What does it take to be on the first page of Google? What if you are totally unaware of who are Google Penguin or Google Panda?
Even today, there's no single answer to that question, because the rules of the game are in a constant state of flux. However, we can introduce you to proven optimization tactics that significantly boost your chances of securing top search engine rankings. Starting with a touch of theory, we'll demystify SEO and even introduce you to the elusive Panda and Penguin.
What is SEO
According to Semrush, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of persuading search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others to recognize your website or page as the most accurate response to a user's online query. It sounds straightforward until you realize you're contending with a multitude of competitors, all offering solutions, answers, products, or services similar to yours, and relentlessly striving to curry favor with the search engines.
Note: SEO aims to attract organic traffic to your website, as opposed to paid online ad campaigns.
How Does SEO Work?
Search engines have their own bots that crawl various websites on the Internet, indexing their content. They then employ an array of signals and ranking factors to determine which page or site provides the most precise answer to each user's search.
The search engine algorithm is changing all the time, designed to be as user-friendly as possible. For your online business, this implies that Google, Bing, and Yahoo establish the rules, and to land on the first results page, you need to adhere to these guidelines as closely as possible.
On-Page SEO Factors
Content
The content on your website is the most crucial factor for search engines. Here are some tips for effectively optimizing your product pages, blog articles, and more:
- Prioritize Quality – Offer informative, understandable, original, and well-presented content in various formats.
- Showcase expertise and depth on the topic you're writing about. Providing value to users and fostering interaction with your content won't go unnoticed by Google.
- Cite and reference your data sources and information. Hyperlinks to authoritative sources are also a good practice.
- Research the keywords your target audience uses. Suitable online tools for this purpose include Semrush, Serpstat, Similarweb, and many others. These platforms can help you discover the phrases or individual words most searched by users on Google, Bing, and other search engines.
- Incorporate the most popular keywords when creating content, especially in elements such as titles, subtitles, or the beginning of main paragraphs.
- Never overstuff your text with excessive keywords and phrases. Their usage should be entirely natural and ideally align with user expression or queries. The titles, introductions, and subtitles in this piece are crafted for that purpose. According to experts, this practice is no longer essential due to Google's increasingly sophisticated algorithms. Nevertheless, it still yields excellent results, based on our experience.
- Publish regularly on trending topics that relate to your industry. If you are among the first to address it, you'll secure more visibility and increase your chances of being cited as a source by others.
- Regularly update older pages and materials with new information on the topic. We'll soon update this article and the list of effective SEO tactics according to the latest search engine algorithm changes.
- Incorporate specific answers within your content. Firstly, because a significant portion of Google queries are questions. Secondly, search engines strive to provide direct answers within the search results page, either in a separate panel above/beside the ranked pages or as a direct response in voice search results.
- Remember, not everything is text. Utilize diverse content types (images, videos, audio), ensuring that each format is adequately described for search engine optimization. This practice helps guide Google in understanding the content across different mediums.
Structure
The structure of your website can greatly facilitate or hinder search engine bots from crawling and indexing your content, and in turn, understanding what and why you are publishing. Here are several useful tips:
- Ensure your website can be crawled easily and quickly by search engine bots.
- Use a robots.txt file to instruct bots on which pages of your site to index.
- Create an XML sitemap for your site.
- Use plain HTML code as much as possible to structure your site.
- Mobile-responsive websites have an advantage in search results. Make sure your website functions seamlessly on all devices.
- Avoid duplicate content or use canonical URLs to indicate which page should be preferred by search engines in case of duplicated content.
- Make sure your site loads quickly on all devices. Page speed is a fundamental SEO factor and can affect user experience positively or negatively. A useful tool for checking and optimizing site speed is Google PageSpeed Insights.
- Use an SSL/TLS certificate to ensure a secure connection between your site's server and each user, via encryption. Google favors websites with HTTPS connection.
- Incorporate keywords into your URLs when possible, and separate them with hyphens.
- Avoid lengthy and complex URLs that are not user-friendly.
HTML Code
HTML code instructs browsers on how to display each part of your website's content and web pages. Search engines also use it to better index, so there are important considerations here too:
- Headings are the most crucial element. They should be specific and clear signals of the content and purpose of each page. Place them in the HTML title tag. In search results, they will also be the clickable text that appears.
- Google might consider a different title more suitable for the content you're presenting. In such cases, the practice suggests that the algorithm might prefer an H1 title from the page.
- (Meta)descriptions placed in the meta description tag aren't ranking factors, but they are crucial for users. They appear below the title in search results and provide additional information about the result. Use them to convince users that you have the best answer to their query.
- Use structured data to guide search engines through your site and help them understand your content. With this, you can provide more detailed information in search results.
- Headings within the page (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are useful for indicating content hierarchy and organizing different sections. It's good practice to use keywords in them, but avoid overloading with them. Although useful for search engines, think more about helping users navigate through them.
- Use ALT tags to describe the content of images you publish. While not a strong ranking factor, it improves the user experience and aids the accessibility of images, especially for users with visual impairments.
- Use Schema to make it easier for search engines to understand your site's structure and present the right supplementary content in search results.
