SEO: Search Engine Optimization PDF

SEO: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION DOMINANCE OF GOOGLE “The overwhelmingly dominant provider of general online search is Google, which captures around 81% of all general search queries in the U.S. on desktop and 94% on mobile,”.(CNBC.com) GOOGLE IN INDIA “The search engine giant has a ma...

SEO: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION DOMINANCE OF GOOGLE “The overwhelmingly dominant provider of general online search is Google, which captures around 81% of all general search queries in the U.S. on desktop and 94% on mobile,”.(CNBC.com) GOOGLE IN INDIA “The search engine giant has a market share of 95.47 percent in India and accounted for the majority of the global search engine market, ahead of other competitors such as Yahoo, Bing,Yandex and Baidu”. (Statista) SEM The marketing efforts undertaken on search engines are referred to as search engine marketing(SEM). Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, search advertising, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.  SEM is divided into two categories Search engine optimisation (unpaid content) Search engine advertisement (paid content) SEO Search engine optimization is the process of refining your website using both on-page and off-page practices so that it will be indexed and ranked successfully by search engines Smell nice for google ☺ PLAYERS IN SEO website consumer owner search engine SERP: SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE SERP includes everything that appears on a search engine page after a request for a query is run. SERP contains: Organic listings Paid content In order to generate SERPs, search engines make use of computer programs or algorithms that can potentially answer a query made by a user. SERP  Search Engine algorithms work to: Disqualify or restrict all websites that do not meet specific criteria, set by the engineers or managers who handle the algorithm. Prepare a list of sites that are relevant. Rank and prioritize those sites in order of importance. Search engines tweak their algorithms regularly. To address consumer expectations better, most search engines incorporate elements of personalized and local content. Each search engine has its proprietary algorithm that may produce different results pages even for the same person.  Search Engines work by: Sending out crawlers or spiders to read or ‘crawl’ the web to browse the World Wide Web (WWW), visiting websites and collecting content. After the crawlers collect the data, the search engine index categorizes the contents in accordance to their relevance and stores them for fast retrieval of information. Search engines search their own databases when a user enters a query in the search box to find related documents. The resultant documents are ranked using various algorithms.  SEO PROCESS On page Off Page Goals Analyze Optimization Optimization SEO benefits Keywords Link Building Analysis Choose Content Content Tools Goals Meta Tags marketing Performance Set Goals Site Social linking review structure SEO GOALS: THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF SEO IS TO ACHIEVE NUMBER ONE RANKING ON SERPS FOR YOUR WEBSITE. Type of Goals Types of KPIs Engagement Organic traffic Visibility Visitor numbers Conversion Click through rates Reputation Downloads ON PAGE OPTIMIZATION Keywords: keyword research is the first step in this process. Keywords have a very strong impact on the other elements of on-page optimization. Keyword determine the search volume. If you are a freelance photographer relevant keywords for your site could be photographer or affordable wedding photographer. Keywords should be subtly incorporated into the content and metadata of your webpages in a way that reads naturally SEARCH PROCESS A search term is a commonly used phrase that users type into the search engines to find you. Users now understand that the more specific their search terms, the more accurate and relevant their search results will be. This is where long-tail keywords come in. Long tail keywords are three to four word keyword phrases with low volume search queries that are worth ranking highly. KEYWORD RESEARCH Keyword research involves discovering keywords that people use when searching for information on the product or service you provide. Offline keyword research Online keyword research  Search for keywords with low competition so that you get that all important page one listing. Look for search volume and popularity. Relevance of the keyword for your business Keyword seasonality(google trends) HOW TO DO CHOOSE KEYWORDS FOR SEO https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research TOOLS TO DO KEYWORD RESEARCH Google trends: https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=IN Google ad keyword planner Ubersuggest SEMrush  Once you have chosen a solid list of keywords that allows you to rank highly in SERPs its time to incorporate those keywords into your website. Should you include a lot of keywords on your webpages??  Google’s algorithm can penalize keyword stuffing and poor content by removing websites from SERP. Keywords should only be used accompany high quality relevant content. Never compromise the quality of your content for keyword optimization. POPULAR SEO TOOLS Google search console Ahrefs SEMrush ON PAGE OPTIMIZATION PROCESS Style and structure of your site Website structure is an important aspect when considering SEO. The website structure should be such that it leads the consumer or visitor along a pre- determined path to conversion. Make sure there is hierarchy among webpages and it is easy to follow for users. Google considers bounce rate in determining your ranking, high bounce rates can lead to search engine viewing a particular site as bad match for the search term used and could demote the website. TYPICAL SITE STRUCTURE  Up-to-date content Search engines and users both favour websites with unique relevant and up to date content. Use photos, videos, slides to keep content fresh and attractive to reader and describe the content in text  User experience should be of paramount importance: The website should be easy to use. Information extracted should be useful. The website should load fast. Efficient internal linking structure. Anchor text (a word or phrase on a webpage which is hyperlinked to another page within the website) should be used as much as possible. Broken links should be avoided All categories should be accessible from headers and footers.  