When it comes to your website, it’s pretty much worthless unless people aren’t finding it when they do a simple Bing or Google search. This is where search engine optimization or SEO comes into play. But then, for the uninitiated, you might be asking yourself, what exactly is SEO and why is it so important?
Say the experts at Bang! Website Design, a Phoenix SEO company, SEO is a form a Internet marketing that focuses primarily on improving the amount of visitors that come to a website by increasing the presence of the site on the numerous search engines available.
Two types of SEO exist. On-page SEO that focuses on site content, and offsite that concentrates mostly on backlinks.
But what you might be most interested in for increasing views of your site and therefore sales, is your on-page SEO. A new report on the subject compares on-page SEO to an old video game called Tetris.
If you’ve ever played it, you realize there’s no real way to beat the game. It just gets faster and faster with ever level you attempt. Say the experts, SEO optimization is no different from Tetris in the sense that it never ends.
There is never a point that you reach where you just assume your site is always going to be at the top of the search engine results page or SERPs forever and ever. It’s possible your site might reach the top of the search list on any given day, but the next it might fall off a cliff.
Every time Google changes its competitor content and/or its algorithm, it can push you off the top search spot. This means you need to keep up with the constant changes. It also means your on-page SEO must be “on point.”
The Basics Behind Search Engines
Say the experts, search engines “send out crawlers, or spiders, to explore the internet.” Links are followed from one site to another which creates a map of content that’s referred to as a search index.
While exploring websites, the crawlers also evaluate their content and, in the process, determine the specific kind of information it offers. Th data is collected and the used by the search engine’s algorithm to determine just how well the site’s content answers questions posed by users.
The better your site answers these questions, it only stands to reason the more highly it is going to be ranked on SERP. You need to keep in mind that Google is engaged in a “never-ending quest” to provide its users with better results, which means it updates its algorithm very frequently.
You need to optimize your website constantly to improve your overall rankings.
Some Essential On-Page SEO Factors
On-page SEO is divided up into HTML, content, and website construction. Content is, of course, king. Without good SEO content, your site might as well be a car without an engine.
These are some content factors you need for maximizing your on-site SEO.
E-A-T
One of the ways Google gives importance to your site is based on E-A-T or what’s known as “expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.” E-A-T plays a pivotal role in a search engine’s algorithms.
Keywords
One of the most basic way to tell search engines that you are answering user’s questions is contained in the language you utilize. You need pages that feature keywords that are used in a question, whether it be in the headings, the body, or both. These will be relevant to the user’s search.
On some occasions this language is easy to come up with. For instance, if you’re optimizing your furniture store website, you’re going to want to include keywords, like dining room set, sofa, desk chair, end table, and more.
If your furniture store is more specialized, you need to include “long-tail keywords” such as “contemporary art-deco sideboards.” You need to be aware of what your target customers are searching for. You then create content that will include these terms.
SEO Writing
There is an art to creating content that prioritizes search engines and that attracts people to your site. SEO best practices are not learned overnight, and it can take some time until you can write copy that sells your website without being pushy.
Some of the things you need to know about effective SEO writing are the following:
Place emphasis on readability: this means your content should be “easily scannable so that users can rapidly uncover the information they are searching for.
Use keywords but don’t overuse them: “keyword stuffing” was something that was utilized in the past to “game the system.” But Google knows when you’re doing this and it will punish your for it. If you are caught red handed doing this, you could be “demoted in SERPs” or your site could be removed completely.
Sentences and paragraphs need to be brief: no one wants to read an unbroken wall of words. Simply put, in today’s busy day and age, readers are going to skip right over this kind of copy. You can simply avoid driving users away by keeping your sentences and paragraphs short and very readable.
