WHAT IS SEO: A GUIDE ON HOW SEO WORKS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
Picture this. You saw the movie Deadpool and you wanted to buy his costume. The first you’re going to do is go online and search for it. Whoever is on the first of the list from the results page is usually the one you are going to click on.
That is the whole purpose of SEO. It makes websites/pages visible resulting in generating more organic traffic.
Most of the time, end users only click on the top 10 results on the first page. The ultimate goal of doing SEO is making sure a website/page is part of that list.
Advantages of SEO
A Source of Leads from Organic Search
Brand Awareness & Credibility
Targets quality traffic
Improves Website Performance
Cheap
A long term strategy but with amazing results
Helps small businesses grow in the online market
WHAT IS SEO: A GUIDE ON HOW SEO WORKS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
White Hat SEO
Refers to optimizing a website/page without breaking Search Engine rules and guidelines. This is a long term strategy making it sustainable and worth it. White Hat focuses more on the human audience.
Use this strategy if you want to be continual.
White Hat Techniques
A Source of Leads from Organic Search
Brand Awareness & Credibility
Targets quality traffic
Improves Website Performance
Cheap
A long term strategy but with amazing results
Helps small businesses grow in the online market
White Hat SEO Techniques: 2020's Top Marketing Tactics
Black Hat SEO
This refers to the practice of increasing the rank of a website/page through means that violate search engines’ rules and guidelines.
Black Hat focuses more on the search engine. The best method to get rich as fast as possible without thinking of the heavy consequences that could affect the website or page.
Websites/pages that have Black Hat SEO has very short lifespans because Search Engines ban these. In result, this will ruin marketers in having a sustainable online business.
Black Hat SEO Techniques
Keyword Stuffing
Duplicate Content
Cloaking
Buying Links
Doorway Pages
Link Farming
Invisible Text or Links
Spamming in Blog Comments
Incorrect Re-directs
Overly Optimized Pages
Top 10 Gray Hat SEO Techniques of 2020
SEO Categories
On-Page Optimization
On-Page Optimization refers to optimizing the web content on pages for better rankings and generate traffic in search engines.
This involves providing content and HTML source code that can be optimized.
On-Page Optimization Techniques
• Content
Providing information organized in a logical way.
• Keywords
Get the right keywords that Search Engines will use to generate relevant traffic. Use keyword tools like ubersuggest.com or serpstat.com.
Be aware of how to use the keywords in your content. Know where to apply it for effective searchability.
• HTML Tags
Use title tags, add meta description, alt tags for the images. A great plugin you can use would be Yoast.
• Subheaders
Make sure the subheaders also contain the keywords/keyphrase
• Site Architecture
The website must be user friendly. Make sure that the site looks good and users can navigate through it.
Search Engines will better understand the site if the architecture is solid and neat.
• Site Crawling
To get search engines to crawl websites, a few best practices would be using internal links and include the page in the sitemap to name a few.
• Page Speed
Optimize page loading speed. Use gtmetrix.com or developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights
• Mobile-friendliness
Nowadays, a lot of people browse the internet using their mobile devices. Make the site responsive for all devices.
• Keywords in URLs
When creating a page/post, make sure to add the focus keyword/phrase on the URL
• HTTPS and SSL
Making the website secure using HTTPS and SSL is a huge boost in ranking. Search Engines have implemented this as a ranking factor because it protects user’s privacy.
On-Page SEO: The Definitive Guide
Off-Page Optimization
This refers to improving the rank outside the website/page.
This basically tells search engines that your website is of quality. Backlinking to other sites can effectively promote your brand in result increasing the awareness and domain authority.
Off-Page Optimization Techniques
• Create Shareable Content Create high-quality content to get more traffic and lessen bounce rates
• Gain Quality Social Signals Quality content will get more backlinks and shares to social media platforms.
• Start a Blog for Your Brand Create blogs that promote the brand. Blogging is one of the most effective ways of gaining traffic from search engines.
• Blog Marketing Promote blogs to social media platforms or other channels
• Blog Directory Submission Submit blogs to high PR blog directories.
• Search Engine Submission Let search engines know of your website/page to improve ranking. Search engines can’t figure out everything via crawling. Joshua from ahrefs.com can guide you through this.
• Social Bookmarking Bookmark the web page or post on popular social bookmarking websites to gain high traffic to the web page.
• Social Media Marketing Engage with people on many social media platforms.
• Article Submission Submit articles in a high PR article submission directory. Give links to the website. Make sure the content is unique and of high quality.
• Blog Commenting Comment on other blogs while promoting your own website/page.
• Forum Posting Take part in search forums that are related to the website and business and make a connection with that community.Reply to threads, answer people’s questions and give suggestions and advice. Make use of “Do-Follow” forums.
• Directory Submission Submit your website to different web directories to get excellent backlinks.
• Photo and Image Submission Submit videos and images to popular submission sites.Provide proper title, description, tags and reference links. Make sure images are optimized and also with the correct URL and title tag.
• Link Baiting Create content where other content creators will also link to it. This will create high-quality backlinks.
Off-Page SEO Techniques, Checklist & Factors to Use in 2020
In Conclusion
A strong SEO strategy allows businesses/brands to be more visible to end users generating relevant organic traffic.
Knowing the right way in optimizing your website can significantly move your business goals in to the right direction.
If you are planning to use SEO to drive traffic to your site, make sure you lay out your goals first.
Once you got your goals set, then it’s time to optimize your site.
If you are having trouble or don’t have the time then the Best SEO Company in Sacramento can do the work for you.
