What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing your website to meet the needs of search engines. This means that you will need to optimize different parts of your website in order to achieve higher rankings on Google. In fact, there are five steps that you should consider when optimizing your site for search engines.
Step 1: Researching keywords and ranking them based on their competition
Once you have a firm grasp on what people are searching for on the internet, it's time to start ranking them! The first step here will be to research the words and phrases that you wish to rank for so that you can find the right keyword phrases. This could be a phrase like "SEO services" or a more specific one such as "search engine optimization services." You'll want to ensure that these phrases come up in top ten results on the web when somebody types in a query related to your product or service (e.g. "local SEO services," "seo company near me"). Once you've found these key phrases you'll then need to research competitors using tools like Alexa, Compete, and Quantcast to see who ranks well for those particular phrases.
If you're not sure how to go about this, it would be best if you hire an expert for this job. A good place to look is Moz.com. They offer several packages that will help you perform all of these steps and more. It's also important to note that while researching keywords, you need to make sure that they have enough searches per month. If no one is searching for a certain phrase, it won't help your SEO efforts at all.
Step 2: Creating content that people actually want to read
The second step of SEO involves creating high-quality content that meets the needs of your target audience. While we all know that writing content for search engines is important, it is equally as important that you write content that people actually want to read. In other words, don't just write content for search engine bots - create content that people want to read! Make sure that your content includes helpful information like links to your social media profiles, videos, images, etc., but most importantly, make sure that it answers questions that your customers might have.
For instance, if you run a business selling kitchen appliances, you may want to blog about topics such as appliance repair, new kitchen appliances, kitchen trends, etc. However, make sure that you answer the question "how do I fix my broken refrigerator?" The more relevant and valuable your content is, the better chance you have at getting ranked highly by search engines.
Step 3: Link building
Link building is a critical part of SEO because it allows your website to show up in the search results. For example, if someone goes to Google and types in "best SEO services near me", your website will likely appear on page three. However, if you don't link properly, it's unlikely that Google will display your website in the search results at all. So, it's important to build links to your website from other websites with high authority. These sites are known as link farms, which is why you'll often hear the term "link farming".
You'll want to use free tools like Moz.com to find high authority sites that link back to yours. There are even paid tools out there that can help you find high quality, authoritative websites that fit your niche. After finding these sites, email them and ask them to add a link to your website. Be careful though because some sites may require that they receive compensation for adding a link to your website.
Step 4: On-page optimization
On-page optimization involves making changes to your website itself. Some common changes include:
- Using appropriate headers and meta tags
- Making sure that your website loads quickly
- Ensuring that your content is easy to read
- Improving your content's conversion rate
- Maintaining a strong brand identity
- Reducing bounce rates
- Making sure that your site has a clean design
- Using keywords throughout your site
- Etc.
Many of these things can be done automatically through WordPress plugins and themes. However, you can also manually tweak each element yourself. For instance, if you want your page load times to improve, you could add some javascript code to your website to reduce the amount of data that is sent back and forth between your server and the user's browser.
Step 5: Off-page optimization
Off-page optimization involves making changes outside of your website. Common off-site factors include:
- Link building
- Social media marketing
- Article marketing
- Email marketing
These methods are often overlooked when performing SEO, but they play a huge role in increasing your visibility online. You should focus your efforts on social media marketing and content creation if you want to succeed in SEO.
Now that you understand what SEO entails, it's time to get started!