SEO IN DIGITAL MARKETING

Let us begin with the definition of SEO!

Search Engine Optimization, in short, SEO, is the procedure to make a piece of content rank higher on the Google search engine. Unlike paid advertising, SEO generates organic ranking. To make it even simpler, a piece of content is optimized, so that when people search for specific information, that information is shown on the top by Google.

For better understanding, consider people searching for a vegan chocolate cake. So basically, either they are searching for bakeries selling vegan cakes or recipes and instructions to prepare vegan cakes. So, if your article is all about vegan cakes and recipes, and you want your content to get displayed above all. A properly implemented SEO does the magic.

VITAL ELEMENTS OF SEO

• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO

On-Page SEO

On-Page SEO is all about tailoring your website content, blogs, and articles incorporating the right keywords. Right from the title and meta tags to content is enriched with keywords.

Off-page SEO

As the name mentions, Off-Page SEO is the process of optimizing your website back-end. For example, earning backlinks. This involves building relationships by drafting content that people want to share. Though this takes a lot of effort, it leads to SEO success.

DIFFERENT SEO STRATEGIES

• Black Hat SEO
• White Hat SEO
• Gray Hat SEO

Black Hat

SEO methods involve tactics to earn quick gains. It works and you also gain some traffic to your website, but only for a short period of time. Once Google notices it, you will be penalized for doing it. Some Black Hat Strategies include:

• Keyword Stuffing
• Duplicate content
• Links containing irrelevant content
• Redirecting the user to a different site

White Hat SEO involves strategies that build a sustainable business online. By following this, you will be appropriately targeting your intended crowd. By incorporating white hat strategies, you will be adhering to the search engine rules. Some of the White Hat Strategies:

• Properly labeled images
• Content relevant links
• Relevant web page titles
• Properly used keywords content
• Standards-compliant HTML

Gray Hat

SEO is neither purest as White Hat nor wrongly manipulative as Black Hat techniques. By adopting this, you are not intentionally tricking anyone or gaming the system.

Read more about White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO: What is the Difference

SEO BASICS

Now, let us get a little deep into the basics of SEO and the actions you need to implement for gaining a top position on Google’s Search Engine.

• Content
• Keywords
• HTML
• Website structure
• Links

CONTENT

Content is the core part of SEO. Because a Google user becomes happy when he gets the information that serves his needs. For instance, if you type an Eggless chocolate cake recipe, Google’s algorithm produces the best recipe it can find. This implies that content is the main element to rank high in SEO. Even if you have the best SEO tools and knowledge, if there is no quality content, then all your efforts go in vain.

How to write quality content?

1. User Intent: Understand what the reader expects when they land on your blog page or website.
2. Understanding the customers: To write for the customers, you first have to understand what their needs and necessities are. So, think from their perspective.
3. Content Breakup: Not everyone gets interested in reading those long paragraphs. So keep it short and make it look elegant by adding bullet points, appropriate titles, and images.
4. Create Call-to-Action: After reading the content, obviously, you expect readers to perform something. So add call-to-actions along with comment sections.

Elements of a Good Content

• Quality
• Intent
• Freshness

KEYWORDS RESEARCH

Keywords research is the next important factor, and Search engines mostly depend on them. It also determines how you build links. So, Keyword research is not something that you can accomplish in one day but is a constant job. Even though the reasons are many for doing keyword research, two noticeable reasons are; first is to develop relevant content and the second obviously is to rank on Google.

How to select the best keywords?

1. Take the help of the available tools: There are plenty of tools available online, like Ubersuggest and Ahrefs. They make your life easier by giving an insight into your keyword competitions.
2. Analyze the Semantics: The future of keyword research could be understood by analyzing the semantics. Even if you insert a specific keyword 15 times, Google does not seem to care, but what search engines determine is whether the keywords match the intent or not. If your content is good, Google automatically picks it for you.
3. Discover the intent: What you need to understand is that there is a large difference between what a buyer will type and what a researcher will type on a search engine. If you are writing content for selling something, then you do not need a researcher. On the contrary, if you are drafting content to answer something, then you do not need a buyer.
4. Know your competitors: One of the basic ways to analyze the keywords is to learn what your competitors are doing online. If one of your competitors is ranking on Google’s first page, then go to the keywords tool, insert their URL. By doing so, you will know what keywords they are using in their content.

Elements to consider while performing keyword research:

1. Choose the right keywords
2. Competition Analysis
3. Search Intent

HTML

SEO is a puzzle, and HTML is one piece of the puzzle. So, without HTML, your SEO is incomplete. HTML defines tags, headers, and descriptions. Without these 3 elements, Google will find it difficult to understand what your content is all about.

