Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important factors that may determine the success of your website. Paying attention to SEO addresses a major factor that most websites thrive greatly on – discoverability.
Given that Google is the most-used search engine found on the internet, it is pretty much logical for web developers and publishers alike to take advantage of that fact. Online communities or the cyber realm, in general, relatively have similarities in terms of what they search online, no matter how distinct most of their Google searches are.
The purpose of optimizing your website is to establish your reputation as a leading source of an inquiry. In this respect, website optimization will mean working your way up the ranks of who gets to be the top citation about a certain topic.
The number of people who get to view your content will be your “traffic.” Attracting traffic to your site means providing more avenues for other people to see your site. It will eventually translate into potential clients and customers you would want to take care of in the long run.
Here’s What You Have to Know About Google
According to Neil Patel, website optimization will provide you with an improved set of metrics ranging from the viewing time on the page to the bounce rate. Therefore, Google would place your site higher in the search rankings. Based on Google’s SEO Starter Guide, they advised to pay attention to the following:
- Securing websites with HTTPS
- Simplicity in the URL structure
- Quality checks on your Outbound Links for Google
- Child-safety content and treatment
- Compatibility in browsers from all types of devices
- Notices on Duplicating Content
- “Crawlable” Links
Neil Patel provides us with a comprehensive process for website optimization that pretty much summarizes Google’s SEO Starter Guide:
Step 1: Analyzing Your Website Data
Let’s say you put up your website on a subscription basis with the Call-to-Action (CTA) tag, “Join.”
In most cases, you won’t have to worry about anything if most people interact with your CTA. However, if you notice that a lot of your viewers seldom interact with your CTA, then you might need to consider changing it into something more “click-worthy.”
Neil Patel says that while a single piece of data might not have anything to tell you by itself, you are bound to find certain themes if you start pawing through this data. Knowing this will definitely help you notice any recurring patterns these data points might have for your site.
By identifying the roots of your site’s problems, you will start devising plans and making certain adjustments instead of just blindly pawing through random fragments of data. By paying attention to “Behavior Patterns” through the use of User Behavior Reports and Google Search Console, you will be provided with comprehensive data analysis to help you get the bigger picture of what exactly needs addressing.
While User Behavior Reports provide you with information in terms of what people do while viewing your site content, GSC data provides you with an even more comprehensive and detailed description of the activity that occurs on your website.
Step 2: Keyword Research and in-Depth Content
Choosing the right words and knowing what words are currently trending summarizes the essence of keyword research. According to Illia Markov, viewers often fall under the following metrics in terms of how they do their searches online:
- Search volume (average monthly searches)
- Keyword Difficulty (estimated difficulty of having a keyword appear on Google’s first page of search results)
The challenge of finding the right keywords involves making ourselves aware of what goes on inside someone’s mind while searching for a topic that falls under your content niche. Therefore you have to do research on keywords that sum up all of the very different ways that someone does a search.
Ubersuggest promotes the use of “long-tail keywords” in order for you to start with a general keyword, and to narrow it down into a specific topic. In order for you to amplify its effects, posting long, value-rich content will drastically bring your ranks up in Google searches.
Writing long, in-depth articles will not only mention your keyword numerous times, but it will also provide customers with a comprehensive set of information that comes from elaborating on your keyword in certain related areas, thus turning it into a more valuable type of content.
Step 3: Optimizing On-Page and Off-Page SEO
Knowing the difference between On-Page and Off-Page SEO can improve your site’s visibility and range to viewers.
On-Page SEO involves using your keywords in your website’s pages. This will give Google a more accurate understanding of what your content is about. Headlines, Sub-Headlines, URL slugs, Meta tags, and even the body copy fall under this category. Making use of your keywords more frequently in these aspects makes your content more relevant and comprehensive, but be careful not to overdo it. Having too much of your keyword would turn your page into a “keyword stuffer.”
Off-Page SEO, on the other hand, involves Guest blogging, social media activity, influencer marketing, and brand mentions. These activities are external factors that help you widen your website’s range by having it promoted to well-regarded sites. However, you need to watch out for low-authority sites. Aside from providing you with very little publicity and range, they could also hurt your online stature in the long run.
Step 4: Optimizing for Mobile Devices
Aside from computers, Mobile Devices are widely used to access most information online. Therefore, it will prove itself useful in website optimization.
Turning your website “mobile-friendly” relatively improves user experience, since it provides more means of accessibility to your site, and more accessibility means more opportunities to get traffic for your site.
Google pays attention to this as well. In fact, they have launched a mobile-first index, ranking you better as you focus on appropriating your site to mobile devices.
WordPress has built-in plug-ins that help you make your site more conducive for mobile use, saving you the time and effort in adding more code to make these adjustments.
Step 5: Speeding up Pages
More about improving user-experience, having a website page that takes too long to load will leave the customer clicking the return button out of boredom and inconvenience. Optimizing your website page’s loading speed will provide an even better and worthwhile experience for your site viewers.
Google Page Insights monitors your site loads on all devices to help you determine what factors of your page you need to improve to make your site pages faster.
Step #6: Credible Backlinks
Elaborating further on Off-Page SEO, choosing high-quality sites will leave a mark on Google, proving your website’s credibility. Backlinks from a well-known website translate into “votes of confidence” to your own website.
This also warns us to be very careful in choosing which websites we engage with through Guest Posting, Brand Mentions, and others. Affiliating with shady websites will hurt your Google Search Rankings and render your website as a doorway to conspiracy theory blogs, scam websites, and other corrupt parts of the internet.
Ultimately, website optimization could prove itself ridiculously difficult to deal with. But once we make it a commitment to improve our website, not just for our sake, but for our viewers’ and customers’ experiences as well, it will indeed set us apart from those who limit their purposes to gaining a profit. Rather, as responsible website publishers, we focus more on providing our viewers with content that aims to provide them with genuine and humane solutions.
And by turning website optimization into a solid endeavor, you will end up improving your knowledge and experience over time, equipping yourself with the necessary skill set to address problems to come and to make use of your website’s evergreen content to its fullest.
