Search Engine Optimization Guide

By: on April 15, 2019 Categories: Digital Marketing

Use SEO to get on first pages on Google

What do you have in mind when you hear about search engine optimization?

Probably the first thing that comes up in your mind is that it takes a lot of time and resources. After reading the following tips in this article, you will find out what is mandatory to do regarding SEO.

This guide is supposed to make it easier for you to understand how SEO works and how it can bring value to your business. Learn basic concepts about search engine optimization and discover easy tricks that once applied, great results will come.

So, let’s go!

Initial checkup for search engine optimization

Search for big issues

First of all, make sure that only one version of your website is available when people search it and that your website has a secured connection.
Besides that, find and fix broken links. If you want Google to help you, and offer you a higher position in SERP, you should clean up your website.

seo audit 1

Verify if there are any indexation issues

At this point, you should use a free useful tool from Google. It’s called Search Console. Here you can see what pages from your website are indexed on Google and fix the ones that are non-indexed. If none of your pages are indexed you have a big problem, meaning you will get no organic traffic to your website.

seo audit

Check if you rank for your brand name

Another important thing you should do is to verify if you rank for your brand name. Let’s say you sell shoes and your website is www.johnshoes.com. When you search for johnshoes on Google, it would be nice that your website to appear on the first page in SERP. If not you should focus to improve this aspect using brand and link building.

On-site elements

There are some important elements that need optimization called meta tags. The Meta Title is very important, and also the meta description. Make sure these two are well connected with your brand and that they are built for the customer, not only for Google. Include an appealing call to action. Let’s take them one by one:

The Meta Title

The Meta title is the text that appears on SERP (search engine result pages) along with your website URL.
Use your meta title as a tool to promote your business. Create one that is relevant to your customers in order to improve CTR (click through rate) and avoid to create misleading titles that don’t blend with your landing pages.

Tips:
1. First of all, create eye-catching headlines.
2. Also, write your title tag for people not only for Google.
3. Even more, don’t over-optimize it and stuff keywords in it.
4. If you can, you should start your title tag with a keyword.

meta tags explained

The Meta Description

Meta description – Another important SEO component, the meta description is something that used correctly will help you deliver your message to your audience and Google will appreciate it. Crafting a good description will boost your rankings and make your SEO efforts count. Meta descriptions are a part of the user experience, and Google favors websites that offer a great UX to their online visitors.

Tips:
1. First of all, keep the length of your meta descriptions somewhere between 130-160 characters.
2. Don’t focus only on the number of characters, consider your meta description as the first thing users and Google will interact with.
3. Write attractive meta descriptions that blend with your brand identity and with your landing pages.
4. Also, don’t forget to include keywords in the description, but be careful not to overload it with them.
5. Add a call to action (CTA) that will engage users to act and will improve the click-through rate (CTR).
6. Don’t steal from your competitors, try to be unique and offer relevant info about your products/services.

Other things to consider

1. Use only one H1 tag for your page. Make sure that this is well optimized, also H2 and H3 need to be used correctly. Sub-headers should give you the opportunity to target secondary keywords.
2. Make sure the images you use are optimized. OK, maybe I should have started with this: use images.
Using well-optimized images gives you a little bit leverage on your competition and they can help you rank higher in search engine result pages. Help Google understand what’s in the picture, so when someone is looking for your kind of product/service, the image will show up at the top of the page. Let’s say, for example, you have a photo with a pair of white leather sneakers named by default DSC2145. Do you think Google will know what is it about? Obviously not- so change it into white-leather-sneakers-yourbrand name.
3. Create great content for each and every landing page, perfectly combined with your meta tags, I will explain later what things you should do to make sure you have clean and SEO oriented content.

Analyze organic search traffic

I will present here two important free tools from Google-Search Console and Google Analytics. If you currently don’t use them, you’re missing a huge opportunity to track your performance and improve it.

You can see how you are performing right now, how many users you get from organic traffic, and what are the queries that people type to end up on your website. This info is invaluable because it can help you improve your content and the overall user experience.

You can also use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to make a deeper research.

google analytics growth

Quality Backlinks

You should always aim for quality backlinks. Nowadays, Google appreciates quality backlinks and penalizes the ones who try to trick it. Using black hat SEO practices is not only risky, but it can affect your rankings in the long term.

Tips to get quality backlinks that will boost your rankings:
1. First of all, you need to build relationships with relevant partners that could mention your business on their website.
2. Also, write interesting and unique content and create infographics and ebooks.
3. Furthermore, define a PR strategy in order to get people to talk about your business.
4. Link externally to help others SEO, this way you will help yours, see first tip (build relationships).

backlinks seo

Content Analysis

The most important thing in search engine optimization is Content. A well-defined content strategy will help you achieve great results. As we stated on our website content marketing is about developing high-quality content for every part of your business presence and delivering it to a targeted audience through the channels that turn out to be effective. It should hit two points at once, first of all, it has to bring value and second of all, it should follow best SEO practices.

Tips for efficient content analysis:
1. One page should target one keyword.
2. Check for duplicate content and fix it.
3. Don’t stuff keywords in it, keyword density should be around 1.5-2%.
4. Check if the actual content is engaging and drives users interaction.

content marketing

Conclusion

So, to get results using search engine optimization, there are some things that you should take care of:
1. Verify if your pages are indexed and if you rank for your brand name.
2. Don’t forget about meta tags. Write compelling Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions that will increase click-through rate and drive user interactions.
3. Analyze organic traffic using Google Analytics and Search Console.
4. Get quality backlinks.
5. Keep your content fresh to offer a great user experience.

As a result, your website will become SEO friendly and Google will notice that.

conclusion on how to improve SEO

If you want to learn more about search engine optimization send us a message at contact@royalsoft.eu and we can provide you an SEO audit for your website.

 

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