SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is the process of improving the quality and quantity of traffic to your website through organic results. In essence it is the process of getting certain pages of your website to the top of results pages for certain search terms. If you can get this right then you will be the number one result for some terms.
Google wants to give users the best results to its users that it possibly can. That is the service they provide after all. Using their algorithm they can determine what results are the best to show to users for what they have searched. It does this by “indexing” content on your website using bots. These bots feed the content back to the algorithm to then determine what is the best thing to show. There lots of factors that go into this ranking, each with varying degrees of importance. These factors can be grouped into three elements; on page SEO, links and technical SEO.
On Page SEO
This refers to the content of the page itself. From the quality/relevance of the written aspects to the images used and HTML tags. It is what your customers will see when they visit your site. It is vital to have this in top shape for both users and Google to read and index. Headings and written content needs to be unique with it focused towards your keyword of choice.
People often overdo the keywords by adding them to every page on their site which will only kill your SEO efforts. Instead, one page should focus on the keyword you want to rank with the other pages then acting as supporting content for your main page. Cannibalisation is what overloading your site with lots of the same keyword is called and it is easily avoided if you are aware of it from the offset.
Images are also vital for on page SEO. They need to have the correct alt tags used on them for top optimisation as well as being quick to load.
Off Page SEO
This refers to links directing to your page from external sources with good authority and relevance to your website. Essentially a reputable website that vouches for you. More backlinks isn’t always better as not all backlinks are good ones. However, if you can get backlinks from sites that are similar to yours and reputable themselves then this will bolster your websites power online.
It is one of the more difficult areas of SEO to crack as officially it is against Google’s terms of service to buy and sell links but this is often how it is done. Finding links for your site is tough to do and may be best left up to an expert as there are a lot of metrics and intricacies to consider for success online.
Technical SEO
Focuses on the “engine” of your website. This concerns the speed of your page, the way you direct bots around your site as well as a few other aspects of SEO. Technical work can indeed be quite technical. Working on a site so that its speed is suitable, it is accessible and ultimately passes all metrics that Google Insights use can be well beyond the capability of non-techy people.
There is more to it than just having a quick site too. Links can break on sites, pages can end up orphaned, pages can have links from http to https and more. This kind of work needs to be minded constantly as issues can crop up without you knowing. If you leave them for too long it can cause massive SEO issues, especially considering they are quite easily kept on top of.
See how website management can help your technical SEO.
To break this down into even simpler terms I like to think of SEO as a group of people you know.
- On page SEO would be what you say about yourself.
- Off page SEO is what others say about you.
- Technical SEO is how you present yourself to the world.
How do I make use of SEO?
To make use of SEO you must first understand all of the above aspects and what the algorithm thinks is good. Then you can start optimising your website to feed the algorithm. Certain areas will have different rules for SEO depending on how competitive it is. The best option for you to figure out what works is to look at the top results in your competing areas and see what they have. Some areas can work with spammy links, others need quality. It’s a mixed bag depending on where you are.
It is a slow and cumbersome process that can give you massive results if done correctly. It can also give you massive headaches if you try and con the algorithm and get penalties. To be successful you have to keep working on it. SEO is a race with no clear finish line. It’s not a case of doing it once and being done with it. It requires a lot of upkeep and checking. Checking both your own site and your competitors so you don’t miss out on something that they have done to get ahead. Get in touch with for SEO offers today.