Nowadays, having an online presence is not possible without SEO techniques. They are essential to getting your website displayed on the first page of search results, which is why enlisting the help of an SEO agency is so important.
Knowing how this dynamic works is essential, and will help you a lot in your daily routine. Keep in mind that the following points represent steps which take place both before and after Google’s indexing process.
1. Identify the keywords used by your target audience
With Google at our disposal, we can search for any subject, and access countless pages of results. But how does Google determine which websites should appear first?
Several factors play a part. The first is the usage of keywords, i.e. the terms which people type into the search box in the first place. Once you click on the magnifying glass, only websites containing relevant search words will appear.
However, when creating content which addresses the keyword in question, be careful not to repeat them too many times throughout the article. Ideally, you should:
• Use the keyword(s) in the title and in first paragraph of the article;
• Repeat it in one subtitle;
• Use it one more time in the middle of the text and in the concluding paragraph;
• Offer higher-quality, more comprehensive content than your site’s competitors.
It’s also important to use variations and synonyms of the main term, as this will help to keep your keyword density between 3% and 4% – the ideal rate according to many SEO professionals. To calculate keyword density, simply divide the number of words in the text by the number of times the main keyword is repeated.
Also of interest are generic keywords. These are searched for by people who are already familiar with most relevant content – as is the case with the term “digital marketing”, for example.
Make sure you understand your market and the problems which your content can solve, always striving to customize your keywords according to your company’s niche.
2. Readability
As we have seen, it is important to repeat the primary or secondary keyword in at least one subheading. But what exactly does this mean?
It is well known that human attention spans are getting shorter and shorter — 8 seconds on average, according to Microsoft. As a consequence of this, articles have begun to incorporate short sentences, paragraphs with 3 or 4 lines and short titles dividing each topic in the text.
This makes the reading of an article more dynamic, and less like a scientific article. Just like the article you are reading right now!
3. Website URLs
The more SEO-friendly your URLs are, the easier it will be for Google’s bots to understand what your website is about. So every time you publish a new page, whether it’s a piece of content that may interest your audience, or promoting a new product:
• Provide a description of the page and its keyword(s);
• Use as few words as possible, since Google bots have a hard time reading long URLs;
• Include the keyword.
4. SEO for images
Every time you insert an original image on your site, make sure to name it using the relevant keyword, or just describe its contents. Doing so makes the subject of the image in question clear to Google bots.
It also increases the odds of your image appearing in Google Images search results, which will lead more users back to your site.
5. Link building
Link building is an important optimization technique, and a pretty simple one. You know those clickable words and phrases that appear in texts? They are often inserted for this purpose.
However, the anchor text (with the URL) doesn’t always have to refer to products or services. It can also refer to content which is related to what is currently being read. The important thing is to establish cohesion between the links.
The purpose of these links is to bolster your site’s reputation on search engines. When a website which is considered reliable by Google links to yours, its reputation grows as a result. Ultimately, this increases your chances of outranking your competitors, and avoiding the dreaded second page of Google results.
6. Responsive Design and AMPs
A responsive design is one which adapts to any type of device – desktop or mobile. AMPs, or Accelerate Mobile Pages, are pages with a loading speed of less than 1 second, and use 10 times less data than conventional pages.
Both techniques are recognized by Google bots when determining which sites offer the best user experience. After all, speed is a great asset in our modern age.
In the end, SEO techniques serve to make your pages and your content more readable, both for Google and for its users. That’s why it’s so important to take the points mentioned above into consideration when planning your digital marketing strategies.