You have learned the core SEO concepts in the previous article, and now it's time to see how to put it all into practice. In this article, we will explore some actionable strategies that help you take your first steps toward site optimization and making your site appear in search engine results. Always remember that SEO takes time to give results, and there is no instant success. You have to be consistent and patient in order to rank your website higher on the web.
Laying the Groundwork: Setting Up Your SEO Control Panel
Some free and paid tools help you monitor your website's performance and SEO progress. Before optimizing the content directly, let's take an overview of some of these tools:
Google Search Console: Your SEO Control Panel
Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google itself to help you monitor how your website performs in Google Search results. It enables you to identify indexing issues and receive updates on the potential problems in your site. You can easily set it up by visiting Google Search Console and adding your website. It requires you to prove ownership of the website by uploading an HTML file or adding meta tags. You can also connect your Google Analytics account to it. It provides you with performance reports, index coverage, and sitemaps.
Google Analytics: Understanding Your Audience
It is another service provided by Google that tracks your website's traffic. Although it is not a direct SEO tool, it helps you understand how users are using your site. It gives insights into your most popular pages, the locations from where your website is being visited, and the bounce rate and time on each page (indicating content quality). Collecting this information allows you to make changes and improve your website, ultimately leading to better SEO. You can easily create a free Google Analytics account and add the tracking code to your website.
XML Sitemaps: Guiding the Crawlers
The sitemap is a file that contains URLs of all the pages on your website, providing a roadmap to the crawlers to discover your site content and navigate the pages. You can create it in different ways. For WordPress users, there are plugins like Yoast SEO, RankMath, etc. Custom website developers can search for sitemap builders online, or their website builder can provide the service. Once the sitemap has been created, you can upload your sitemap.xml file on Google Search Console.
Robots.txt: Directing Traffic
The Robots.txt is a simple text file added to your website's root directory that helps you prevent crawlers from crawling specific parts of your website. It must be configured cautiously, as it may prevent the crawlers from discovering important pages.
Mastering On-Page SEO: Optimizing Your Content
Once you have set up all the basic tools to track your SEO progress, the next step is optimizing the on-page factors that affect your rankings on search engines. Let's discuss those factors briefly:
Keyword Research: Speaking Your Audience's Language
Keyword research is the process of finding what your audience is looking for. These are the special words that the users type into the search engine. You can perform keyword research in various ways, such as:
- Brainstorming
To find out what your audience searches for, you have to think like them. Think about what you'll type in the search bar if you want to search for something related to your content. This will give you ideas and a list of seed keywords to start with. - Free Tools
There are plenty of free tools that allow you to perform keyword research while providing key insights and content ideas, such as:- Google Keyword Planner: Keyword planner is a free tool that Google offers to provide keyword ideas and search volume information. However, it requires a Google Analytics account.
- Ubersuggest: Although it is paid, you can perform 3 keyword research per day for free. It also gives detailed insights regarding each keyword, including keyword density, cost per click (CPC), and SEO difficulty (SD).
- Google Search Suggestion: These are the keywords that Google suggests when you type something in the search box. You must observe these phrases and keywords.
- People Also Ask/Related Searches Section: These sections are where Google shows the most popular searches regarding your target keywords.
- Understanding User Intent
Think like your users and understand why they would search for something on the search engine. Are they looking for information (informational intent), buying anything (transactional intent), or going to a specific site (navigational intent). By understanding this, you can shape your content according to their needs. - Finding Long-Tail Keywords
The long-tail keywords help you rank faster on the search engines as they are specific. Although they have a lower search volume, they have less competition and higher conversion rates.
Content Quality and Content
Always try to keep your content interesting, engaging, comprehensive, and high-quality to keep your audience engaged. Answer the questions your audience may ask more frequently and directly, increasing the chances of it being ranked. Moreover, structure your content properly by using appropriate headings, short paragraphs, bullet points, and other interactive elements.
Optimizing Key On-Page Elements
- Title Tags: Try to keep it concise (up to 50 words), use primary keywords, and make it engaging enough so the audience gets encouraged to click on it.
- Meta Description: Add an engaging meta description to summarize the content of your page comprehensively. Use keywords in it so Google can put them in bold when a related query is searched.
- Headings: Structure your headings properly. Use only one h1 tag per page and mention subheadings using other heading tags. Breaking down the content into subheadings improves readability and logically organizes the information.
- Image Optimization: Optimize your images by using descriptive file names, adding alt attributes, and compressing them without impacting their quality.
- Internal Linking: Link different parts of your content and website so search engines can discover more of your content.
- URL Structure: Try to keep your URLs descriptive and short, include relevant keywords wherever possible, and separate words with hyphens to increase readability.
Boosting Technical SEO: Site Performance and Accessibility
Technical SEO enhances your website's crawlability and helps you make it more user-friendly. It includes the following factors:
Page Speed
Page speed is one of the most important factors to rank higher on search engines. Users don't stay on the pages that load slowly, and Google prioritizes fast-loading pages. Therefore, use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix to analyze your website's performance.
Mobile-Friendliness
Google and other search engines use mobile-first indexing to rank your content since most users search for information on their mobile devices. Therefore, ensure that your web pages are responsive to different screen sizes.
SSL Certificate (HTTPS)
The HTTPS or SSL certificate is used to encrypt information between users and your site, ensuring security and privacy. Most hosting providers offer free SSL certificates.
Off-Page SEO: Building Your Online Presence
Building your online presence is the key if you want search engines to identify your and your content. The following factors can help you achieve that:
Link Building
Get yourself some backlinks by generating exceptional content that others like to mention in their content. Share your content on different social media platforms to increase content visibility and get more links.
Online Reputation
Building a positive online reputation is crucial to a successful online business. If you have a business online, set up your Google My Business account and try to get some positive reviews so that Google displays your business whenever someone searches for something related.
SEO is a time-consuming process that requires patience and consistency. Following the strategies mentioned in this article can achieve better rankings on Google and other major search engines.