great for branding and legibility; so don’t shy away from it.
- Orient your content with search intent
Let’s begin by explaining what a search intent is. It’s ideally an intention with which an internet user has while entering a search into the search engine. The most common types of search intent are as follows:
- Informational- When a user is looking to learn something
- Commercial- When a user is searching for valuable insight before making a purchase
- Navigational- When a user is looking for a specific website
- Transactional- When a user is intending to complete a specific purchase or action
So, quickly find your keyword intent and align your content to it.
- Don’t replace content with AI
Artificial Intelligence tools like Copy.ai, Jasper.ai and many more have taken the internet by a storm. However, Google sees it as a problem and suggests that, use it to support human content but do not depend on it completely. Google says that AI is only an advantage to content creators. However, the need for human writers, editors and designers is still relevant for reasons mentioned below:
- High quality content
- Content that makes sense to your target audience
- Enriched with creativity
- Aligned to your brand personality
If you are generating content entirely based on AI, get ready to be penalized by Google. Although Artificial Intelligence has entered multiple industries it cannot rule the content domain.
- Schema Markup
Schema markups are an essential for SEO. It lays a foundation for search engine bots to comprehend website content and demonstrate it in an organized way. Adding it to your website can help improve click-through rates and derive organic traffic to a great extent. Schema markup identifies and specifies the type of content on your website like product reviews, blogs, images and more. It also displays detailed information such as pricing and helps in conversions.
Schema markups also help in increasing the brand’s visibility.
- Google Algorithm
And lastly, it’s crucial to stay in loop with Google Algorithm. For instance, Google last launched an algorithm stating all the content which is not E-E-A-T compliant will not rank. So, make sure your content is experience-based (a first hand experience), expert oriented, authoritative and trustworthy. Be definite about establishing content that’s factually-accurate or lineup with scientific consensus.
Google is likely to give preference to this content.
One Last Thought:
Unquestionably, SEO has an impact over any online business. Google’s inclination is towards high-value content that delivers a great user experience. Don’t be surprised, but Google understands how people interact with every content. And hey, Google ranking can make or break your online strategy.
The search engine optimization field is constantly evolving. So, keep an eye for the updates, incorporate the basics and pave your way forward.
