What is SEO – A Complete SEO Guide for Beginners

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing your website’s visibility when people search for products or services online.

SEO is important because searching online on Google or Bing is the most widely used way for people to find what they are looking for. They look for quality and trust in search engine suggestions by going to the websites displayed at the top of search results. 

What is SEO? 

SEO includes improving the organic traffic of your website and your ranking on search engines results page. It requires the creation of high-quality content and monitoring the technical health of your website. SEO persuades search engines to recommend your content to users as the best solution for their searches. 

Results in search engines are presented in an order where the higher you rank, the more traffic your site receives. Search engines like Google use algorithms to determine which pages to display on which rank for any query searched online. These complex algorithms take into account hundreds of factors. The optimization of your website based on these factors is called SEO and since it builds upon itself, SEO grows stronger over time fetching you long-term and long-lasting results.

It is important to note here that SEO deals with only organic or unpaid search results and sometimes on the sides of the organic search results section on a SERP and has nothing to do with the paid ads that you see below.

Think of SEO this way: Google and other search engines have access to all the information on the internet and work hard to organize or index it in an efficient manner. This is so that they can offer a user, relevant and useful search results whenever they have a search query. While Google’s search algorithm is highly classified, SEO experts have been observing certain trends and patterns in the way it goes about fetching the correct information for users. Add to this the various patents filed by the world’s top search engine and the announcements it has made about numerous updates to its search algorithm, and we have a pretty legitimate way of saying what will get your web pages to rank better.

Elevate your web presence by Infidigit’s SEO solutions.

Unlock higher rankings, quality traffic, and increased conversions through tailored award-winning SEO strategies.

SEO Solutions

Elevate your web presence by Infidigit’s SEO solutions.

Unlock higher rankings, quality traffic, and increased conversions through tailored award-winning SEO strategies.

SEO Solutions

Why is SEO Important in Digital Marketing?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the life force of websites across the globe. It is the practice of refining the technical elements of your website, along with conducting off-page activities, to help websites rank better on search engines. 

SEO includes a plethora of activities, each holding its own relevance in the eyes of search engine algorithms. Some common tasks that go into SEO are keyword optimization, creating authoritative or high-quality content, building backlinks, and website audits.

SEO holds unparalleled importance for businesses online, as it is the main factor that affects your site’s rankings organically on search engines. Now that you know what is SEO, let us dive deep into what it entails and how it works.

Check out this video on what is SEO, you can also listen to our podcast to know more about how to create growth via SEO 

Since now that you know what is SEO, this SEO guide for beginners will help you understand the following topics:

• How do Search Engines works?
• How SEO Works
• Why does your website require SEO?
• Types of SEO
• Important factors of SEO
• SEO Strategies
• SEO Periodic Table
• Organic Vs Paid Results
• Basics of SEO
• How to Optimise Your Website
• How to Track & Measure SEO Results
• Evolving SEO Trends in 2022
• FAQ’S

How Does Search Engines Work?

Search engines are essentially modernized versions of libraries, only digital. Instead of being a place for books and magazines, they store copies of webpages and trillions of bytes of data that comes within them.

Whenever a user types in a search query, search engines process their collection of webpages (called the index) and try to provide you with results that seem most fitting. This work is done by search engine algorithms. While there is no text that explains how search engine algorithms work exactly, Google has provided some clues as to how they work.

In Google’s words, their search engine algorithms assess a multitude of factors, including words in a search query, the relevance of web pages, the authority of webpages, location, personalized settings, and much more. How much each factor affects the decision to display web pages on search engine result pages (SERPs) varies based on the search query and other factors. For instance, if you search for current news, the freshness of the content is considered a major factor in determining if it shows up on SERPs.

While there are many other search engines apart from Google, the algorithms from the search engine giant are considered to be the strongest.

Check out this video of Google’s Matt Cutts to understand more about how does search work:     

How SEO Works?

Search engines are a one-stop solution when an individual needs to get any query answered or find something they’re looking for. This makes search engines an ideal place to promote a business and increase sales. However, making your brand visible among the sea of websites and driving organic traffic is the key to online success. While you could have the best website with an ideal user experience and alluring design, if no one sees it, all your efforts are futile. You need to get discovered when people search for brands like yours. This is where you need an SEO strategy. What is SEO, and how does it work? Here you will discover answers to all your questions. 

