Guess how many websites come up each day.
Any ideas?
A survey by Netcraft in 2012 showed that total number of websites launched in 2012 were 51 million i.e. ~140,000 per day.
This flood makes it necessary for your website to stand out from the rest. But , how can this be done ?
This is where SEO i.e. Search Engine Optimisation comes into play.
In a world where over 90% of online experiences start with a search engine, showing up on the front page of Google Search can be the deciding factor for a business’ growth.
What does SEO mean ?
Quite simply, SEO is the term used for all the steps that can be used to ensure the visibility of your website and its content on search engine results pages (SERPs). Visibility here means how high it appears in the SERP in the Organic Results i.e. the naturally appearing results, not the paid sections.
The methods vary from technical practices you can use behind the scenes on your website (on-page SE) to all the promotional (off-page SEO) approaches you can use to raise your site’s visibility (link-building, social media marketing).
Here’s a short video that will give you a clear picture about SEO.
What do Search Engines look for ?
1) How Relevant is the page w.r.t the user’s search. Search Engines makes use of the keywords , user location , history, time period and many other factors to show the user results which is accurate and relevant.
2) Content Quality is as important as the keywords. Websites publishing regular, fresh and helpful articles and videos are usually ranked higher.
3) User Experience : Webpage should be easily navigable, should have internal linkings and should be searchable.
4) It should be optimised to take less Time to Load. Check out this Google tool for checking your website’s speed and fixes to make it faster.
5) Webpage should be Responsive. Sites optimised for cross-device compatibility will have a higher rating. Check if your website is mobile friendly using this Google tool.
6) The website should be Trustworthy. Proper certified websites are always preferred.
7) Webpage having more Backlinks from popular websites rank higher. SE’s give more weight to backlinks from trustworthy and popular sites to avoid bogus linkings.
8) Title and Meta tags matter. These are used by Search Engines to filter out results.
<html>
<head>
<title>Baseball Cards - Buy Cards, Baseball News, Card Prices</title>
<meta name="description" content="Brandon's Baseball Cards provides a
large selection of vintage and modern cards for sale. We also offer
daily baseball news and events in">
</head>
</html>
Use separate description meta tags for each page.
9) HTML tags used should have the required attributes (e.g alt attribute in img tag).
10) Simple to understand URL’s is another plus.
11) Simple website directory makes it easier for GoogleBots to crawl your website.
SEO is no longer an option in today’s crowded online world. Today, making it to the first page of Google Search has become the deciding factor for a website’s success.
References
