A Beginners Guide to SEO

The days when one could simply insert a keyword into your content to make your website rank higher in searches are gone. Instead, Google now uses a smart tool to measure where you should rank. It applies an algorithm that takes into account keywords and your relevance, content readability score, location and expertise.

It also changes its algorithm up to 600 times a year, impacting search engine results pages (SERPs), and making keeping your organic ranking quite challenging. However, Google does provide its KPI fundamentals¹ as a guide on how it works.

That’s where Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in. This approach incorporates keywords in a structured and strategic way based on trends, to maximise your prominence. SEO can go a long way to ensure you achieve and maintain your desired Google visibility and organic ranking.

What is SEO?

The Oxford dictionary defines SEO as “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine”² . SEO practices optimises website search words or terms to improve the site’s chances of discovery by a search engine’s organic search results. It helps prioritise your website by:

1. Understanding your organic search baseline.
2. Identifying relevant search keywords and queries through state-of-the-art search analytics.
3. Optimising your content structure and tone, including appropriate and valuable backlinks, and demonstrating expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (EAT)³.

Informed SEO strategy further suggests improved technical settings to enhance organic ranking. For example, it may advise removing duplicate content, using enhanced security technology, increasing page speed, making your site mobile-friendly, and adding an XML sitemap which lists the URLs (unique addresses) on your site to help search engines explore and understand it. SEO also stays abreast of advances in this dynamic field to keep your site relevant.

How Can You Benefit From SEO?

With 90 percent of over four billion active Internet users relying on Google, it makes sense to maximise your Google ranking.

Ranking higher organically through SEO offers the convenience of:

• Increased, consistent and free website traffic.
• Enhanced lead generation opportunities among targeted users.
• Improved credibility and equity.
• Relevant, actionable data
• Cost-efficient ROI

Crucially, SEO offers well-maintained websites the potential for long-term ascending growth.

What Are the Key Fundamentals to Remember?

Ranking higher organically will not happen overnight. Therefore, you need to consistently update your website. Below are some essential guidelines to keep in mind regarding:

1. The value of the content you publish: Focus on relevance, high ranking keywords, and understanding your target audience. Your content needs to be meaningful, informative, entertaining and credible.⁴ Be thorough in your research and maintain the correct tone to appeal to your market.
2. The quality of your website: You have five seconds to show how trustworthy and valuable your website is. So, ensure your site differentiates positively and powerfully. No one wants to visit a webpage that is uninviting and unattractive. Contact us today for a free consultation on collaborative website development.
3. Mobile-first indexing: More than 90 percent of the population access the web using mobile devices. So, it’s vital to be mindful of the mobile version of your content for indexing, to maintain consistency and credibility.
4. On-page and off-page keywords: The right words are critical, and the keywords you use in your header, description, and alt tags, for example, play a considerable role in your ranking. SEO analysis will help you identify your keywords, how many to use for impact and position them most effectively.
5. Page speed: The average page speed for a successful website is three seconds. Delay a little longer, and your audiences will bounce off your website. This, in turn, hints to Google that your page is irrelevant, decreasing your ranking. So instead, test your page speed here and make the necessary adjustments to maintain your significance.
6. The strength of your branding: Google counts website clicks, so improve and safeguard your ranking by consistently building significant brand authority. The better your branding, the higher your awareness and equity, and the more clicks on your website. Then your ranking will climb.

We hope this helps. Tune in for our next blog on optimising free tools to rank higher. In the meanwhile, learn more about the differences and pros and cons of organic vs. paid ranking by clicking here.

Sources:
https://review42.com/resources/google-statistics-and-facts/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/

¹ Bailyn, E (2021). The 2022 Google Algorithm Ranking Factors. SEO Blog, FirstPageSage. < Link>
² https://www.lexico.com/definition/search_engine_optimization <Link>
³ Hardwick, J (2020). What is E A-T? Why It’s Important for SEO. Ahrefs blog. <Link>
https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
⁴ Dao, William & Le, Angelina & Cheng, Julian & Chen, Der Chao. (2014). Social media advertising value The case of transitional economies in Southeast Asia. International Journal of Advertising. 33. 271. 10.2501/IJA-33-2-271-294. <Link>