The Complete Guide To SEO | Everything You Need To Know
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SEO is one of the most important aspects of online marketing. It is the process of optimizing your website and content so that you can rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
When people search for terms related to your business, you want your website to be one of the first results they see.
SEO can be a complex topic, but this guide will teach you everything you need to know. We’ll start with the basics and work our way up to more advanced concepts.
By the end, you’ll know how to optimize your website and content for SEO, which will help to increase the visibility of your website.
What is SEO
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of improving the ranking of a website on search engines. The higher the ranking, the more likely people are to find the website.
SEO can be used to improve the visibility of a website for free, which makes it a very cost-effective marketing strategy.
SEO is a long-term strategy that requires patience and regular effort. However, if done correctly, SEO can result in a significant increase in traffic to a website.
SEO can be classified into three distinct categories, (1) On-Page SEO, (2) Off-Page SEO and (3) Technical SEO.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO contains a broad category of topics from titles and headings all the way to internal linking and image alt tags.
Luckily there are several great online SEO tools that will help you check maybe of the basic generic aspects of on-page SEO. We’ll include a short list of the online tools we like best.
All three tools will give you a wealth of information on your current websites on-page SEO status.
We also created a webpage which will discuss many of the broader aspects of SEO. You can visit the page here -> Increase Your Organic Reach with On-Page SEO.
Important On-Page SEO Terms
On-page optimization is the process of improving the ranking of a website by optimizing its pages for Google search. There are many on-page factors that contribute to a site’s rank, but the most important are the title tag, meta description, header tags, image optimization, and content.
Each element must be carefully crafted to achieve the best results. By following the right guidelines and using effective techniques, on-page optimization can help any site rank higher in search results.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is crucial to understanding SEO. As the research helps to define the exact words to use when designing web pages and writing content. The keyword research is based on analyzing data provided by search engines like Google through the use of their AdWords Tools.
This keyword data shows the number of searches that a word gets every month, and a list of other related keywords.
Recommended Keyword Tool – Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a valuable tool which will tell you the number of searchers and “market value” for individual keywords.
Meta Titles & Description
Meta titles and descriptions have been around since the beginning of SEO. They were easy to be a very important ranking factor when SEO was just beginning. In todays SEO world, meta titles & descriptions still play an important role.
As they are often used in search results as a description for a webpages content. Recently, Google has bypassed meta titles and have been generating their own titles for a webpages content description.
Recommended Meta Title & Description Tool – Serp Simulator
Serp Simulator helps you to write better meta titles and descriptions, you’ll also be able to see what your title & description look like in a simulated Google search.
Structured Data
Structured data is important as it helps search engines such as Google to quickly understand what your webpage is about. Structure Data provides some context on how your web page should be used.
Recommended Structured Data Tester – Google Search Central
Google’s Structured Data Tester checks the code and information that you use for your structured data.
SEO Copywriting
SEO Copywriting is content that is created with the intention to rank well in organic searches. Most often such content is informational in nature and places an emphasis on answering specific questions.
SEO copywriting is extremely important to the an SEO campaign, as it helps to power search engines.
Recommended Copywriting Tool: Google Trends
Google Trends helps you to better research and understanding of popular keyword trends.
User Experience
Google’s search algorithm has always been heavily weighted on two main factors: relevance & authority. However, in recent years, Google has placed an increased emphasis on the user experience (UX) of a website in order to provide the best possible experience for its users.
This is because a positive UX will keep people coming back to Google for their search needs, and over time will result in higher rankings for those websites with great UXs.
As SEO becomes more complex and competitive, it’s more important than ever for a businesses to focus on long term quality SEO.
Recommended User Experience Tool:
Internal Linking
Internal Linking has become increasingly important as Google began to scale back their website crawling. Internal links helps Google’s crawl bits to find important pages on your website.
A slower Google crawl frequency means that you need to make sure that your websites relevant pages are liked together which will help to increase your websites relevance and authority.
Mobile Responsiveness
Mobile search has become the most popular type of search on Google. Due to the magnitude of mobile search Google now ranks a website based on it’s mobile useability and responsiveness.
If your website isn’t responsive and easy to navigate when view on a handphone, your website will probably not be too popular on Google.
Recommended Mobile Responsiveness Tool: Google Search Mobile Friendly Test
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is the process of optimizing a website indirectly, by improving its online presence and reputation.
This can be done by building high-quality links from other websites, creating relevant and engaging content, and promoting the website through social media channels.
Off-page SEO is an important part of any SEO strategy, as it can help to improve the website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). It is also a great way to increase traffic to the website and can help to build brand awareness and trust.
Link Building – Link building is the process of acquiring links to a website from other websites. Inbound links are an important part of SEO because they indicate to search engines that your site is an authority on a particular topic.
The higher the quality and quantity of your inbound links, the better your site will rank in search engine results pages.
There are a number of different ways to build links, but the most effective methods are those that are relevant to your industry and target audience. Here are a few of the most common link building strategies:
• Guest blogging
• Content marketing
• Press releases
• Social
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing a website for technical search engine crawlers. It covers the optimization of a website’s architecture, coding, and structure for the purpose of improving its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Technical SEO is often neglected, despite being one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization.
Many site owners mistakenly believe that technical SEO is only necessary for large ecommerce websites. However, even small websites can benefit from optimizing their technical setup.
By following the principles of technical SEO, you can ensure that your website is crawlable by search engine bots, and that your web pages are indexed and crawled.
Final Thoughts on On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is one of the most important, but often overlooked, aspects of optimizing a website for search engines.
By taking the time to carefully consider and implement the right elements on each page of your site, you can create a strong foundation that will help your site rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more visitors.
There are many factors to keep in mind when optimizing your pages for SEO, but some of the most important include choosing the right keywords, formatting content correctly.
Online Ventures Asia has been helping businesses with their Search Engine Optimization for many years. Please feel free to contact us with your questions or projects. We might be able to help.
Philip J. Polaski
Online Ventures Asia
Philip Polaski is a Digital Marketer and Web Designer with over 15 years of experience in helping small and medium-sized businesses reach their potential through digital marketing.