It’s All About Getting Discovered..
SEO primarily revolves around placing keywords strategically throughout the site, link building, establishing site authority and using meta data that’s crawlable by Google.
Difference Between SEO & SEM
Search Engine Optimization is critical to attract and pull visitors to the websites. Here payment to search engines is not involved as with paid search ads or SEM. It is the process of positively affecting the visibility of a website, webpage or content in the search engines results. Unpaid results are also referred to as free, organic, natural, editorial or earned results.
Difference Between SEO & SMO
Search Engine Optimization is similar to Social Media Optimization with the objective being to grow the traffic flow to the website. The significant difference between SMO and SEO is that SMO is based on content and SEO is based on keywords.
SEO Categories
SEO can be divided into two distinct categories: On-Page (or On-Site) SEO and Off-Page SEO. Both are complementary to each other and go hand in hand in improving the search rankings of the website. However, we would advise getting the On Page right first before focusing too much on Off-Page SEO.
1: On-Site or On-Page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual webpages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals.
2: Off-Page SEO refers to techniques that can be used to improve the position of a web site in the search engine results page (SERPs). In general, off Page SEO has to do with promotion methods, beyond website design for the purpose of ranking a website higher in the search results.
On-Page SEO
On-Page Optimization undoubtedly is a pillar for SEO. Hence, On page optimization is a very important aspect of successful Search Engine Optimization. Whether it’s crawling of search engines or indexing the pages or may be improving the ranking of the results, on-page optimization plays a major role in SEO success.
How To Improve On-Page SEO?
1: On-Page SEO refers to all the things that you can do ON your website to help rank higher, such as page titles, internal linking, meta tags & descriptions, etc. We have outlined below the most important ones –
2: Avoid Duplicate Content & Optimize Content & Keywords
Do away with duplicate content. Content writing is a very important feature to drive more traffic to your site. Regularly updating your content with fresh information, and appropriate keywords and phrases increases the ranking of your site. Adding keywords to your site is important but keyword stuffing can make your site unreadable.
3: Restore Missing Alt Tags And Broken Images / Images Optimization
Alt tags are a way to accurately describe your images to search engines to make sure they’re indexed properly in image search, and therefore bring some extra traffic to your site. Broken images can cause the same issues as broken links by providing a poor user experience.
One way to avoid this is to make sure you are hosting images within your own media library, not on a third-party image host. Image optimization can make your site unique but it should be done according to certain criteria. The first one is the file size and loading speed of an individual image and the second is proper file naming and optimization.
Search engine spiders can only read text and not images, so special tags are used to make them comprehensible to search engines.
4: Sort Title Tag Issues And Optimize Them
Title tags are used to tell search engines and visitors what any given page on your site is about in the most concise and accurate way possible. It is found that 35% of sites have duplicate title tags, 15% have too much text in the tag, 8% are missing them and 4% don’t provide enough text.
The most important web optimization element is the title tag. The title tag should be a short but descriptive one, which will help the visitors learn more about you and your business. The title tag is indexed on the search engines, so the title tag has greater importance than other components. Your title should be good enough to attract users looking for specific information.
5: Meta Descriptions
The meta description is the short paragraph of text placed in the HTML of a webpage that describes its content. The meta description will then appear under your page’s URL in the search results.
Research reveals that 30% of sites have duplicate meta descriptions and 25% of sites have no meta descriptions at all. Meta tag is a short description about your website, its focus areas and the services you provide. In the Meta tag it’s important that the title, keyword and descriptions written are distinct from other sites.
6: Broken Internal And External Links
The research showed that 35% of sites had broken internal links that returned bad HTTP status codes (70% of which return a 4xx page not found code).
7: Low Text-To-HTML Ratio
The research showed a warning of ‘low text-to-HTML ratio’ on 28% of sites analyzed. This means that these sites contain proportionally more back-end HTML code rather than text that people can actually read. It is recommend an acceptable lower limit beginning from 20%.
A checklist of things to help lower the ratio:
- Remove huge white spaces
- Avoid lots of tabs
- Remove comments in the code
- Avoid tables.
- Use CSS for styling and formatting
- Resize the images
- Remove unnecessary images
- Only use Javascript if required
- Keep the size of your page under 300kb
- Remove any hidden text that is not visible to people
- Your page must always have some amount of plain text. Include easily readable – text with quality user information.
8: H1 Tag Issues
It’s important to know the difference between H1 tags and title tags. The title tag appears in search results, whereas the H1 tag (normally your headline) is what visitors see on the page. 20% had multiple H1 tags, 20% were missing H1 tags, and 15% had duplicate information in their title tag and H1. You should ordinarily only use one H1 tag per web page and break up articles with plenty of h2 tags.
9: Low Word Count
Increasingly Google is ranking more in-depth articles over what it considers thin content. According to research, 18% have a low word count on some pages.