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, one of the most prioritized digital marketing tools for marketers today. The SEO process is aimed at enhancing a brand’s visibility in SERPs or Search Engine Results Pages, thus offering more chances of conversions and sales. 

Let’s learn more about how SEO works. 

• Knowing how search engines function

When charting out an SEO plan, the first thing you need to understand is the technicalities behind how search engines work. Search engines rank pages and not websites. When users perform a search, the rankings of web pages are decided through algorithms which are computer programs that help provide the most relevant information to users. The result of a query is displayed on the Search Engine Results Page. While every search engine has its own algorithms to rank web pages, the search engine giant Google has over 200 ranking algorithms. These algorithms consider various factors such as search intent, the authority and relevance of web pages, content quality, links, and much more. Here are the three important steps of how a search engine functions: 

Step 1: Crawling

The first step begins with crawling. In this step, the search engine sends web crawlers, often called “spiders” or “robots,” to discover new pages and information about them. These crawlers follow links and use sitemaps to find new pages. They also examine the content of the pages they have previously visited to see if it’s updated or changed. 

Step 2: Indexing 

After crawling the web pages, the search engine decides whether to use the discovered content or not. If the search engine considers a web page authoritative and relevant for a search query, it adds it to its index, which is used in the ranking stage. Once indexed, the web page or content piece is stored in a database that can be retrieved later. However, pages lacking inbound links or having duplicate or poor-quality content may not be indexed. 

Step 3: Ranking 

After crawling through the web pages and indexing them, the search engine now ranks web pages. While a plethora of factors decide a web page’s ranking, they come under the three main components of SEO: on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and technical optimization. Some examples of the ranking factors used by Google include the presence of relevant keywords, content quality, mobile-friendliness, page speed, website authority, etc. 

• Do detailed research

Now that you know how search engines function and rank web pages, you should start with conducting detailed research that includes the following methods: 

• • Start with an SEO audit to discover issues and opportunity areas of your website for higher rankings.
  • Understand what your competitors are doing to rank higher in search queries, which will allow you to identify your weak points and overcome them.
  • Know your target audience and their needs and preferences. This offers you a clear roadmap for your SEO plan. You must understand their demographics, what queries they might be having, and how you can provide them with the best solutions.
• Identify and incorporate relevant search terms in your content. Make sure you understand the search intent behind a query (is the intent transactional, commercial, navigational, or informational). This will help you create valuable content which is more likely to be ranked higher in relevant search queries.

• Detailed planning

Search engine optimization requires coherent planning at each stage. After deciding on your goals and the steps to achieve them, you must start implementing a plan which is in sync with SEO best practices. Here’s what your SEO plan should include:

• Align your SEO plan with your business goals and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
• Perform keyword research 
• Carry out competitive analysis
• Define the most valuable pages
• Optimize on-page and off-page factors 
• Optimize technical SEO and user experience 
• Consider your budget for SEO
• Hire, train, and create a team 
• Align your SEO plan with your sales funnel 
• Measure the outcomes and report on them

• Designing and implementing

Once you have done the necessary research and laid out an SEO plan, you need to take relevant actions. Start with diving into your audience’s needs and search intent to create appropriate and useful content for them. Further, implement changes to the existing pages by optimizing the content, keywords, and internal links to ensure everything is in tandem with search-engine best practices. Remove the content that is redundant and not performing well. You should also know which type of content and keywords have brought amazing results. Apart from identifying your strengths, know where your competitors are doing better than you and how you can bridge the gaps between your website and top-ranking sites.  

• Monitoring and maintenance

SEO monitoring refers to the constant observation of your marketing efforts and results to understand which metrics are most valuable to your SEO success. It is necessary to ensure a continuous flow of traffic to your site and an increase in your ROI (Return on Investment). SEO monitoring starts with keeping an eye on the level of your website visibility in SERPs and the amount of organic traffic it is driving. To keep track of traffic flow, you can use Google Analytics which is one of the most useful SEO monitoring tools available. Other metrics you must keep track of include bounce rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, keyword rankings, page speed, etc. 

• Performance analysis, evaluation, and reporting

Analyzing how your SEO campaign is performing is key to putting it in the best shape. You can use tools such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Bing Webmaster Tools to derive performance data and make data-driven decisions to improve your SEO plan. Once you have appropriate data, make sure you are able to identify and report the progress over a period of time and compare it with the reports of previous periods.        

Why Does Your Website Need SEO?

