Whenever someone opens a guide on SEO on the internet, most articles assume that people already have a general idea about what SEO is, and many technical terms are used. An easy and friendly guide to SEO would be one, that takes into account the fact that not everyone knows about keywords, meta description and meta titles, and need comprehensive information on it, along with examples.
Search Engine Optimization
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and in simpler terms, SEO is all about making a website rank high in search engine results, without paying the search engine. It is a way through which webmasters tell search engines that the quality of their website is good, they should include the website in their directory, so that it appears in the search engine results page.
Why Care About SEO?
Marketers must wonder why they should care about SEO website optimisation and not just the other digital marketing channels. SEO is particularly used for increasing the traffic of a website, by targeting the audience of a brand. SEO targets search engines, which every user uses for the looking up products and services they want to buy, or current affairs news they want to read.
What Do Search Engine Do?
When a marketer says that a website is optimized for a search engine, it means that the website is developed keeping in mind the guidelines, which would help the website get the top ranking. There are many factors which SEO experts have to take into account, before they can be sure that their website would be noticed by search engines. Some of these factors can be explained in simpler language, and they are not technical either.
Keywords Usage
When users search something on the internet, they often use a specific set of keywords. For example, if someone is looking for courses on SEO, then they will either type SEO courses or courses for learning SEO in the search engine. If a website that offers such a service to people uses these particular keywords and other relevant phrases, then their website would show on the top of the SERP.
One needs to know how to look for keywords. SEO experts can look for keywords by studying the suggestions that different search engines, like Google and YouTube give to their users, when they type in a specific set of keywords. This is the simplest way to do a keyword research. There are tools available on Google for keyword planning, but that is something that SEO experts should study about.
Social Metrics
Every individual understands that when something is shared on social media websites, then that gets attention from users. If the link of an article is shared over and over on a website, then people who see the link will surely open it. However, the title of the article and the Meta description also makes a big difference.
Meta Description
Everyone knows what a description is, but when the word Meta is added to it, it can become confusing. Meta is a tag in HTML, and it is a snippet or a summary of what a web page, a website or an article holds. For example, when people search for an institution like the World Bank, the Meta description often reveal the main objective of the World Bank, and the name of its current leader. This Meta description is crucial for content promotion, because it tells the search engines and the users what a page is all about. If a meta description is good, then the click through rate would increase, increasing the traffic to a website.
Title Tags
The essays that students write in their school life, or the articles that journalists write, all have one thing in common; titles. Without a good title, the thing which makes a first good impression on people, users wont feel the need or urge to read something. The title tag is something that users see written on the top of their tab; for example, when they are browsing Facebook, then the title tag would be Facebook, which they can see easily. It helps them hop from one tab to another, without confusing one website with the other.
Body Content
Body Content is very important, because it makes or breaks a website. If the content on a website is just ridden with keywords chosen earlier, or its just lengthy pages of irrelevant information, then that wont appeal to the users. Users want information which is unique and well formatted. There should be a clear format for the content posted, like proper headings, sub headings, paragraphs, summary and bullet points.
The key with SEO content is that, it should be engaging. If SEO content is engaging, then it would mean that users stay longer on a website, explore it more, and if it is an eCommerce website, then they buy products or services. Good content, that has a proper usage of keywords, will provide users with a good experience and they will share the link of the page with other users as well.
Alt Images
Anyone who saves images from the internet on a daily basis knows that sometimes people dont name their images. They save them in the default name that they are given, which is most of the time, image 1 or untitled image. In SEO, marketers have the chance to give their images alt attribute, which means naming them properly so that search engines and users know what they are about. When users save the image using alt tags, then they would be able to retain what they have saved and why they have saved it.
Things To Remember
The main thing to remember in SEO is that content is the king, and it should always be rich. If beginners want to succeed in the implementation of SEO, then they need to produce helpful content that other websites dont. They need to write by keeping in mind user intent, as in what the user wants to read and not search engine intent, as in what it will rank.