10: Too Many On-page Links/Link Optimization
The research reveals that 15% of sites have too many on-page links on some pages. Having a maximum number of links on a page isn’t a problem as such, but cramming a page with unnatural links definitely is. After all, a cluttered page full of links can be a bad user experience; especially on mobile. Proper link building improves your site’s quality. There should be effective external and internal links to secure high-ranking in search engines.
11: Incorrect Language Declaration
12% of websites have failed to include a language declaration stating the default language of the text in the page. Language declaration is useful for translation and page display, and ensures that people using text-to-speech converters hear your content read in the correct dialect of their native language.
12: Temporary Redirects
The research shows that 10% of websites analyzed contain temporary redirects. A 302 redirect can cause search engines to continue to index an outdated page while ignoring the page you are redirecting it to. A temporary 302 redirect won’t pass any link authority on to your preferred page, but a permanent 301 redirect will, so it’s best to avoid them.
- Canonical Tags
A canonical tag (“rel canonical”) is a way of telling search engines that a specific URL represents the master copy of a page. Using the canonical tag prevents problems caused by identical or duplicate content appearing on multiple URLs.
Canonical tags let the search engines know which version of a page they should index. Specifying canonical tags is one of the most basic search engine optimisation tools.
13: 301 Redirect Or Canonical?
You should always do a redirect, unless there are technical reasons not to. If you can’t redirect because that would harm the user experience or be otherwise problematic, then set a canonical URL.
Off-Page SEO
Off-Page SEO refers to all the things that you can do directly OFF your website to help rank higher, such as social networking, article submission, forum & blog marketing, etc. The idea of all these is to get links back to the site. So this is achieved through link building. And link building is nothing but Off-Page SEO.
Link Building
Google confirmed that links are the #1 ranking factor alongside with great content and said: “Ranking without links is really really hard.” The Google Core Algorithm is based on links, and that hasn’t changed since the inception of Google.
A link is a connection from A to B. A hyperlink is a connection from the referring page to the target page. Link building is the process of getting other websites to link back to your website.
In the field of search engine optimization, link building describes actions aimed at increasing the number and quality of inbound links to a webpage with the goal of increasing the search engine rankings of that page or website. Building links is one of the many tactics used in SEO because links are a signal to Google that your site is a quality resource worthy of citation.
Backlink/Inbound Link (IBL)
When you refer to a backlink you mean a reference from another web page to your own web page. This is very different from the ‘outbound’ or outgoing links from your page. A back link is also called an inbound link (IBL) and these links are very important in determining the popularity or importance of your web site for search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.
Link Types –
- Editorial Link
Editorial links are the links not acquired from paying money, asking, trading or exchanging. These links are attracted because of the good content and marketing strategies of a website. These are the links that the website owner does not need to ask for as they are naturally given by other website owners. - Resource Link
Resource links are a category of links usually referenced as ‘Resources’ or ‘Information’ in navbars. Basically, they are hyperlinks to a website or a specific web page containing content believed to be beneficial, useful and relevant to visitors of the site establishing the link. - Acquired Link
These are the links acquired by the website owner through payment or distribution. Such links include link advertisements, paid linking, article distribution, directory links and comments on forums, blogs and other interactive forms of social media. - Reciprocal Link
A reciprocal link is a mutual link between two between two websites, to ensure mutual traffic. Website owners often submit their sites to reciprocal link exchange directories in order to achieve higher rankings in the search engines. Reciprocal linking between websites is no longer an important part of the search engine optimization process. Google has stopped giving credit to reciprocal links as it does not indicate genuine link popularity. - Forum Signature Link
Forum signature linking is a technique used to build backlinks to a website. This is the process of using forum communities that allow outbound hyperlinks in a member’s signature. This can be a fast method to build up inbound links to a website’s SEO value. - Blog Comments Link
Leaving a comment on a blog can result in a relevant do-follow link to the website. Most of the time, however, leaving a comment on a blog turns into a no-follow link, which are not counted by search engines. - Directory Link
Website directories are lists of links to websites which are sorted into categories. Website owners can submit their site to many of these directories. Some directories accept payment for listing in their directory while others are free. - Social Bookmark Link
Social bookmarking is a way of saving and categorizing web pages in a public location on the web. Because bookmarks have anchor text and are shared and stored publicly, they are scanned by search engine crawlers and have search engine optimization value. - Image Link
Image linking is a way of submitting images, such as infographics, to image directories and linking them back to a specific URL.
Off-Page SEO/Link Building Tips –
- Search Engine Submission
Search engines will eventually find your site online, but that can take a while. To speed everything up, you should submit your website to the most popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.
- Get To Know The Right Audience
You need to find out how to expand your audience or how to find a new audience and where they are right now so that you can effectively reach them.
- Ask For Backlinks
You need to think about your friends, relatives, colleagues, partners, clients who have a blog or a site. All you have to do is ask for a backlink. Ask for in-content links instead of links in the sidebar or footer. You need to be careful that the backlink comes from a website that is relevant to your niche.
- Use Social Networking Sites Like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Today social media is huge, so tap it to the fullest!