Google is the source of more than 60% of all the search traffic in the world – if you combine this with the pulling power of other search engines like Bing and even Yahoo, this figure goes up to 70%. Another essential online search fact to consider is that if your website is ranking on the #1 position, there is a good 40% chance that the user will click on your website to solve its query. For example, if 100 users search for a specific query, there is a strong case that 40 users would land on your website if you are ranking on the #1 position. Imagine 40 users with an investment of almost zero rupees. This is why SEO is essential for your website/business. Although SEO takes time and effort, it is a gift that keeps on giving. Here are a few of the most significant benefits of SEO: 

• SEO is the largest source of the site of traffic
• SEO helps in higher ROI (Return On Investment) and conversions
• SEO is a long term game. i.e. your investment on your website’s SEO would lead to better results in future 
• SEO builds brand credibility and trust
• SEO improves your website’s user experience (UX)
• No need to spend on paid Ads

So if you are willing to increase your website’s organic traffic, build an SEO team in-house or onboard a professional SEO Company.  

Types of SEO

SEO is broadly divided into 7 types. The below infographic is representing different Types of SEO. 

Important factors of SEO: On-page SEO and Off-page SEO

On-Page and Off-Page SEO are two of the most important factors of SEO. Let us find out what each entails.

• On-Page SEO

This aspect of SEO works on ensuring that Google’s algorithms can easily find and crawl through your webpages to be indexed and ranked on SERPs. It includes a multitude of factors like having useful content, having search phrases or keywords you want to rank for, authoritative content, and much more.

There are many ways in which you can optimize the on-page SEO for your web pages. For instance, you should use your target keywords in your title and meta tags. The structure of your content also plays a major role in this, where your target keywords or search phrases should be organically used across the body and headings or subheadings.

• Off-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO, also referred to as link building, is another important aspect of SEO. 

Getting mentions on other websites and signalling the algorithms that you have domain authority is an important aspect of SEO strategies. While all off-site links do not hold the same value, it is still an important practice.

To optimize your off-page SEO, you must ensure that you have link authority, get links from authoritative and relevant websites, and do not overstuff links from low-quality websites like directory websites.

Read More

• What is Technical SEO – 15 Major Technical SEO Checklist
• Negative SEO and Its Types: How to Stay Safe

SEO Strategies: White hat SEO vs Black hat SEO

In SEO, there are two types of approaches you can take in order to gain results – White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO.

Generating quick gains through sneaky tactics that can lead to being penalized by Google is called black hat SEO. People who use this approach employ various techniques to get past Google’s algorithms like link scraping and keyword stuffing to gain SERP rankings quickly. While this approach can get you fast results in terms of rankings and traffic, it is a poor approach for the long term. It might take the algorithms a while, but when they catch anyone using black hat SEO tactics, Google penalizes the website and can even blacklist it from ranking ever again.

White hat SEO, on the other hand, is the best approach to SEO. It uses techniques that are sustainable for businesses in the long run. The main focus of white hat SEO is to target and focus on the human audience, as opposed to sneaking around Google’s algorithms. Playing along with the rules and regulations of search engines while offering the best content to your audience can sustain your online business in the long run effectively.

Here are a few things that are considered black hat SEO, which you should avoid:

• Duplicating Content – To rank higher than competitors, some websites duplicate their content and stuff keywords in it.
• Invisible texts – Some websites use texts the same colour as the page’s background in order to hide text, which includes keywords at the bottom of their content. This can get you blacklisted by Google very quickly.
• Poor Link Building – Going to a supplier to purchase 1000 links for your website in 24 hours is one way of getting blacklisted. Make sure your link building involves relevant websites in your own niche.

White hat SEO is the best way to go for your online business. Employing black hat techniques is a very risky approach, which can gain you short-term results, but hurt your website in the long run.

Periodic Table for SEO Success

Like Chemistry, SEO to has its periodic table. This SEO Periodic Table would help you to understand the essential factors that Google considers before ranking a website higher on Google SERPs. Keep in mind the Toxins elements should not be implemented on your website. Implementation of toxins elements would result in a drop in rankings for your website. 

Organic Vs Paid Results

The results displayed on SERPs are divided up into two sections – Paid results and Organic results.

SEO delves into generating organic results on the web. Organic search results, as their name suggests, occur naturally based on 100% SEO merit. Google cannot rank any organic result higher by receiving any payments.

