Decode The Best Practice For SEO That Will Ignite Growth

Can you roughly imagine how many blog posts are published by people each day? Any surmises? Probably more than 2 million, that accounts to be 24 blog posts every second.

This means probably around 216 blogs were published while you reading these lines. And every site wants to be ranked better than its competitors. And showing up on the front page of any search engine like Google can be the deciding factor that is thriving and one that is, well, bankrupt.

Meaning OF SEO

You might be aware that the acronym SEO stands for search engine optimization. But are you aware of what you need to optimize? What is the primary thing that you need to optimize; designs, content, or links. Without wasting even a second, let’s dive –in an SEO guide.

It is the art ranking high on a search engine in the unpaid section, also called the organic listings. To be precise, it is the method of optimizing your content on the website so that a search engine is tempted to show it as a top result for searches of a certain keyword.

Let’s get a layer beneath that to understand SEO:

The cycle of SEO includes you, the search engine, and the searcher. For instance, if you have an article about how to make pizza, you would want the search engine( which, in a majority of cases, is Google) to show it as a top result to anyone who searches for the phrase pizza”.

SEO is the magic tonic that you have to work on your article to make Google very likely to include your post as one of the top results whenever someone searches for that keyword.

Understand SEO by discovering the elements further discussed, but feel free to hop and select the section that intrigues you:

  • White hat vs. black hat
  • The Role OF Grey Hat SEO
  • Maintaining your house inside and outside: on-page SEO vs. off-page SEO
  • On-Page SEO
  • Off-Page SEO

Overview

It is a matter of fact, over 94% of people use Google to drive results, and they only look at the first page of search results. In the world where everyone wants everything in a single click, it can get hard to compete with millions of website to rank. And it would be hilarious to compare the dire need for businesses to rank their website on search engines with a wisecrack, if you ever need to conceal a dead body then you should place it on the second page of Google search results.

So what do you do if you are someone who has just started a new business or has a small business that appears on the 12th page of results instead of the first page?

In that case, SEO is your sole sire, it is an apt way of increasing your site position organically via quality backlinks, and with the aid of effective keywords. It is the most efficacious way to increase organic traffic to your website, and it also enhances the chances of the conversion of quality leads.

To pop-up on the top of the search engine results, you first need to decipher how search even works.

The Way Search Works

Now you have a fair knowledge of the basics of SEO, let’s take a look at some of its components in detail. It is a bit tricky to beat the Google algorithm as they guard their search algorithm pretty well. Various factors determine the ranking of a page. But first, we need to get one thing straight. Just like the two sides of the coin, there are two sides to the SEO force, and you need to pick your one.

White hat vs. black hat

If you are playing the long-term entrepreneurial game instead of just trying to get a quick buck out of it then, you need to pick sagaciously. If you count yourself to be committed in it for the long haul then opting for white hat SEO will be the perfect pick. White hat SEO is the best way to build a sustainable online business. This technique focuses on your audience, and you will provide them quality content, and make it easily available to them by being in accord with the search engine’s rules.

White Hat Strategies Comprises of:

  • Relevant content.
  • Well-labeled images.
  • Using Suitable links and references.
  • Usage of complete sentences and grammar with precision.
  • Choosing a relevant and unique page titles.
  • Using standards-compliant HTML.

In case, you want to work SEO like a get-rich-quick scheme, you would probably end up inclining towards black hat SEO. It is a practice that does not align with search engine guidelines, used to get a site higher ranking. There is a prime way in which black hat SEOs can be used to make a few thousand dollars fast.

But the downside of such a practice is that they do not solve the problems of the searcher, and often end in a penalty from search engines. It can harm the site’s reputation for the marketer, and at the same time devastating their chance of creating a perpetual business. You might hit a jackpot for a while with technique, but you will continuously have to be on the lookout for search engine updates and will have to counter these with new ways to dodge the algorithm.

Black Hat Strategies Comprises of:

  • Using duplicate content.
  • Shrewdly using invisible texts and stuffed keywords.
  • Surreptitiously re-directing the user to another website.
  • Backlinking the links from the sites with non-relevant content.

The Role OF Gray Hat SEO

Gray Hat comprises of slightly unethical SEO tactics. Yet, they have not categorized as search engines prohibited practices but, they are considered to be categorized as one shortly. It threads close to the lines of black hat SEO. Many of these practices become a part of black hat SEO over time, once search engines found out about them. The best part is it is not quite as egregiously manipulative as a back that can be.