Off-page SEO Factors
Site Authority, Reputation, and User Engagement
Yes, the search engine algorithm does place more trust in some sites over others. Although you can't directly control this SEO factor, here's what you should know and consider:
- Ensure your site operates correctly and is free of errors – spelling, technical, functional, etc. Any such issue could be enough to erode user trust.
- Even the sites that link to yours matter for search engines in determining your authority.
- Search engines measure user engagement to gauge the quality of your webpages. User interactions on your site, time spent on pages, average session duration, or the bounce rate (the percentage of users leaving a page without interacting) are all being tracked.
- Engage users with internal linking to other valuable and relevant pages on your site.
- Allow users to generate content on your site themselves – through posts, comments, or reviews, for example.
- Building a good Reputation for your site. Besides quality content, building a good site reputation takes time. While search engines don't reveal the exact weight of this factor in their algorithms, it is natural for your site to gain more trust in the long run if you have followed all other good SEO practices.
Link Building
Links to a site are the primary and still the most crucial off-page SEO factor that search engines rely on. When forming your link-building strategy, keep the following in mind:
- Links from trusted sites with good reputations naturally carry more weight in optimizing your site.
- Use anchor texts wisely – these are the clickable parts of text that direct you to another site or page. Search engines rely on anchor text to understand the context and meaning of the linked content from a user perspective. Examples of good anchor text use have already been seen throughout this article. Never overuse them.
- You have no control over anchor texts on other sites linking to yours.
- Avoid misleading anchor texts or generic ones (e.g., "click here").
- Links from other sites to yours are a positive signal. While quality takes precedence, quantity also matters. Note that spam, link buying, and related practices are likely to be penalized by search engines.
Context in Search and Personalization
You'd be surprised at how far search engines go to "please" users. It is no secret that search results and rankings can vary for different users based on the context of their query. While you may not be able to influence these signals, it's helpful to be aware of them and understand their role.
- Location matters – users see results based on their location, language, and even the culture of their country. Use this as an advantage, especially if your target audience is concentrated in a specific country.
- If you have content in different languages, use separate URL addresses for each language version. We're also preparing material on this topic for more advanced users.
- Local searches are becoming more common, and users often include the phrase "near me" in their query. This is an excellent opportunity for your business if you have a physical location or serve customers in close proximity.
- If you rely on local searches, make sure your business is listed on Google My Business.
- Google personalizes results based on the user's search history and previous searches. A good example is searching for "Penguin," where you might predominantly see results related to penguins, while we might see results related to one of Google's updates with the same name.
- In addition to a well-structured site hierarchy, don't forget about a good user experience (UX). It's also a subjective element, but with tools like Hotjar, you can check whether you're doing well enough and how users interact with your content.
- The user's search intent is also crucial. It can be for research, information, product comparison, or purchase (different stages of the marketing funnel), and each page on your site likely serves a different purpose. Search engines can understand this intent and direct users accordingly.
Harmful SEO Practices or How to Get Penalized by Search Engines?
Have you realized just how intelligent search engines truly are and how many factors they consider to be useful for online users? Similarly, search engines can also tell when you're trying to deceive them. Here's precisely how you can harm your own efforts:
- Cloak your content by providing different information to users and search engine bots (known as "cloaking"). This is an excellent way to mislead them and get them to enter your site even if your content is entirely irrelevant.
- Stuff your content with keywords without any regard for whether they fit naturally within the text, headings, or descriptions. Such spam will immediately catch Google's attention.
- Ignore intellectual property norms and upload pirated, prohibited, or stolen content to your site. Plagiarism or hosting such content will likely lead to your removal from search results.
- Attempt to manipulate algorithms by creating numerous backlinks to your site across various forums and blogs, whether paid for or artificially generated.
- Overpopulate your pages with keywords or links, then hide them from users using specific text colors. This will make them visible only to search engine bots.
- Feel free to add an unlimited number of pop-ups and banners that users will see when loading your site. Make it as difficult as possible for them to navigate through this content and continue their interaction with your site.
Latest SEO Trends
We will review recent search trends in a separate post, but it is good to know that they are also introducing new best practices for optimization. In recent years, the following have gained increasing popularity:
- Voice search – from smartphones, cars, other mobile devices, and even smart households.
- Images in search results – according to Google, an increasing number of users are specifically searching for images.
- Local searches – more users are looking for products and services nearby in addition to information.
- Video – this format leads to the highest user engagement. Google displays video results in search, but remember that serious work here involves YouTube.
Google Algorithm Updates
Now it's time to learn about Panda and Penguin.
Panda and Penguin are the names of two among the many updates in the search engine's algorithm that have been made over the years. You have probably noticed that Google is constantly striving to improve and provide more value to users. Part of this mission involves changes to the algorithm that, over time, prioritize useful and unique content, mobile-optimized pages, fast-loading sites, secure connections, user experience, and much more.
Bonus SEO Advice
The more you familiarize yourself with key SEO factors, the more you'll understand that your true goal should be to please not just search engines, but users. Their signals and feedback are what will ultimately endear you to search engines. So, in the process of building a website and creating content, focus primarily on what will resonate with your users – your brand's reputation, site speed, structure and navigation, visual design, and engaging content that will compel the person behind the screen to read through to the end. Just as you have done right now.
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