Search Engine Optimization has changed! Don’t make the mistake of thinking what worked once, still works today. Here are the three most essential elements to a modern day SEO campaign. If you speak to any of us ‘old hats’, you’d hear us say, search engine optimization (SEO) used to be all about Google. Back then it was simply about the number of keywords used on your web pages, combined with the keywords in links that pointed to your website. That was SEO ten years ago.The more keywords you had on your page and the more ‘anchor text’ backlinks you had – the better you ranked. This worked incredibly well! It was so easy to rank websites back then, anyone could do it. Worse still, any website could rank on page one. It wouldn’t matter how good the website was, or the level of quality the content offered. Google had a problem with this. Poor quality websites were ranking well. Since Google is in the business of staying in business – they needed to ensure their search results pages only offered the best content for its users. As a result, Google changed how they rated and ranked websites on the Internet. So they changed their algorithm. This changed how SEO was performed.Ranking on page one was no longer a simple undertaking. Retrospectively, when you analyze the history of Google’s algorithm changes, it is easy to see their underlying direction. It’s all centered around delivering the BEST possible user experience for their users. There is no doubt that the technology behind Google has advanced considerably since those good old days. This also means that SEO has had to evolve, and not be so “Keyword” focused. The direction of SEO had changed.Search engine optimization (SEO) is a discipline and methodology that technically combines your content with user intent as they search online for the best solution to their problem. While users STILL search using keywords – Google is now clever enough to decipher the ‘intent’ behind each search, and deliver content to suit. Search engine optimization (SEO) today is focused heavily on delivering a positive user experience. Nonetheless, SEO still requires a systematic and strategic process in order for you to improve the ranking of your website. While many SEO practices are primarily focused toward the user, others are carefully designed to speak to the search engines to convince them that your website is worthy of a page one position. Let’s take a deeper dive into modern day SEO.If you want to improve where your website ranks you need to focus on these three key areas. 1. Website StructureHow your website is structured is one of the most important aspects not only in SEO but in providing a great user experience. SEO begins with your website! Your site should not only be easy to navigate, but it also must be fast to load, plus be responsive to all devices. Try using the Google insights tool. http://ift.tt/143AF6Y This will give you a good heads-up on how your site is performing. Along with site speed, the overall usability of your site also matters. Although the look and feel of the website is highly subjective, there are a few design components that make a site easy to navigate, search engine friendly, professional, usable, and trustworthy. The primary goal of the structure should ideally be toward guiding your users to the information they are looking for, in the fastest way possible. At the same time, it should be easy for the search engines to crawl, and provide them with the necessary signals to understand what your site is all about and convince them that it’s technically of a high-quality standard. HomepageYour homepage is where you should promote your brand, show off your best content, and establish the unique identity of your site.
Essential Pages for SEOThe following pages, although quite self-explanatory, must be present on your site. These ‘utility’ pages are there to establish your credibility, and more importantly, a way for your visitors to not only learn more about you but also how to contact you.
As mentioned, not only are these pages sought out by your visitors, Google is also looking to ensure they are present. URL StructureThe URL format is essential to the overall navigation experience of your website. Here are some best SEO practices for your URL structure:
NavigationThe navigation of your site should be in such a way that a novice visitor can find the information they’re looking for in an easy and fast way without any guesswork.
Responsiveness and SpeedA huge number of searches are being performed on mobile devices. In fact, mobile has already surpassed desktop in terms of the number of searches performed on each platform. As such, having a non-responsive site can be detrimental to your rankings. Google has made it clear that they are moving toward a search index that favours mobile-friendly sites. Here are the SEO benefits of a responsive website:
The first step towards a mobile-friendly website is to make sure it’s AMP compatible. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is the new technology embraced by Google to ensure they display super-fast mobile-friendly web pages. Furthermore, Google is investing so much in making the web faster than ever for everyone. As a result, they officially added loading speeds as a ranking factor, to not only ensure a faster experience for its users but also to ‘force’ webmasters into taking speed into account when creating websites. 2. ContentOnce your foundation (your website) is solid, you need to start concentrating on delivering a positive user experience. Provide high-quality content for your users Actually, a website with original, high-quality content will do better in the long run with or without SEO. A website with bad content will not survive in the long run, even if it has been technically optimized for SEO. Keep in mind that whenever people search on the search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing), they’re looking for answers. Good content should have this in mind, and answer their questions the best way possible. To know if your content is useful, you can easily check the analytics of your website, especially the time visitors spend on a page or post. If the content is good, the user will stay longer on the page/post. The amount of social media shares is another way to gauge how useful the content is. So what is ‘good content?’
Quality vs. QuantityThis depends on the topic you’re tackling, so there’s really no word-count that can fit all instances. However, it’s better to put up a short quality post, than a long, unfriendly article just for the sake of having a higher word count. Short content can be very useful and still rank well. Creating good content
3. OutreachIf people online really like a website or a piece of content from a website, what do they do? They share it don’t they? We all like to be the ones who found something cool, and we rush to tell our friends about it. We do this either via social media or on any other web property that we control. Google knows this is how we behave online, and it is a key way they determine the worthiness of the content on your website. So when it comes to SEO, your content needs to be linked to and/or shared. High-quality content is more likely to have links and references from other websites. It will also have a high number of mentions on social media and bookmarked or shared among many users and communities with similar interests. Search engines take these aspects into account when ranking websites since it gives them a good indication of how its users perceive a given website. Link BuildingThis is one of the most effective and popular methods for SEO. Link building ideally tries to gather as many “votes” as possible for your website. For instance, when someone likes an article and uses it as a reference for their site/blog, it tells the search engines that the article/page has good information. Initially, link building was an easy way to manipulate the search engines into ranking a website higher, and many spammers took advantage of this by creating link networks. This led to the creation of black hat SEO, which includes strategies like blog directories, comment links, forum signatures, shared content directories, article directories, and link exchange schemes. Over time, Google has become more intelligent in identifying these techniques, and any attempt to use any of them puts you at a risk of receiving a penalty. So, is this still a useful practice?
The best way to attract natural links is to create and publish link-worthy content that compels other people to link to.
Social MediaIf you really think about it, social media is a form of link building. Keep in mind that all the links you receive from social media are “no-follow” but they’re still valuable. In fact, social media mentions are considered important ranking factors in SEO. Almost everyone has a social media profile these days. So, aside from getting social with your customers and having fun, your social media profiles can help to boost your SEO efforts as well. More people can find your business profile, meaning more people can connect with you and check out your website. A well-defined social media profile is an indispensable tool for customer engagement. And while your activity on social media won’t necessarily count as backlinks to help you rank higher, the buzz you create will produce more customers, create more awareness, and bring new visitors to your site – NATURALLY. Final WordSEO has evolved substantially, and it will continue to evolve. Focus on the tactics that matter – that is by providing your users with the best experience possible. SEO is not as easy as it once was. But by focusing on delivering an outstanding user experience to your target market, you are not only helping your potential customers through their buying cycle, you are also contributing to positive ranking signals for your website. The post 3 Essential Elements Of Modern Day SEO appeared first on Adv SEO Services. via Search Engine Optimization Blog – Adv SEO Services http://ift.tt/2nDlxUb
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