SEO and How it Works
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the is art of getting your webpages to rank better in search engine results. SEO techniques are a combination of on-site and off-site work that work together improve your listing in search engines. Effective SEO practises will results in your business being listed closer to, if not on the first page of internet searches.
Search engines send out bots, or web crawlers, that scan the internet everyday and compile data about different web pages to relay to the search engine how relevant a certain page is. For instance, if I have a webpage that claims to talk about shoes, but all the content on the page talks about apples, I will be ranked very low. Other ranking factors include the optimization of your pages to make it easier for the bots to understand what the message is on your page, which is an example of on-site work. Another SEO practice would be backlinking. One way to do that, is finding forums that have questions or areas pertaining to your expertise. You will have a chance not only to establish yourself as an authority in your field, but you will also be leaving a link in a relevant space for the bots to find and travel back to your pages. This would be an example of off-site SEO.
We will discuss below the different SEO techniques you can use, SEO tools that are available and what an SEO service should look like and how to find one.
SEO Techniques
On-site Techniques:
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Setting up a website correctly for SEO
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Identify and remove duplicate content
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Checking navigation and UX factors
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Responsive design (how does it respond to different devices)
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Checking loading speed
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Keyword Density
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Meta Tags and Meta Data
Off-site Techniques:
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Setting up a blog
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Setting up Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools
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Confirm that the site is properly indexed
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Submitting an XML site maps and road maps file
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Backlinking
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Directory submissions
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Social media
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Promoting Content
There are other techniques of course, but these on-site and off-site SEO techniques will get you started. Also, SEO is typically better left to professionals because breaking the rules that Google has set out for its ranking system can lead to penalization. Some SEO practises are distinctly labeled as Black-Hat. An example of black-hat would be loading up keywords on a webpage by using a white text on a white background.
A small story to illustrate this: A friend of mine had started a business and was overwhelmed by the sometimes exorbitant costs. In the end he decided to outsource his SEO work to a cheaper alternative out of India. The issue was when this freelancer was link building, he was linking to spam website which set my friend back immensely and kept him in the negative for 5 months. To be clear, my friend relayed that there was no malice or evil intent on the part of the freelancer, it was simply what happened. The moral of the story as my friend puts it “Life isn’t fun when Google hates you.”.
So again, don’t use this as a bible that will lead you to becoming an SEO expert or practitioner. In order to do that you have extensive courses with some really brilliant people. Some good people to follow if you are interested in making a living by doing SEO, are Neil Patel and Brian Dean. This information is something you should use for your business when you are looking to start your SEO efforts with an expert. This is information you should know so you can keep tabs and make sure all the SEO work you’re having done is white-hat and effectively helping your business.
Search Engine Optimization Tools
In order to keep track of the SEO efforts for your business (or if you’ve decided to become a full-on SEO expert) you will need some basic SEO tools. Here is a list compiled of some tools you will need.
Analytics - It will be near impossible to track efforts or results without some sort of analytics tool. Since the most common search engine we all try to rank for is Google, getting Google Analytics is a must and a great search engine optimization tool.
Keywords - Next thing that comes is Keywords. Whether you are trying to rank, figure out your ad campaign strategy or simply trying to figure out which keywords you need to be putting in you blog, Google is the way to go. Google Adwords also has a very cool Keyword Planner. Certainly worth checking out.
Competition Analytics - Are you unsure how to structure your marketing strategy in-line with your SEO efforts? Are you unsure as to how often you should be posting? What content to post? As with most things, nothing beats a bit of old fashioned spying on the competition and their marketing for their business. One tool you can use is SpyFu, I’ve used it before when I was beginning to learn about keyword research. It’s free to gather some valuable marketing data about your competition. While it is limited when using it for free, it’s definitely a good place to get your feet wet and start getting used to seeing keyword volumes and what they mean. When you’re good and ready SpyFu also offers a wealth of other useful SEO tools for paying users.
Below is an example of some marketing data I was able to accrue from SpyFu for free, when asked for a competitor I typed Unilever and these were the results.
Website Analysis - Measure your page’s speed, what content is discoverable to the bots, if your robot.txt is done correctly etc. The SEO tool to start with here is the Google Webmaster Tools. It will help you to really optimize your site for bots to interpret and log the data you want noticed, correctly.
There are even more SEO tools you can equip yourself with, for a more in depth look at the various tools and online tools you can purchase go here.
SEO Services
If you are ever looking for SEO help and need more than just a marketing platform to help boost your business, see if the Solomoto SEO Package would suit the needs of your business. Speak to a professional who can guide you through the offerings of our SEO services.
Thank you for reading and feel free to get in touch and let us know of your SEO experiences.