SEO, short for Search Engine Optimisation is the process of increasing the traffic from a search engine’s organic search results. The primary search results of every search engine including Google, Yahoo and Bing display content that’s most relevant to a user’s search query. These listings are completely free and are not paid for, unlike PPC ads.
SEO EXPLAINED IN PLAIN ENGLISH
When you are looking for information on a particular topic, you visit Google or any other search engine, type your search query and hit the search button, and at the blink of your eye, a list of websites magically appear on your screen.
SO WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE?
The search engine has search crawlers that will create a list of all the content they can find for your search query. They will compile this list in the form of an index, which goes through the search engine’s algorithm. The algorithm will list the websites in the order of importance per its parameters.
A search engine algorithm uses a lot of parameters, which in simple terms, can be categorized into two categories – on-site parameters and off-site parameters.
Your job (our ours on your behalf as the case may be!), as the website owner, is to optimise your online presence for both these factors.
WHAT IS ON-SITE SEO?
On-site SEO basically involves working on your website’s content both on the page as well as in the back-end CMS (content management system) to ensure that the website content is not only keyword-rich but is easy for your visitors to understand while marrying up with backend data.
You must make sure that your keywords are incorporated in the right places such as the title tags, the meta description and the website content. Here are some things you could do with respect to on-site SEO:
- Re-write existing content to enhance keyword strategy
- Undertake some on-going activity each month
- Add news stories and content to your blog
- Create new pages
- Create internal links
- Add links from social media accounts
WHAT IS OFF-SITE SEO?
SEO is not just about working your site’s content. That’s only one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is about working on creating good quality links pointing to your site from reputed sources. This is a great way to help Google take notice of your site. A solid portfolio of backlinks gives credibility to your site and helps improve your ranking.
This must be an on-going, constant activity. The results can sometimes take 6 months, so it is not a quick fix. Here are some off-site SEO strategies you could adopt:
- Write and publish guest posts on reputed blogs
- Publish content on article directories
- Publish infographics
OTHER IMPORTANT POINTS TO TAKE NOTE
In addition, you must ensure some basic things are in place as they are also important ranking factors that Google and other search engines consider when ranking a website.
- Ensure your website has a sitemap
- Ensure the links are not broken and set up a custom 404 page
- Ensure your site is mobile friendly – either dedicated or responsive
- Ensure the website has an SSL certificate
IN CONCLUSION
So an effective on-site SEO campaign combined with equally effective off-site SEO strategies result in improved rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Not sure where to start? Get in touch with us for an affordable and results-driven SEO campaign.