Dynamic Nature OF SEO

SEO keeps evolving all the times and this allows a little room for gray hat SEO to sneak in. The matter of fact is that what most of us think as “the rules” are simply derived from looking at the correlating data trends. And if you want to be a step ahead of your competitors, you need to be up-to-date with the SEO changes.

The major change can about after the introduction of snippets. Approximately 12.29% of search queries have featured snippet in their SERPs. And this likely to pave a new path and how to optimize the content.

Link Building

Many old-age link building techniques have debatable results. For few, it works and for others, it doesn’t. All the SEO tactics should be measured before they are put to use. One should keep in mind the potential it has to generate ROI.

Link building has been considered dead for ages. But this is a hoax, those who could not adapt to the dynamic nature of it, failed to keep up with the algorithm. It was confirmed by Google that is a key ranking factor and its significance has not changed since the inception of Google. You should keep in mind that the links build are natural and in any way should not indicate Google that you are attempting to manipulate its search algorithm.

Building a high-quality link is essential to survive the competition and avoid duplicate the links and get in the vicious circle of black hat SEO.

Another issue faced that can be faced by you is to come with terms that search engine rankings are not as good as they used to be and with the new algorithm evolution like Rank Brain help dramatically.

Important indicators to make your website rank

  • The number of links to the competition.
  • Having a higher domain authority than the competition.
  • You need to have a better on-page markup than your competitor.

Various factors decide the ranking of the site online and these are considered to be the vital ones. It is predicted that engagement hacks like increasing search engine result page click-through-rates to attract more traffic has the potential to become a new gray hat tactic. Another included boosting your Facebook engagement to aid you to increase your organic reach.

Many of the existing businesses make a conscious decision of using all the tactics to carve a niche in the market and do get in dilemma, to use or avert the situation of using a gray hat or black hat SEO.

Maintaining your house inside and outside: on-page SEO vs. off-page SEO

SEO can be bifurcated into two broad categories:

  • On-page SEO
  • Off-page SEO

On-page SEO

On-page SEO is the method to optimize web pages to rank better than competitors and engage more relevant traffic in search engines. It refers to both the content and HTML source code of a web page that requires to be optimized. One looks to optimize, their page’s headline, content, and page structure.

Factors that Affect On-Page SEO

Content:

In the era where “content is the king”, the content of a page facility it to be worthy of a search result position. It is essential to use quality and original content for your site. The definition of good content can vary for an individual, but from an SEO perspective, good content must supply-demand and must be linkable.

Elements that make up great content in the search engine’s eyes:

  • Quality: It is important to provide the researchers with quality content and the information which they are looking for to increase the credibility of your page and keeping the audience hooked.
  • Use of keywords: Keywords are the phrases and words that people look for in search engines. They are the heart of on-page optimization. Using a keyword to enable your site to rank but at the same time keyword stuffing is an absolute no-go these days. Keep in mind to seamlessly integrate your keyword a few times.
  • The freshness of content: It is a convenient way to rank higher, you can do so by posting frequently or keeping your content up-to-date. You can rank better by posting once in a month only if your content is thorough and in-depth.
  • Exact answers: Finally, search engines can provide the answers to the searchers’ queries with direct answers right on the SERP. In case, you write in a manner that Google recognizes it as an answer, then it pops-up directly beneath the search bar.
  • Keyword selection: It plays a major role as it dictates what the whole content is about and how you pitch your brand. Also, they in a way control link building. One needs to keep doing keyword research.

HTML: Next step after creating quality content, it is vital to take care of the next big chunk, i.e. HTML. Let’s focus on the following four components of HTML that you should optimize for every single piece of content you create.

  • Title tags: It specifies the title of the web page. It should be crisp and able to impart a concise description of the page content.
  • Meta description: It is what Google shows up as an excerpt when it displays your page as a result to your researchers.
  • Schema: It is a result of an amalgamation of several search engines. It improves the way the search engine result pages show your content.
  • Subheads: Subheads include h2, h3,h4, and further subheads that have less importance as compared to the h1 tag. But they still have some relevance and should be used.

Architecture

The third and last part of on-page SEO that we will elucidate is site architecture. If you, are tech-savvy this part will entice you as it gets super-techy, in the blink of your eye. Before, we explore its various elements, here are some simple pointers to register, and that everyone should incorporate in their SEO tactic.

  • A well-built website architecture leads to great user experience, and this facilitates them to navigate your page. It pays attention to features like; fast loading time, a safe connection, and a mobile-compatible design.
  • You will end up mapping out the architecture of your site before even purchasing the domain. That enables you to get into the head of your user and reverse-engineer your way to incredible user experience.