PPC or Pay Per Click provides paid search results, which appear either on the top of organic results, or under them. These search results are ranked by how much the advertisers are willing to bid or pay for each click from a search result.

While both SEO and PPC have their merits, it is always a good approach to gain results organically, as it is much more fruitful for businesses in the long run.

Search results are broadly divided into two sections: organic (unpaid) and paid results. Below SERP screenshot shows the example of both organic and paid results

Many business owners these days use the combination of both SEO & PPC to attain more traffic on their website. Check our post on SEO vs PPC  to understand the difference between both the channels and when to use them. 

Basics of SEO?

Now that you know about what is SEO and how it works, let us look at the next step. SEO strategy and marketing are the two essential elements of taking your website to the next level. Both require effort, time, and action. Let us take a look at what actions you need to take to make the best SEO strategy for your website.

1. Content

The phrase “Content is King” has been propagated through the internet millions of times. And it is with a good reason. A user walks away happy when they find the most suitable content that suits their query in the best way possible. 

For instance, if you search for “guide to SEO”, the search engine works hard in delivering the most suitable result that can answer your query. If you get the top results that are a guide to SEO and teach you the basics, you will walk away with what you were looking for and be satisfied with your journey. Google tries to give you exactly what you have searched. It does not throw out results on its SERPs which provide you the definition of SEO or some other thing related to it for this particular search term.

This makes content one of the most essential elements of SEO. For any SEO strategy to succeed, good quality content that ticks off all the boxes in Google’s eyes is crucial. So, what makes content good? Let us find out.

Important factors of content

•  Content Quality

Content online is far better than it used to be a decade ago. Coming up with good quality content is not an easy task, but it is necessary. The good news is that there are a colossal number of authoritative sources on the web that you can piggyback on for creating relevant and good-quality content.

If your content solves a problem and provides the users with a reliable solution to their query, then you have achieved this goal. If it is not able to achieve this milestone, chances are that the users will bounce away from your website and look elsewhere for the content they need. This tells Google’s algorithms that your content quality is not up to par with other websites, which reduces your SERP rankings.

•  Search Intent

User intent is something Google focuses on while determining the results, so it can offer the best possible matches for the user’s search term. For creating good content, it is imperative that you understand that your content serves the user’s intent.

For instance, you cannot create an article about “tennis shoes” and target the phrase “best shoes for men” as the primary keyword. If a user is searching for tennis shoes, they want exactly that. Showing them other types of shoes, and that too, for men, would not provide them with the results they are looking for. The search term “tennis shoes” is gender-neutral, and not very specific. The bottom line is, your content should complement the keywords you are targeting.

•  Freshness of content

According to a recent study by HubSpot, posting content regularly can help with your rankings. Posting new content is just one way in which you can signal to Google that your content is fresh. There are other ways in which you can send this signal too.

Going through your old content and refreshing it with new information, updating outdated facts, increasing content’s accuracy, and replacing old data with new data can also send a positive signal to Google. This shows Google that your old web pages are still relevant, and worthy of still being ranked on SERPs.

2. Keyword research

Keywords are the main ingredient of determining the intent, as well as the domain of your website. Keywords are used by SEO professionals to target a particular demographic or niche and gain organic traffic from the users in those demographics.

Keywords can also determine how and where you conduct your link-building activities. For instance, anchor texts with keywords of relevance can be used to build links on off-page content, as well as on-page content.

Keyword research is not just a one-and-done technique though. Many businesses make the mistake of stopping their keyword research after they have found relevant keywords once. The best approach to keyword research for SEO is to keep doing it regularly, as trends online change very quickly and the value of keywords can change along with these trends.

Keyword research also acts as an inspiration to create new content. It helps businesses understand which search terms are the most sought after by their target audience. This can give them new ideas for creating relevant content based on what their target audience is searching to capture their attention organically.

Important factors of keyword research

•  Right keyword

While searching for keywords, it is crucial that you choose the ones that fit best with your content and its narrative. For instance, you could be offering business consulting services and your basic charges might rack up to $6000 a year, which equates to $500 a month. Now, if you are ranking for the keyword “free business consultation services”, your website visitors will definitely not like those charges.

The visitors on your website are looking for free services. Ranking for that one keyword can significantly increase your bounce rates and bring in the wrong audience. Always pick the right keywords to rank for, as in this scenario, Google will notice the high bounce rates of your website, which will negatively affect your website’s ranking.

