Search engines have programs called crawlers or spiders that find information on the internet whenever performs a search. These crawlers/spiders scan the Internet and find web servers. They visit each website and use different techniques to find out information that is relevant to the search queries. The crawlers read websites by finding out how many pages they have and the type of content (text content, images, videos or any other format). They also follow any links on the site to discover more pages.
This is a continuous process so they know when you make any changes to your site. Search engines also index pages found by crawlers, that is, they sort and store the information. This information is then processed by the search engine algorithms before being made available to the searchers.
Understanding how search engines work will help you create a website that is easy for the crawlers to find and index. If your site is easy to find, you are more likely to rank high in search results and that is the main point of your SEO effort.
Elements Of SEOThere are tasks you need to perform to improve your site’s SEO.
1. Keyword ResearchThis is the first thing to do in SEO. Your SEO efforts start with creating a targeting keywords list. Google Keyword Planner is a tool you can use to do keyword research. You need to, first of all, use your Gmail account to sign up for an AdWords account. You will find the keyword planner under the tool tab. Click find new keyword address and type in the product or services you offer through your site and choose the country you want to target. It will provide you with a list of keywords and search volume. It gives you a search volume range.
You can only get the exact number if your account runs paid campaigns. With such accounts, you can add the most relevant keywords and click preview plan. Input the maximum value in the bid and change the tab from the keyword group to keyword, then select the exact match keywords. You will get the keyword and search volume with competition details. With this information, you can select the keywords with decent search volume that are most relevant to your business.
2. AuditingAuditing your website involves examining the page performance before you do a large-scale search engine optimization (SEO) or redesign your website. The process helps you to determine whether or not your website is optimized to achieve the amount of traffic you want. If it falls short, the audit shows you how you can improve your optimization to increase performance. There are important assessments you should make when auditing your site.
The first is a performance assessment. This looks at the usability and speed of your website. In terms of usability, you look at how easy it is for your visitors to get the information they are looking for on your site. Your site should be designed with the visitor in mind. It should be a simple buy intuitive design with clean pages that are not filled with ads and links. In terms of speed, your site should load fast and the pages should be optimized if you want your visitors to engage with you and get higher conversions. It is also crucial to retaining visitors. Your site shouldn’t have long page load and server response times with frequent downtime. Note that large image files can affect your speed negatively.
The second assessment you should carry out is SEO assessment. Take a look at your content and evaluate it from the audience’s perspective. Are you satisfied with the information, did it answer all your questions? Is the call to action clear enough? Do you know what to do next? Remember that quality content should appeal to your reader’s interests and provide valuable information about your topic. It should also proffer solutions to their problems and leave them with something to do as a next step.
The third assessment is conversion rate assessment. Here you check to see if your website is optimized to generate as many leads and conversions as possible. You make use of landing pages, call-to-action and marketing offer to determine your performance because these elements play a vital role as far as the conversion rate is concerned. In this assessment, you determine whether your offers are enough to appeal to different segments of your audience. You also determine whether you are using your call-to-actions effectively and whether your landing pages are optimized.
When Google audits a website, it checks the authority of the site by determining the domain age, when it expires, the number of links to the site and their quality among other things. The website authority is a major factor when it comes to ranking websites in the same niche. The one with high domain authority will rank higher than others.
SEO audits can be carried out using an SEO software which gives you a report that will help you take appropriate actions to improve your website.
Backlinks can improve your site’s ranking because it drives more visitors to your site. You can create backlinks from guest blogging, posting in forums, online directories and classified sites.
You can create a lot of backlinks from forum posting. Choose forums that are in your site’s niche or industry and create a post with your site links. Engage in forum discussions and be ready to give help to those who need it. Reply to questions on the forum with accurate information to build trust in the mind of the audience. It means that you must really know your onions.
The tasks discussed are the major things you need to do to improve your site’s SEO. If you do them well, you will be on your way to achieving success for your website.