Apart from the above-mentioned elements, you also need to optimize a few more elements for a great, search engine practice. The level of accessibility of your website to Google is directly proportional to the ranking factor.

  • Convenient to crawl: As we have mentioned earlier about the Google bots, these are the programs that are used to “crawl” from one page to the subsequent via the path created by the links to follow. The ranking of your site can be affected by how smoothly they can index all the pages on your site. It is believed the thicker the web of links between pages of your site, it is easier for the bots to read all of them, imparting the search engine a better understanding of your website.
  • Duplicate content: There are a lot of conjectures ranking around duplicate content, and it has an adverse effect on your rankings. A common incorrect perception is that you need to show only original content on your site. But the fact is, a website with duplicate content is not penalized. You should keep in mind that re-posting your content on other sites or publishing your guest posts over regular intervals does not affect the SEO unless you do it the unethical way. To avert canonicalization, imbibe fair tricks of the trade.
  • Mobile- friendly: We live in a time, where every second person has a mobile, and if your page is not mobile-friendly, you are lagging far behind in the game. While there are innumerable ways to create your pages mobile-friendly, we recommend you to hold a strong grip of Google’s tool.
  • Page speed: In today’s time, people are losing patience and are always in a hurry, they want everything in a fraction of seconds. So, what makes you think they will wait for minutes or hours for your website to browse? People value time more than anything else and if your site takes too long to load this would lead to absolutely killing your conversion which will lead to low conversion rates and hence, the whole purpose of your website gets nullified.

Also, according to a recent study, the probability of someone bouncing from your site accelerates by 113 percent, if, it takes seven seconds to load. This scenario will have a direct impact on your page ranking.

We have cataloged some of the biggest issues to keep an eye on:

Keywords in URLs:

It is pivotal to include your targeted keywords in the URLs of your blog post. Keep in mind, not to squander those SEO points. You might have to make certain adjustments in the structure of your links, and you should certainly keep your human users in mind as they play an indispensable role. It is believed, incorporating your keyword in your URLs is a no-brainer.

HTTPS and SSL:

SEOs, keep into consideration the security factor, and according to them, it acts as a ranking signal for some time now. Also, Google has an active role to play in it, they are now, actively intimating people when websites are not secure. You can observe, an instant pop-up, if you enter an unsafe website, Google assistance is there to guide you.

And this is the last thing that you would want, after your perseverance and hard work, you should not let this increase the bounce rate of your website, which ultimately affects your conversion rate. There are two evident security codes;HTTPS (a secure version of HTTP) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer). You can consider these both even if they don’t guarantee to up your SEO game the way you want.

Technically, moving from a non-secure connection to HTTPS or SSL is a sagacious choice, it might look tedious, but it is worth it. You can even look for any of these five distinguished SSL options as well:

  • 1.Single Domain: You can utilize this option to safeguard one single domain name. It fails to work on sub-domains.
  • 2. Multi-Domain: If you decide to use this one, it will aid you in protecting multiple domains. But, to your dismay, it will not cover subdomains of individual sites.
  • 3. Wildcard: You can opt for this one as it will cover sub-domains. And if you are looking for something like this only, then it is good to go.
  • 4. Organization: This type is similar to a single domain, but, it does not provide as much security for e-commerce transactions.
  • 5. Extended: And lastly, this one will give you certain perks, like; displaying the name in the green address bar. But, at the same time, it demands a bit of extra work. The major difference lies in the fact how you use these. Also, you can purchase these directly from your domain registrar.

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to all the variables that any search engine takes a look at, and they are not exclusively in your hands, and it is beyond link building. They are dependent on other sources such as social networks, other blogs in your market, and also the history of the searcher.

They both are diametrically opposite but have an indispensable role in making your page rank, and you need to get both right, to do well with SEO. It is vital to keep in mind that when a visitor leaves your site after viewing just one page, it is considered as bounce by Google. The higher will be your bounce rate, the lower your page will be ranked by Google.

There many ways by which off-page SEO is affected which include TrustRank that lets Google check whether your site is legit or not. Also, Pagerank, is not alone considered when looking for ranking pages in the top ten search results.

One cannot ignore quality linking at the same time, and even the searchers’ history can aid your site to pop-up on their system. Social traffic, can also enhance your website, and quality shares can surely add.

It is the perfect time to step outside your house and take a look at the front side of your yard. We will now elucidate you four big areas of off-page SEO.

