Millions of website owners around the globe dream to be Google’s favorite! There is no magic in that, but you will need a lot of science, art, and expertise to get there. But be sure, it’s much simpler than you may think it is!
The combination of science, art, and expertise is called SEO. SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
We gathered in this post the basics of SEO to give your business or brand website the best chances with Google. Believe it or not, millions of websites still don’t have any SEO attention, and none of the below is done:
The Meta Title Tag
This is a set of about 160 characters. It serves as a catch and summary of your website pages.
Hn structure (h1, h2, h3 … h6)
The tags h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 are used to structure a web page’s editorial content. It’s useful for Internet users who can better understand the structure of your content and Search Engines that particularly consider the key-phrases located in these levels of titles.
It starts with your h1 and works its way down in importance to the h2, h3
and so on.
Keywords
The choice of keywords targeted on your website is one of the major steps in implementing an SEO strategy. To bring maximum traffic to your site, try to focus on keywords that matter the most for you while providing your reader with quality and useful content.
Long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they’re closer to a point-of-purchase. They are much more specific than short-tail keywords.
Note that they have a much lower search volume compared to a short-tail keyword.
Short-tail keywords
As the name suggested, short-tail keywords are three words or Fewer.
Sometimes they are also called the head keyword. Short-tail keywords have a tremendous amount of search volume but are also highly competitive.
The robots.txt file
This file tells search engines what is allowed for them to do or not on your website and gives them further information about it. The robots.txt file should be placed at the root of your site.
If the domain of your site is https://www.my-domain.us/, the robots.txt file must be located at the following address https://www.my-domain.us/robots.txt
The Sitemap file
If you look over the internet, among the various SEO checklists found on the Web, there is a redundant file called sitemap.xml.
The Sitemap file should include any useful URLs starting with https://example.com/ on your website.
Backlinks
They are also called «incoming links» or «inbound links» are created when one website links to another. The more good quality you have, the better it is for your Search Engine ranking.
URLs
You need to optimize your URLs for SEO. Although a URL
is just information about the location of a web page, it contains much more. You can optimize your website URLs for SEO using those tips:
- Prefer single dashes to multiple dashes
- Include the main keyword in your URLs
- Do not forget customized 404 redirects for broken URLs
Website Speed
Page speed is a measurement of how fast the content on your page loads.
It’s no surprise that Google has been measuring your site’s speed and using that in its ranking algorithms since 2010. More recently, your site’s speed on/for mobile devices became a much more critical signal, too.
Indexing
The most important term in SEO is the indexing of web pages. Indexing is the most important activity to get the website ranked in the search engine and make them aware of your web pages and add them to their databases.
Duplicate content
Duplicated content penalizes SEO
Also, note that for the sake of quality natural search results (SEO), search engines try to identify sites hosting duplicate content to punish very heavily. So be careful about that!
User Experience
UX refers to how your visitors will perceive your website. If this feeling is positive, they will come back. If it is not, you already know the answer.
The UX aims to convert visitors into customers through a positive experience on the website or via a product. You can build a positive experience through easy navigation, mobile-friendliness, clarity, interactivity …
Responsive design
That’s right, Google favors websites that use responsive design, and who are we to argue with Google?
With the release of the last version of its algorithm, Google has designed a new mobile ranking system favoring mobile-friendly websites, making it necessary to invest in responsive design.
To conclude, consider using your Search Console more frequently because it provides you with information about your site’s health and information about Google’s perception of your site. Basically, it’s good for your SEO.
If you need help with your SEO Marketing Strategy in Los Angeles, book a FREE consultation and FREE Audit with our SEO specialist in Los Angeles here!