Use keywords in URL Include keyword in title tag Include relevant keyword in description tag  Heading tags provide the option of indicating headings and sub-headings upto six levels. The heading at the level of h1 appears in the biggest font and is given the top priority by the crawlers. Images should be described with an ‘alt’ (alternate) tag especially when pictures are used to provide a link to other pages. The URL structure should be simple and clean and should use words in a manner such that the keywords are included. TITLE TAGS Meta title tags are a major factor in helping search engines understand what your page is about, and they are the first impression many people have of your page. Title tags are used in three key places: (1) search engine results pages (SERPs), (2) web browsers, and (3) social networks. TITLE TAG OF ADOBE PAGE ALT TEXT Alt text (alternative text), also known as "alt attributes", “alt descriptions", or technically incorrectly as "alt tags,” are used within an HTML code to describe the appearance and function of an image on a page. ALT TEXT USES: 1. Adding alternative text to photos is first and foremost a principle of web accessibility.Visually impaired users using screen readers will read an alt attribute to better understand an on-page image. 2. Alt tags will be displayed in place of an image if an image file cannot be loaded. 3. Alt tags provide better image context/descriptions to search engine crawlers, helping them to index an image properly. URL STRUCTURE The following is a good example of URL structure: http://www.example.org/games/video-game-history The following is a bad example of URL structure: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569  The pages on a website should be properly interlinked in order to facilitate the movement of the spider as well as the user from one page to the other. Keywords should be specific in nature: Consumers are searching using keywords that are becoming more specific in nature. The broader the keyword the greater is the competition for that keyword. Keywords must reflect the content of the pertinent webpages. Bolding keyword is considered keyword stuffing and is taken very seriously. OFF PAGE OPTIMIZATION Search engines, consider the quality and quantity of inbound links a measure of the value of your website. Google has been using a weighted point system — PageRank — since 2005 to determine how valuable a page is, and thus determine where to show it in search results. OFF PAGE OPTIMIZATION Link Building Online publicity can be carried out by writing and distributing noteworthy press releases using the websites that offer press release services. Good online directories should also be considered in the journey of building links: It should be carefully evaluated as to which pre-defined category the website fits into. The directories to which the links are being submitted should be well listed. Profiles of your business and some active users in the company need to be created on some of the top networking sites as it helps to build up your brand and reputation. BACKLINKING STRATEGIES Hubspot Blog: Ways to Earn Backlinks in 2022 shorturl.at/fuyBR  Blogs are the shortened version of weblogs, which are part of a website, and are maintained by either an individual or an organization in order to provide meaningful content for the users of the blogs: Content can be in the form of text, audio, graphics or video. Can be used in order to increase a website’s electronic footprint on the WWW Commenting on relevant blogs makes you come across as an expert in the field. Memberships to the local business or commercial bodies creates an opportunity for getting listed on their websites: It increases the virtual footprint of your website on cyberspace. Helps build credibility and trust of your business.  Read More about Do follow and no follow links https://blog.alexa.com/dofollow-vs-nofollow-links/  Content Marketing It involves creating, and sharing valuable, informative, and entertaining content with the aim of attracting customer on to your site and to drive sales and conversions. Articles, case studies, white papers and infographics retain users on site. Social sharing Make it easy for users to share content across social platforms. It builds your network and authority in your field.  Social media does not directly contribute to SEO ranking, but the links you share across social platforms increase brand exposure. They add up and influence search engine optimization in six directions: 1. Extensive content distribution 2. Longer lifespan of your posts 3. Improve online visibility and organic traffic 4. Increase brand recognition. 5. Enhance brand reputation 6. Boosts local search engine optimization (SEO) Black Hat SEO Black hat SEO refers to those practices generally thought of as cheating the search engine as well as the customer. Leading black hat tactics include: Cloaking: The practice of presenting different versions of webpage contents to search engines and human visitors. Keyword stuffing: The practice of filing a webpage with keywords in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in search engine’s results. Creating link farms: Linking to other websites that have spam content or are in turn linked to sites with spam content. Bombing search engines: Artificially elevating a website in SERPs ranking by linking a particular word or phrase to that particular website  ANALYZE Position Traffic Conversion Ubersuggest SEO analyser SEM rush SEO analyser SEO Audit SEO is an ongoing, long term process.