Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making sure that your website ranks highly in search engine results pages (SERPs).
SEO used to be straightforward; today it requires much more. For this reason, many successful search marketers also place emphasis on conversion rate optimization or CRO.
Keywords
Keywords are words or phrases entered into search engines by users to locate websites and businesses, while also serving as the foundation of its content and helping drive visitors from search engine results pages (SERPs).
An effective SEO strategy involves selecting keywords that meet the needs of your target audience. That means including phrases they’re searching for into your content as well as using these terms within titles, tags and image names.
Long-tail keywords, or more specific search terms, are an integral component of an effective keyword strategy as they enhance user experience and encourage higher conversions. They have lower search volume and competition than head keywords but tend to rank easier.
First, create a seed list of keywords relevant to your website, business, industry, topic and niche. Next, refine this list using keyword research tools which can assist in narrowing down your selection.
Metadata
Metadata is a set of invisible descriptors attached to websites that help search engines understand the relevancy of each page. Although metadata might seem redundant at first, its inclusion is an integral component of search engine optimization (SEO), helping search engines rank sites more appropriately. You can use metadata to improve performance on your website.
Google crawls pages from top to bottom, so optimizing your title tag and meta descriptions can have a big impact on how your website appears in search results, helping increase rankings and drive more visitors to your site.
Title tags consist of keywords or phrases placed into your page’s code to define its title and headline, with your content management system (CMS) automatically creating it from these titles or headlines you enter.
Description metadata lives within the head> of your website and will typically appear below its title and URL in search results. It provides an opportunity to showcase your brand while communicating what the page is all about in a way that drives click-throughs.
Sitemaps
Sitemaps are an indispensable component of search engine optimization (SEO). They help search engines like Google discover your content more efficiently and, thus, help improve SEO efforts.
Search engines depend on sitemaps to help them rank websites more highly in search results, which is essential in improving rankings of pages within your site. They allow you to indicate which pages are important and when they were last updated – essential tools in improving site rankings in search engines results.
HTML and XML sitemaps both play an essential role for SEO; however, XML stands out as being the more widely accepted format.
Submitting sitemaps to Google’s free Search Console gives you access to data and tools about your website’s performance – such as how many indexed URLs exist within it, so you can more effectively manage your crawl budget.
Link building
Link building is one of the core aspects of search engine optimization (SEO), as it increases both the quantity and quality of inbound links to a webpage.
Links not only help boost search engine rankings but can also drive referral traffic and build relationships between sites in your niche. The top SEO firms use customized strategies and tactics that persuade other websites that it would benefit both them and their audience by linking back to pages on your site.
There are various techniques for building links, such as article marketing and social media promotion, but only methods which appear natural and don’t violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines should be pursued.