- Answer Questions
You can actively participate in answering questions on sites like Yahoo Answers. By answering and asking relevant questions on your site niche, you help to build up your reputation as someone that is an expert in your chosen field. You can place a link to your website in the source section if necessary so that people can easily find your site.
- Blog Marketing
Post comments on other blogs within the same niche, which allows you to add a link in the comments section. These links can then be crawled by search engines, helping to point them towards your site. These blogs are commonly referred to as ‘Do-Follow‘ blogs.
- Forum Marketing
Find forums online that are related to the sites niche and get involved within that community. You need to reply to threads, answer peoples questions, offer advice, etc. This all helps to build up your reputation as someone who is an expert within that niche. Try to use ‘Do-Follow‘ forums so that you can include a link to your site within your signature, which helps search engines crawl your site.
- Build Relationships
For good link building you need to build good relationships. You should start with niche-related communities: forums, blogs or social groups such as the Link Building Experts Group on Facebook. You need to take the first step and start contributing with interesting and relevant comments and posts, providing contextual value to each discussion. By actively participating in these online communities focused on your niche, you will gain some good backlinks.
- Give Testimonials
Testimonial link building is a win-win scenario. Many businesses offer a chance to say a few words about your experience of using their products. On the one hand, this is a perfect way for them to build customer trust. On the other hand, it’s a great opportunity for you to get a backlink and potential traffic from that site and it usually has a much higher approval rate than your standard link request e-mails.
- List The Site In Trustworthy Directories
A directory that not only gives you the chance to post a link to your website, but also provides useful information for your potential customers is a directory you want to be listed on. Niche directories and directories attached to informative websites for a specific industry are a good choice. Having your business listed with such directories makes it easier to get indexed in the major search engines and helps people find you online. Effectively choose the general and niche directories and efficiently choose the category for submission.
- Write A Good Guest Post/Article Submission
There are many sites and blogs that will accept to publish your article. Before you write an article somewhere, make sure that: the website or blog is relevant to your topic; have a focus on quality i.e. it should be well written, professional, and interesting; keep in mind that a poor article can bring bad reputation. It’s important that you build links that help your website and not links that can negatively impact your website’s ranking in search results. Popular article directory sites like; Ezine, Go Articles, Now Public, etc. help drive traffic to your site.
- Start A Blog
You don’t need a blog with one post and one backlink to your site. If you want to have your own blog, you need to keep it alive. You need to write posts on a regular basis. You need to focus on your industry and on your client’s needs! In time, it will most likely gain authority and backlinks.
By writing a blog for your website, you give a reason for visitors to keep returning to your site and keep up to date with your latest posts. It also helps search engines to crawl your site more frequently, as they have to update your latest blog post entries, which ultimately helps you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
- Business Reviews
You can write reviews about others businesses or ask friends/clients to write a review of your business in major business review sites like RateitAll, Shvoong, Kaboodle, Stylefeeder, etc.
- Local Listings
Depending on your site’s niche, you might find that listing in local directories may be useful. This will help you to reach a targeted audience. You should submit your website to sites like; Google Local, Maps, Yahoo Local, Yellow Pages, etc.
- Photo Sharing
Share the photos on the major photo sharing websites like Flickr, Picasa, Photo Bucket, etc. Other people will be able to see them and comment on them, hopefully following a link to your site.
- Video Marketing
You can submit your videos to sites like; YouTube, Vimeo, etc. allowing people to find your content.
- Social Bookmarking
Submit the latest blog posts and pages to the most popular bookmarking sites, like StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, etc. Search engines really like these types of sites because the content on these sites is updated very frequently. You must properly handle the tags which are very essential to broadcast your news on a wide area network. This may increase your website traffic based on how effectively you have participated.
- Social Shopping Network
If you run an e-commerce website, then a good strategy for advertising and branding your products for free is to submit then to online shopping networks. By submitting your products to sites like; Google Product Search, Yahoo Online Shopping, MSN Online Shopping, and other major social shopping network sites like Kaboodle, Style Feeder, etc. then you increase the likelihood of people finding the products that you are selling.
- Recover Dead Backlinks
Sometimes you find broken links to your website. This may be the case if the location of your page changes or if another webmaster misspelled your link. In both cases, these backlinks will return a 404 error. Such issues may also commonly occur after a site was re-launched or migrated to another domain. You should then redirect these backlinks to some other page.
- Discover Competitor’s Common Backlinks
If you research your competitors, you will probably notice that they have some backlinks in common which you don’t have yet. Well, if they managed to get these backlinks, then you should too. What you have to do is analyze these backlinks and try to get them as well. - Earn Backlinks!
You need to ensure that your content is relevant, useful and well-structured. This is the only way to ensure that the world will want to link to it again and again. That’s how you get great backlinks; you earn them! Great content is: desirable, findable, useful, accessible, credible and valuable. Good content will bring you a lot of natural backlinks! Google also checks technical features of the site like site load speed, navigation, design, keyword density, complexity, etc. Also, they will measure user experience through Click-through Rate (CTR), bounce rate or time spent on the site.