•  Competitor analysis

Use keyword research tools to find the best keywords that are ranking high in your domain, with high CTRs. This also means that you will be targeting keywords that are most likely being used by your competitors.

To outrank your competitors on SERPs, it is crucial that you conduct a comprehensive competitor analysis and find what they are doing right, to do it better than them. This includes finding the keywords they are targeting. It may take some time for Google to trust your content, but offering better content to the users than your competitors for the keywords they are targeting will definitely get you through.

•  Search Intent

Search intent keeps popping up as an important factor across multiple SEO activities because it is just that essential. Instead of just looking for keywords or search terms users are typing in, what you would want to do is try to identify what exactly they are searching for. This is what search intent is. If you are able to get the search intent for your audience right, it can make the difference between generating some traffic and driving significant revenue.

3. HTML

SEO also relies on various technical things, and your website’s HTML is one of the most important ones. Without tagging your pages properly, structuring it with headers and subheadings, and filling in metadata, it will be very hard for Google to figure out what exactly your content is about.

You don’t even need to understand coding to optimize your website’s HTML. Changing the HTML elements of your website is quite easy, and can be done with very little training.

Important factors of HTML 

•  Title tags

Many people confuse title tags with H1 tags. Both of these are completely different types of headings. The title tag is the main title that is visible to the users on SERPs on Google, as well as the tab on the top of their browsers when they open the link.

You should use the title tags very wisely, and incorporate your target keywords in it organically. The character limit for title tags is 60 characters, so you should make it stand out with an appealing title that also has the target keyword in it.

•  Meta description

Meta description is the section that is displayed on SERPs right below the title tag. It is the small description that serves as a summary of what they can expect with the content. You should try and incorporate keywords in your meta description organically. You can use secondary or long-tail keywords for your content in this section to make it even stronger.

The character limit for meta descriptions is 160 characters, so make sure that it is short, precise, and to the point.

•  Schema 

Schema is an HTML element that can make a major difference in how appealing your result looks on SERPs. It is a subset of various HTML tags like listicles, product reviews, ratings, and more which can improve how your result looks on a SERP.

For instance, if you run a bakery, having your ratings displayed on the search result itself can make a major impact on the user’s mind to click on your result. Make sure to properly test your webpage for which you’re using a schema to ensure that it is running smoothly.

•  Header tags

Header tags is where the structure of your content comes into play. H1 tag is basically the title of your article on the page. It is your content’s primary header. H1 tag tells Google what exactly your content is about.

The subheadings are where you can use H2, H3, H4… tags. This is to inform the readers and Google about what sections your content has, and what type of information it contains. For instance, this part of this article is a H3 subheading.

•  Alt text

Alt-text is another important HTML element that can significantly impact your SEO. Alt-text is used for describing the contents of images or videos or other types of media in your content. Most types of content online have some media in them, but fail to use alt text.

Alt text describes to the search engines what your media contains, and also for search engines to verbally tell visually impaired people the contents of it. Alt text can also be used to insert keywords for bettering your reach in places like Google Image search.

•  URL structure

URL structure is one of the most effective ways of telling the search engines what your content is about. For instance, a URL “https://www.infidigit.com/blog/seo-tools/” tells the search engine exactly what is on the web page – A blog about SEO tools.

This is also a very important area where you should include your primary keyword to ensure that the page is indexed by Google, which improves its chances of ranking higher.

4. Site architecture

To improve the user experience for your visitors, it is crucial that your website architecture is easily navigable and accessible. Website architecture is also a very important factor of SEO marketing, as it includes elements like safe connection, mobile-friendly design, fast page loading time, easy accessibility, and much more.

A good site architecture makes it easy for Google to crawl through your website and access your content. This makes it a key factor in determining your rankings. Moreover, improving your user experience also sends a positive signal to Google about your website’s relevance.

Important factors of site architecture

•  Easily crawlable

Crawling is when Google bots go through your website to figure out the content and index it. Google identifies the keywords, meta tags, site issues, and more to assess what ranking your web pages get. 

Depending on how easily Google is able to crawl through your website and index it, it will be more likely to rank it higher. The better the connection of the webpages in your website, the better the chances for Googlebot to reach them all, which gives Google a much better understanding of your website.