I understand, as soon as one notices the term HTML, most of you get scared thinking it is all about coding. Do not worry, you don’t need to be an HTML specialist, nor will you have to understand the code. It is a very easy process to understand tags and descriptions.

How to make HTML improvements?

1. Make use of the tools: As already mentioned, there are numerous tools online serving different SEO purposes. Investing in these tools is worth the investment as they help you determine the HTML defects on your site. For instance, Ahrefs will give you analyses of how many of your articles do not have Meta descriptions or if your website has duplicate title tags.
2. Check your competitors: Stealing is bad, but not getting inspired from the websites that are already doing best on Google. See what your competitors are doing to understand what and how to write your title and Meta descriptions.
3. Keywords Stuffing: Never do it! A keyword-stuffed Meta description reads horribly. If a description has more than enough keywords, Google will penalize you.
4. Add Headers: Add H1, H2, H3, and H4 headers and include primary keywords. This helps Google to understand which subject your content is focusing on.

Elements of HTML:

1. Meta descriptions
2.  Title tags
3. Alt text
4. Schema
5. URL slug
6. Subheadings

WEBSITE STRUCTURE

Tools may predict that there are thousands of problems on the website, but there will be one root cause. Determining this will make your life easy. If you have many pages with the same content, then canonical tags will help sort your issue by saying which the original content is. A line of code below does the magic and saves your time.

<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.website.com/page/” />

Elements of a website structure:

1. Easy to crawl
2. Mobile-friendly designs
3. HTTPS and SSL
4. Page speed
5. Duplicate content

A good website design renders better user experiences and is important for SEO marketing. Some of the key attributes of a good site architecture are mobile-friendly design, fast loading times, and a safe connection.

Even before purchasing the domain, your architecture should be ready, and that is the convention followed. So, implement reverse engineering ways to design a website, this helps you give better user experiences. It just does not stop here; you also need to optimize your website.

Not clear? Don’t break your head. Just hire Jootoor Designs for beautiful and optimized website architecture. Rest we take care!

How to design a website for improved performance?

1. Focus on core web vitals: Another piece of a puzzle that affects SEO is Core Web Vitals. Understand what these are and how it influences your web page ranking.
2. Get a sitemap: WordPress plugins are to help you with these, especially if you have a large website with thousands of pages. For example, Real estate websites. Their pages are constantly changing as and when a property is sold or a new property is for sale.
   Hence, buying a site map can help such a website rank better, and dramatically increase the number of keywords.
3. Mend Canonicalization disputes: There are features that cause duplication of content on the website. The solution is obtained after learning the original cause of the issue. It can be as complicated as restructuring your site’s architecture or can be as minute as removing a line of code.

LINKS

Google’s one of the important factors to rank pages on top are the reliable links. A lot of websites and pages suffer because they do not have this factor implemented in the right way. On implementing wrong strategies, you will have to face failure from the beginning itself. While a long-term strategy and building links on the right way always leads to success, although it may take a bit longer. Remember, there is no shortcut to success!

How to enhance your link profile?

• Eliminate unsafe links: Google’s Disavow tool helps you sort out unsafe link issues. It removes the links that stop you from ranking high on Google. However, too much is too bad; use it carefully because removing too many links does more harm than good. Just remove the links that are no longer in use and links that have popped up accidentally on your website.
• Add Internal Links: Internal Links are important as external links. Creating web topics about the same niche helps too. Google scans your website thoroughly. It pays attention to search intents and the overall comprehensiveness of content. If your content answers too many questions in one place, be prepared to receive the reward from Google.
• Exclude shortcut methods: Building links takes time, what I mean is there is no shortcut to link building as well. Involve in conversations with people; tell them how your content adds value to their sites. Research sites that relate to business and content, connect with them via emails and social media.

Elements of Link Building

1. Number of links
2. Anchor texts
3. Link Quality

Conclusion

Any successful content depends on SEO, and it is a never-ending process. Search Engines are not static and keep changing with changing customer behavior. Drafting SEO-friendly content is not only about ranking top on Google, but also writing content for the target audience. Their behavior directly affects the performance of your site.

Considering everything and creating content is a great deal of work. It is time-consuming unless you have a hold on it. Jootoor Designs have a team of SEO specialists to make your task easy. We incorporate relevant digital marketing strategies to make your business’s online presence evident.

We are determined to help businesses grow. Let the next be yours! Connect with us today.