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New to SEO? Here you will get the answers and insights you need on how to do SEO for yourself. We tell you what areas to work on that are effective and other activities you may be doing that do not matter as much as you may believe. So what is SEO? Well, it stands for search engine optimisation. It’s the process whereby a website has a manual intervention with the aim of ranking better in the search engine listings, known as the SERPS. SEO is really a necessary intervention on a website. However, you may be surprised to find out that some SEO activities don’t have as much impact as you may have been lead to believe. Especially old school techniques that are now not really relevant today.
The process of search engine optimisation is multi-faceted. The aim is to bring about optimal results so that the end user finds the best results for the query searched. How this works is due to how Google and other search engines determine the best results to match a keyword or phrase. There are approximately 200 ranking factors that Google uses to evaluate the most relevant results to give the end user what they are looking for.
Google has published an SEO starter guide on how to get started, how to help Google find your content and how to help Google and users understand your site content.
Here below in this article, there are insights on what works and what is most effective in your digital marketing strategies.
There are a lot of WordPress users who use an SEO plugin such as Yoast, thinking this is a silver bullet to getting up on top. Obsessing on getting all lights to turn green with this plugin does not count for much in terms of overall results. Yes, an SEO plugin can help with things such as title tags and meta page description, however, don’t make the mistake of thinking this is a silver bullet to getting to the top. Just view SEO plugins as being helpful but don’t obsess over the plugin score. They don’t do the SEO for you, it’s just helpful and that’s about it.
Backlinks pointing to your website from other sites, especially ones from authority sites are a way to tell Google that this site is relevant and trustworthy that a high PR site will link back to your site. Backlinks from an authority site will carry more weight than multiple websites that have a lower PR value. However, while backlinks are good and account for ranking, spending a lot of time just looking to acquire backlinks is not a good long term strategy. Your content should be good enough to gain backlinks naturally over time. So to this extent, it’s more productive to just make your content great.
The higher the CTR or click-through rate signals to Google that this must be a good match for what the searcher is looking for. The key to improving the number of clicks is to pay attention to creating accurate, attention-grabbing titles and description. Use of power words is one method to make the listing stand out. Another is to implement schema on a website which allows for additional information to be listed. All this serves to make a website listing more helpful in giving the user better information about what a listing is before clicking through to the website.
The ratio of how many impressions a website listing gets versus the amount of people clicking on the listing link is called CTR. The higher the CTR the better your ranking results will be. How do you get a high CTR? well by making the listing stand out, presenting as much initial information relevant to the searcher’s needs beforehand. Encouraging a better CTR with the use of power words and attention-grabbing titles will increase the over click through.
Fasting loading sites provide a good user experience. It a fact also that a fast loading site is measurable for mobile search. Very important especially with mobile search as a fast loading site impacts on dwell time, bounce rate and voice search. You can check your website speed and performance here. If you are not sure about these results and how to improve, you can always send in an email to us. .https://gtmetrix.com/
Fast websites facilitate voice search apps on mobile and help to return quick loading answers to a given search. And because voice search is now twenty percent and set to rise in the future, setting up and optimising for this with a very fast site will get you ahead of the curve in this growing sector.
Research your keywords and find what people are looking for. Google suggests what keywords to use. All you have to do is type in a keyword and at the end of the page, Google suggests other related searched for phrases and keywords. Use this to guide your targeting. Pick a suggested keyword or multiple keywords from Google suggest and strive to have the answers to these in your content.
Creating high-value content. Answering a question, solving a problem and providing useful content for the target audience. Writing content can be done with practice and regular posts. Set aside your headlines and write a paragraph on each section. Keeping your content structured in sections that are not too lengthy keep the reader engaged and provides good clarity of message.
Create great headlines with a bit of flair will do better generally like this type of strategy tends to grab the readers attention. Sixty characters are about as much as you need in a title. Just think a little more creatively in describing what your post or paragraph is about.
Creating long-form content in the region of thousand words plus will by default, will produce a better page. The key here is to produce an incredibly helpful page for the given topic while keeping the quality of the content high. How a given page meets the need of the users is something that is measurable by Google. The main goal initially is to create good quality and quantity on your page or post. It matters how your page content is structured, the title tags, the links and visual layout all serve to engage the reader and facilitate sharing and dwell time on a website.
Clean formatting and a structured hierarchy of layout creates a good user experience in terms of the page content. The message is immediately understood clearly by the reader and also by Google when the tile and subtitle are tagged appropriately.
How to write content that is going to help your page rank well? The first step is to do research on keywords and phrases that are in your topic. Also, look at the competition for a given topic. The top-performing pages give indications why Google has served these as the best match for a search phrase. Of course, top ranking sites have a reputation that helps in the ranking. The reputation just to realise is as a result of providing pages that are the most useful for the topic. Any individual has within them the ability to create content that will rank. What is needed is a combination of quality and quantity. Knowledge and a bit of passion on the topic are foremost. It’s a matter of knowing how to structure content on a web page in a way that will gain traction in the search engines. The way to do this is to create a great the best result for the searcher. Once this happens the search engines will invariably know about it.
Answer the question quickly and comprehensively. Plus do it right at the start. Think about the perspective of Google. The search engine wants to deliver the best answer to a question-based search term. So the answer being at the top of a page is more likely to be relevant as opposed to burying the answer somewhere down in the page. Users remember are impatient and when the answer is not apparent immediately then they are going to click away. This also applies to Google, make sure the answer is in the first paragraph and that the rest of the content is structured to reflect this.