•  Duplicate content

Many people misunderstand how duplicate content hurts their website’s ranking. Google does not penalize or reduce your rankings for duplicate content, as long as it is done in the right way. For instance, reposting your blog on another website or using your guest posts on your website again will not hurt your rankings or SEO. It will only hurt it if it is done in a spammy way.

However, if you post a blog from your website on a more authoritative website like Medium, it might hurt your rankings as Google will index the content on Medium first. Google might flag the same content on your website as duplicate. This is called canonicalization, which you should take care of while reposting your content.

•  Mobile-friendly

Mobile devices generated over 54% of the online traffic in 2020. Moreover, Google introduced mobile-first indexing in 2019, which means that how mobile-friendly your website is can make or break its rankings.

Making your website mobile-friendly should be the first action you should take before doing any other activities. Using tools like Google Search Console, you can find out what Google thinks of your website and how you can optimize it for mobile-friendliness. You can also use tools like Google Mobile-Friendly Tool to gain more insights about how to make your website better for mobile devices.

•  Page speed

Since Google implemented Core Web Vitals for its rankings, it has given a lot of priority to the usability and page loading speed. If your web pages load slower or even certain elements of your page load slowly, Google can penalize you or reduce your rankings. Make sure to optimize your page speed by reducing the size of media, optimizing technical SEO elements, and more.

You can use tools like GSC to gain insights about what elements of your page you can optimize to improve your page loading speed. Usually, approaches like image optimization can help you with improving your page speed.

•  HTTPS and SSL

The security of your website is a very important factor for ranking. If Google believes that your website is sketchy, spammy, or unsafe for users, it will negatively affect your rankings.

Getting SSL certificates for your website and HTTPS can help you in conveying to Google that your website is safe and secure. It is quite easy to set up SSL and HTTPS. They usually show up as a lock icon before your URL string on the browser. While it might not pack a punch for SEO, it is a very important trust signal for both users and search engines.

5. Authority

How your website’s overall authority looks to Google can determine whether you outrank your competition. Moreover, having a good authority can also make your website a good source of information, and gain you valuable backlinks from other authoritative websites.

Google determines your website’s authority by mainly assessing two kinds of authority which you can build – Domain Authority and Page Authority. Both of these are calculated on a scale of 1-100, and the better your website’s score is, the higher it will rank.

Important factors of authority

•  Domain authority (DA)

Domain authority refers to how widespread and recognizable the name of your domain or brand is. For instance, in the beverage industry, Coca-Cola is a big name because everyone knows about it, making their domain authority very high. Your domain name and its popularity on the web determine what your DA score is. A DA score above 35 is considered to be good, and anything beyond is only better.

•  Page authority (PA)

Page authority refers to the authority of your web pages. This is determined by various factors, which include content quality, sources, internal and external links, backlinks, and much more.

For instance, if you have a long-form article on your website about your industry, and it has gained a lot of popularity with relevant backlinks, the PA score of your page will be good. A PA score of 30 or above is considered good and helps your pages rank high.

•  Bounce rate

Bounce rate is a metric that tells Google how many visitors on your website immediately leave after viewing just one page on your website. There are many factors that can cause this, like usability, poor content, page load time, and more. High bounce rates can significantly decrease your website’s authority.

6. Links

The efforts that go into building a rigid link profile for your business depend on the SEO professionals you work with. Links are one of the best ways in which you can expand your audience, as well as convey to Google how relevant your website is.

Many people do not understand that link building is a very delicate activity, and link spamming can bring negative results. While the right way requires time and patience, it is very fruitful in the long term, as it builds your DA score, as well as strengthens your overall SEO.

Important factors of links

•  Link quality

The quality of the links you are generating matters much more than one can imagine. Reaching out and connecting to the right sources, communicating with them to offer value in return for a quality link, and repeating this process is the best way to obtain quality links. Google even pays businesses that build quality links! Here are a few tips to obtain quality links:

1. Do not build links on low-quality websites, as Google might ignore them or consider them spammy
2. Obtaining links on new websites will be more eventful than getting repeat links from old websites
3. Instead of building links on your own website, try to gain links from other websites as they are worth more for Google algorithms

•  Anchor text

Anchor text is the part of your text where the link is used. The goal of anchor text is to convey to the readers and search engine algorithms the purpose of the link in your content. It should appear in the text organically, and should not be stuffed in.

A poor practice to avoid with anchor texts is to just have “click here” or something similar which redirects the users to your website. For instance, if you are linking your website about indoor furnishing in an article titled “types of wooden doors”, you can use an anchor text for linking your website related to the topic such as “solid wood doors”.

