SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. By many, it is considered as a manipulative technique to change how your websites are ranked on search engines. This is only partly correct.
In fact, optimization for different search engines can improve the visibility of your webpage in search engine result pages (SERPs). Today, SEO is no longer about underhand techniques meant to deceive search engines and their users.
One of the reasons that Google regularly updates its algorithms as often as they do is that they want to make sure that only good SEO practices are used by website owners. Proper SEO techniques are those that will help your web pages to rank higher but will also help people to find relevant information ease. In the industry, these are known as white hat techniques.
Good SEO should serve you, the website owner, blogger, or entrepreneur, but also the user who is your potential visitor, follower, customer, or brand advocate.
Make Your Website’s Structure Clear
The way you organize your site’s architecture and the site navigation is important both for SEO and your visitors. Search engines will look at your link structure to find and index pages. If you have structured your site well, all the pages will be easily found and indexed by crawlers from search engines.
Intuitive navigation also works for site visitors, as it helps them to find what they came to your site for as quickly as possible. As a general rule, information on your website should be available to a user within three clicks. If you need help sorting out your site navigation, hire a professional company. You could keep someone on retainer or opt for pay monthly websites.
Include One Primary Keyword In A Page URL
You might optimize your pages on your domain for a range of different keywords. For each page, try to choose one main keyword phrase so you can properly focus on it. Include the phrase in the URL address.
Use Hyphens Instead of Underscores In URLs
Underscores when used in a URL cause Google to read the separate words a single word. This would mean that the URL ‘best_social_media_tips’ would be read by Google as ‘bestsocialmediatips’, which is hard to read. Use hyphens instead, so Google reads your URL correctly.
Use A Static Url Address Instead Of A Dynamic One
There are two kinds of web address: static and dynamic. A static URL looks like this:
- your-domain-name.com/category/your-subject.
A dynamic URL looks like this:
- your-domain-name.com/category/?p=028705
A search engine will understand both of these URLs easily, but a dynamic URL is completely illegible to a human being.
If your bog is hosted on WordPress, your default URL address of a new post is dynamic. When you click the publish button, WordPress will convert this into a static address. While this is helpful, it will choose random keywords from the title of the blog post. These might not always the best terms, so it is better to edit the URL yourself to make sure the right keyword is included.
Keep A URL Address Brief, Descriptive, And Relevant
A visitor to your site should be able to tell at a glance what your site is about. If you edit the URL yourself, you can change it to better work for keywords optimization, but you can also make it much clearer for a user to understand what they can find on your website. This makes navigating around your site much easier.
Create A Sweet Title-Tag For Every Single Page Of Your Website
A title tag describes what your domain is about. It is a single, short sentence, which briefly describes your website. A title tag appears in a few pages, including in SERPs, social media, external pages, and in browsers. The ideal title tag is short, catchy, and original. It should attract the attention of your targeted audience.
Use Meta-Description To Present Your Brand Better
A meta description is a short paragraph that is shown under your title tag on a search engine results page. This description allows you the opportunity to introduce your brand to a searcher before they land on your website and actually see the products or services that you are offering. The ideal meta-description is between 150-160 characters.
Basic SEO is useful for getting your website into good shape to rank well on search engines and deliver relevant content to your target audience. Before moving onto more advanced tactics, you need to get the basics right.
DISCLOSURE – Please be aware that this blog post has been written by an outside source.