  • Trust: Page Rank, considered as the famous formula that the creators of Google invented, certainly you, cannot consider it as the only measure they take into consideration while ranking pages in the top ten search results. Trust is increasingly becoming an important factor, and Google doesn’t consider obscure websites.
  • Authority The deciding factor of the overall authority of your site by Google is by a mix of two kinds of authority that you can create:

    Domain authority: This is concerned with how widespread your domain name is.

    Page authority: This relates to how authoritative the content of a single page.

  • Bounce rate: Your bounce rate indicates how many people view only one page on your site before leaving your site. The factors that affect the bounce rate rather than decreases the bounce rate are quality content, loading times, usability, and captivating the right readers. The loading time is directly proportional to how long the visitor might end up staying on your page. Another medium to keep your audience hooked is by video content that stands out. Also, keep in mind to deliver what your site promises and try to cater to your audience’s queries, you should understand that click-through rates are increasingly becoming important, if not equally important to ranking.
  • Domain age: Domain age has little significance in comparison to other elements. If you haven’t launched your site, you should look for finding an affordable, expired domain and using it. All the factors such as domain trust, authority, and age often have one thing in common, i.e., your brand.
  • Identity:As mentioned above, if you acquire a brand or personal identity online that serves as a huge trust signal for search engines, in case, you don’t have one right now, you can initiate to build it, but it takes time to build. You should be aware of the fact that creating brand signals prevents you from future penalties via Google updates. This to an extent, elucidates, why Google gives big brands preferential treatment.
  • Links To make Google, believe the credibility of your site backlinks can act as the game-changer for you. These are also known as “inbound links” or “incoming links,” which are built when one website links to another. This connectivity or link to an external website is known as a backlink. These play an indispensable role for SEO because they represent a “vote of confidence” from one site to another. You should keep in mind these factors when trying to get backlinks:
  • Quality of links: Just the number of links, won’t serve the purpose, you should be in a position to garner quality links, and to do so, you, need to reach out to the right sources and the ones that offer value in exchange.

    As we just mentioned the number of links, won’t help to up your game, and here is why:

    • Search engines tend to neglect the vast majority of links if, they are below the standards.
    • Links from brand new sites are given more preference in comparison to repeat links from the existing sites.
    • Links from other sites are more valuable than a bunch of links from your website.
  • Anchor text: This text is the text that other sites utilize when they link to you, and yes, it is a point that matters. Distinguishing between the types of anchor texts is a part of the nitty-gritty, but a good thumb rule to keep in mind is: The more natural the link text looks like, the better. Also, the second category is known as contextual backlinks, and you should strive for these.
  • Quantity of backlinks: Lastly, the number of links also plays a pivotal role. But, you should not overlook the fact that the site with the most superior quality links will have a better edge. And what you don’t want is your privacy policy to be your most linked-to page. We can comprehend the quality source of the links you get counts. But so, too, does, the page they have been linked to.
  • Personal :Another category of off-page SEO that we would deal with is personal factors. While the major fraction of this is out of your hands, there are certain things you can do to accelerate your chances of reaching a certain desired audience.
    • Country: All the searchers, see the results, relevant to the country they are, based in. The results are shown based on your time zone. So, the keyword selection, should be based on the audience that you, desire to target, and keeping the demographics in mind. You can also, incline towards generating a multilingual content.
    • City: You should know that geo-targeting, goes even a step further, and using city names as keywords can do the job for you.
    • User’s history: If you have viewed your page before, the chances of your website result popping on the screen increases as Google considers you are a relevant result for them.
  • Social Lastly, let's dive into the social factors of off-page SEO. This is a matter of fact, that good results on social media can help you, to rank better on search engines.

The different factors of influence, as discussed below:

Quality of shares: Similar to, case of backlinks, the quality of backlinks have an upper hand. Google prioritizes the content shared by influencers.

The number of shares: Another social metric is the number of shares, and to become a viral hit, the fundamental element is quality and out-of-the-box content, and the requirement of the type of content varies.

Conclusion:

In the end, it can be concluded that SEO plays an important role in any online website to flourish, and should not be sidelined and should be your priority.

Questions:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the practice of accelerating the quality and quantity of traffic to your website via organic search results.

It takes approximately 6 months to see desired results with them, and only if you are targeting relevant competitive keywords.

It is observed that search engines do not penalize your website because of duplicate content. However, it does scan identical content, which is equivalent to a penalty.

Many factors play a pivotal role in link building, including the relevancy of the site linking to you, the popularity of the linking site, quality links are prior to the number of links. Also, the anchor text of each link is crucial.

Search Engine Optimization, considered as the only marketing channel that, when set up in the right way, can foster profits as well as continue to pay dividends over time.

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