•  Backlinks

Google uses PageRank to assess how to rank a webpage. PageRank basically interprets the quality of backlinks for your website as votes from outside sources about the relevance of your website. Webpages or sites with more votes or backlinks usually rank much higher.

You can use tools like Ahrefs to find the backlinks your competitors are getting from relevant sources in your domain. You can then create better content than your competitors, and request backlinks from these sources with the commitment of offering better content and information from their already existing backlinks.

7. Other important factors of SEO

SEO is a very diverse process, which is why many businesses opt for getting SEO services from professionals. Here are other important factors that are also key elements in SEO:

•  Country

Users typically see results that are relevant to their country. For instance, the timings of operation for businesses like restaurants only appear in the results based on your time zone.

Another element that goes into the country aspect of SEO is the context. For instance, if someone searches for “comforters” in India, they will most likely see results with blankets. Whereas, for the same search term in the UK, the results will most likely be pacifiers, since that is what “comforter” means in the UK. Hence, it is crucial to mention your country, since it can make a big difference.

•  City

This is more relevant for local SEO. Geo-targeting can be as specific as you want. You can even target certain areas in your city for your SEO marketing. This is why you see the results of local businesses around you whenever you search for something relevant to them. For instance, if you search for “salons”, the results will show you the nearest salons to your location or in your city.

8. EAT guidelines

Google has a defined set of evaluator guidelines for training their human content evaluators. Google often employs human quality raters to improve the user experience of the users. In its guidelines, Google mentions that a high-quality or authoritative page must possess the following traits:

• Expertise
• Authority
• Trustworthiness

This is referred to as EAT guidelines. Keeping the EAT guidelines in mind while you create any content can significantly improve your chances of ranking higher, and take your SEO strategy in the right direction.

How to Optimise Your Website

Although there are more than 200 google ranking factors that affect your site ranking, there is no need to feel at odds while attempting to optimize your site for better web traffic. Whatever your SEO skill level, make sure to run through the following list of these to-dos while assessing your site’s health and making an effort to better it:

How to Optimise your website via SEO

Best Practices to Improve SEO Marketing

You can employ various practices which can help improve your overall website experience for users and algorithms alike. These SEO best practices can keep your strategies afloat for a long time, and bring valuable returns. Here are the best SEO practices you can employ to improve your SEO marketing:

1. Be Unique With Your Content

Avoiding duplicate content is something we have talked about in this article. It is imperative that you keep your content fresh, unplagiarized, and unique for the readers. If the users see similar content on your website, they will not feel trusting of it, since they have already consumed it somewhere else.

Keeping your titles, meta tags, and content unique is imperative. Ensure that your page does not have any plagiarized content.

2. Make Your Content Personal for the Audience

Each visitor on your website has come there for a reason. The best way to ensure that you capture their attention is by making the experience personal for them. Identify the widespread pain points of your target audience, and provide them solutions off the gate to keep them engaged.

Each customer has an expectation, and fulfilling these expectations heavily depends on how much value you are offering your customers. For instance, if you are creating ads, make sure that they are to the point and offer solutions to the users from the get-go.

3. Track Your Results

Always keep a close eye on how well your marketing campaigns or SEO strategies are performing. This will help you in figuring out which areas you can improve upon, and which areas are bringing in the best results to invest more in them.

Using tools like Google Search Console, you can keep a close eye on every metric like traffic generated, keywords used to find your page, coverage of your website, areas to enhance your website, mobile-friendliness, and much more. Make sure to always track your results and keep optimizing them to gain better results over time.

How to Track & Measure SEO Results?

You need to first understand the concept of KPIs to track and measure SEO results and eventually use it to build the foundation of your website. KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, serve as various performance indicators with measurable values that demonstrate the success in achieving objectives. Listed below are some of the key indicators – 

1) Organic Traffic

It is one of the most useful KPIs that companies can use to acquire new leads and customers. Organic traffic refers to visits that originate from the unpaid search engine results instead of paid ads. Higher organic traffic is often seen as the biggest indicator of an SEO strategy’s success. Google Analytics is a free application that anybody can use to measure and track organic traffic. 

An SEO practitioner should remain vigilant about how SEO works with the constantly changing algorithms of search engines as design, interaction, title and metadata can be very important. 

