SEO Basis From Semalt Expert


Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. What is SEO?
  3. How to start with SEO?
  4. What is it for?
  5. How is it beneficial to your business?
  6. What SEO Includes
  7. Stages to optimize a website
  8. Conclusion

Introduction



What is SEO? You need SEO in your online business if you want to remain successful. It is very essential for almost every business that is selling a product or a service via the Internet (online). It is also an effective way to root yourself in search engine result pages for a long time so that you can consistently increase the number of people that visit your website / blog. 

To sum it up, what SEO is, the main stages for optimization and other key basics of SEO will be discussed in this guide. 

What is SEO?

SEO is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimization. It simply means a set of external and internal tools, tactics, processes, and actions that are carried out for an online platform (website, blog, social media page, etc.) to increase its position in search engine results.

Most people believe that SEO is only about bombarding your website with links or about creating ravishing and addictive content. However, SEO is much more than that. It requires a more in-depth and complex process. 

You should know that no online platform can be visible without some form of optimization. Without SEO, only a few people (or no one) would visit the site. 

So who should use SEO? 

It's for everyone and anyone that is selling a product or a service online. It is also for those that are looking for clients, investors, partners, customers, and so on.  You should also consider promoting your website if:
SEO is not a fast-track tool. Its process is gradual but its effect is long-lasting. You should not expect to see results until after 3 months. 

How to start with SEO?



To begin optimizing your site you need to first write out why you need SEO for your page and how you will measure its effectiveness. These are the several reasons you might need SEO:
After deciding on this, you should pick out what pages of your website carries the most value (it doesn't have to be your homepage). This is where you need to pay more attention (not all your attention, mind you). When you optimize a page that carries value and is highly relevant, you would begin to make a profit in no time.

What is it for?

SEO aims to improve a site in SERPs. And the essence of this is to drive in more traffic, increase the web site's popularity, improve sales and generate more leads.

In the absence of SEO, your website would most likely be invisible or lost among the pile of other people's websites with the same topic or niche. When your potential buyers search for your niche, they would never find you because this is how it works: 

The higher your position on SERPs, the more visitors you'll get. 

Therefore, it is very important to work toward getting SEO for your page and don't stop till you reach the top (because your competitors are also working). 

How is it beneficial to your business?

It is better to invest in SEO website promotion than to spend money on search engine advert and other contextual advertising. Why? Because advertising would need you to keep replenishing the budget to stay on top while the cost of SEO would reduce and almost vanish over time as you climb up the ladder. Your attention would be then be shifted to other things like high-quality content. Here are some of the other advantages of SEO to your business.

What SEO Includes



SEO does not follow the same trend it did years ago. It is evolving. The algorithm for ranking is also improving. Before the criteria weren't as technical as it is now and in the next few years, more principles will be added. 

SEO used to include three components: on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. How, we have other types including social media SEO, local SEO, mobile SEO, and so on. 
  1. On-page SEO: This is concerned with the promotion of the elements that are in the website such as the content, link, and the way the website is arranged. Keywords, the meta tag, and the headline is also part of the subject of concern for on-site SEO.
  2. Off-page SEO: This, as the name implies, is concerned with elements that are not within the site. Instead, this area makes sure that your website has a good relationship with other websites. You know the web is interconnected. On your journey to the top, you cannot stand alone. A website that is connected with many other websites of related niche is more trustworthy. 
  3. Technical SEO: This has to do with the structural part of your online platform. With technical SEO, you should ask yourself some questions. How friendly is my website? How long does my blog take to load? Can my users easily find what they are looking for within my website?
  4. Mobile SEO: This area ascertains that your website is also promoted for mobile search. Since people use tablets and smartphones a lot more than desktops these days. 
  5. Local SEO: These checks how high you rank in different locations. You can rank high in your country, for example, and be completely invisible in another. Language could cause this too. 
  6. E-Commerce SEO: This type of SEO focuses on keywords that sell the most. So it incorporates these selling keywords into your website so that you too can sell better with catchy phrases. 
  7. Content SEO: This is a part of on-page SEO but focuses on only the content. This type ensures that your content is relevant, of high value, and is interesting enough for your readers. What it does is make sure that you are writing for people and not for bots.  
But at the end of the day, online business owners are usually advised to incorporate all types of SEO and website promotion. It is usually better not to leave any area out. 

Stages to optimize a website

Since this is the basis, it is best to call a professional to help you with your website's promotion. But at the same time, you should know what to expect during the optimization of a website. 
  1. Analyze your niche and audit your competitors' websites: It is highly necessary to study other websites that are of a similar niche to yours, especially those that have already gained a good level of trust and position in the market. Pay attention to their age, how they use their social media, their usability, structure, and so on. Then you can adopt any of the more effective patterns. You can use different services like Semalt to carry out this process. 
  2. Technical audit of your site: Check the current state of your site and also track its progress over time to see if the site has been doing well or it has been stagnant. You might need to connect it to a web analytics tool for that. What you should check is the current position of the site, the number of key phrases used, and your source of traffic. 
  3. Compilation of the semantic core: You need to compile the keywords and key phrases within your niche so that it can help you increase the flow of traffic. But remember not to spam the keywords when you are creating or curating your content. 
  4. Construct the site: The next stage is to develop the structure of the site. If you have not created one, you'll begin and if you have, update it. Spilled your content into sections, pages, and categories. Everything doesn't have to be in one place. 
  5. Fill up your website with unique and useful content: This is pretty straightforward. But make sure that you add a Title, a meta description, subheadings, and so on. Graphics can also make the content more readable.
  6. Internal Linking: Apart from adding text and graphics, add links too. Remember what was said about a website that has a good relationship with its surrounding market? Paste your link in different (quality) sources that'll direct them back to your page. Read more about backlinking to understand this better. 
  7. Extremal Optimization: Similar to the previous point, you need to create a plan for how you can spread your link, as well as use other people's links too. Don't spam the links however, the rule of - the more the merrier - does not apply here. 
  8. Promote on social networks: Finally, don't leave your website independent of your social media network. Merge them. Boost your website's awareness on your social media platforms and see the magic happen. 

Conclusion

SEO is much more than this, but this is the basis. With this knowledge, you can go ahead to optimize your page so that you can rank higher on SERPs. You can also help your friend and colleagues so that their websites too can be seen more easily. To go further with SEO, you can purchase a full SEO package at affordable prices from any SEO company of your choosing.