2) Keywords Rankings

It serves as an indicator of how well a website or web page is ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for a particular search term. This KPI is highly effective in determining the ability of a company to build its brand awareness. One can use various rank trackers along with Google Analytics for measuring keywords ranking. 

3) Sales and Leads

When a visitor to the website changes into a sales lead or sale, it is termed as a conversion. Conversion rate refers to the number of website visitors who have accomplished the goal or action the business was aiming for. Tracking the ensure user journey from the beginning to the end will help in understanding the macro and micro goals. Businesses can measure their sales and lead easily by using Google Analytics.

More About SEO

Google releases periodic updates to its search algorithm to stay many steps ahead of even the most seasoned digital marketers. This also helps maintain a level playing ground while weeding out any spoil-sports who resort to questionable black or grey hat SEO tactics like paying off threadbare websites to link to them so that they look like an authority on a specific subject. While there are many aspects of technical SEO that you must focus on to further your SEO goals, your most crucial responsibility as a website owner is to create the most offbeat, relevant and helpful website that you possibly can. If you want to stay in the know about all the latest happenings in the world of SEO, there is no better place to be than right here – do keep checking in with us for Digital Marketing Blogs and Digital Marketing News.

Evolving SEO Trends in 2022

• Artificial Intelligence

Search engine algorithm uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to help Google streamline results as per a particular user’s needs. Google is quite hush-hush about the inner workings of RankBrain, but SEO experts have surmised that a lot will depend on the user’s experience on a Web page. The click-through rate (CTR) and the amount of time spent on a website will likely be defining factors to rank well on SERPs. 

• Schema Markup

Schema markup is all set to dominate 2021. The rich snippets created by the microdata can provide a great context to ambiguous Web pages, thereby improving their visibility when searched for. Rich snippets contribute towards helping brands and businesses show up more prominently in SERPs and boost their click-through rates.

• EAT

EAT SEO is a Google metric that stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. This metric requires that the content shared is 100 percent accurate and reliable.  For a high EAT score, you need content written by industry experts. Trends dictate that EAT is going to be one of the top SEO metrics for a high SERP ranking.

• Voice Search

50 percent of searches were voice searches in the year 2020.  Voice search SEO trends 2021 indicate a rise in people using their smartphones to access information regarding products and services. Businesses, therefore, will be seen optimizing their sites and content for voice searches.

• Page Speed

While narrowing down your list of SEO trends 2022, make sure you put page speed right at the top. Your website, no matter what device it is being accessed on, should load as quickly as possible.

Conclusion

Now that you know what SEO is and how it works, you must prioritize it in your digital marketing plan. SEO is one of the most cost-effective digital marketing tools to ensure increased visibility online and boost sales. If done the right way, this marketing strategy can do wonders for your brand and make more people aware of its presence and reliability. However, SEO is not a one-time practice. With the ever-evolving search engine algorithms, user behavior, and content, staying updated and adapting to every change is crucial for achieving consistent results. Make sure that your website follows SEO best practices while offering the best solutions to user queries.

FAQ’S

• What is SEO & How it works?

While entire industries continue to shift online, some people are still struggling to understand what is SEO and how it can help their businesses flourish. SEO involves specific changes that businesses make in their content and website design to make their website rank in various search engines. Businesses use various marketing strategies through which they further optimise their websites, making them appear among the top results that search engines provide. This could be done with on-page SEO (strategies that happen within your website), and off-page SEO (strategies external to your website). By collecting data on how your site fares on both ends, search engines create a rank that determines where it would list your site.

• What are SEO Tools?

They are certain elements that investigate the prospects of websites or web pages for better placements on SERPs. SEO tools provide information on these elements, along with insights into other SEO competitors on the Internet. SEO tools include details on keywords, content, backlinks, domain, and more. 

• How long does it take for SEO to work?

On average, any SEO strategy would take at least four to six months before they show any promising results. One of the key ideas concerning SEO basics is the fact that these results generally grow over time and require patience as well as persistent efforts. 

• Does duplicate content hurt your SEO?

Yes, it does. The duplicate content will confuse the search engine and force them to choose any one of the similar pages for a higher rank. There is a greater possibility of the original content not being chosen. 

• Why does SEO matter?

SEO matters the most in today’s world as it is the only marketing tactic that helps businesses to reach out specifically to potential customers. If businesses know what is SEO, they can use the reach of the website by targeting search queries related to the services and products offered by them.

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