SEO or search engine optimization is the process of using techniques to improve the probability of your content coming up on ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ search results on search engines.
Every search engine, like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, uses some algorithm to feed their users the most relevant topics based on their searches. To do that, these search engines ‘crawl’ your webpage. While crawling through your content, certain keywords & other items may match the search via the search engine algorithms and show your contents on the search result.
Thus, the more relevant your content is, the more chance you have of getting to the top of that search result. Following certain techniques can increase your content’s search relevance, which are commonly known as SEO techniques.
The problem with SEO is that search engines update their algorithms every year. Also, the searches are very volatile, and they change at the whiff of new trends, so it’s challenging to stay relevant with the same techniques every year. You will have to modify your content regularly and follow different optimization methods to stay relevant.
Global SEO scene
SEO has a global importance in this age of internet. SEO services in Sydney, New York, Hyderabad, and at other cities around the world are becoming increasingly popular. They provide SEO management services for your website, and you do not have to worry about the changing scenery of the SEO methods.
SEO techniques
Even with the ever transforming characteristics of SEO, there are some general SEO management options that you can consider, which we will now discuss. But always remember to keep up-to-date with the current SEO trends.
- Keyword optimization
As we have discussed above, search engines sift through your webpage for relevant information regarding a search. In this scenario, the most important thing you can do to make your content relevant is keyword optimization, because keywords will be the first thing that attracts search engine algorithms.
Before putting in an article or updating your website keywords, do some research. You can always use SEO tools find relevant keywords for your website.
Generic terms hamper your probability of being found, as they are too broad. Use descriptive words to get better search rankings. Example: if you use the word “car,” it’ll be too broad to be relevant. Instead, if you use “where to rent a jeep car,” you’ll get better results.
- Backlinking
Backlinks are very important for search engine optimization. It is the practice of linking a website in another website’s content, like the first word of this paragraph.
Backlinks are important because they act as a vote of confidence for your site. The more backlinks you get to your site the better. It shows the search engines that other sites can rely on your website, which helps you climb to the top of the search results as Google’s new penguin algorithm takes into account how reliable your site is.
Be careful about spamming sites back-linking your site; it could hurt your reputation.
- Use more visual content
Visual content improves your search ranking. Visual content like infographics & illustrations attract users. A study shows sites that sites with more visual content get more response than the other ones.
Visual content tagging is also very important. Although search engines are developing algorithms to directly sift through images & videos, most of the searches are keyword based. So, if your image has good tags, it’ll be more relevant to the search.
- Optimize your website
Before you do content optimization, update your website. Laggy & spammy websites tend to get left out of search results easily, because of the new algorithms adopted by the search engines.
Also, we talked about backlinking. Other websites will not backlink your content if your website isn’t up to the standard.
Create a good architecture for your website. A better designed website will attract more people. Search engines will be able to crawl through your content better if your site’s architecture maintains hierarchy.
- Quality & quantity
Your content quality needs to be top notch. Otherwise, as we have already discussed, algorithms & backlinks will not favor you. Quality content always engages the right audience and boosts your search ranking.
Content on your website, such as blogs, will need to be bigger. The lengthier your content is, the better chance you have of attracting searches to your website. Blogs with 1800 or more words get better search ratings than the others.
- Engaging target audience
SEOs will have to be set, keeping the target audience in mind. You cannot expect to engage everyone. Try to be relevant on the topic you are trying to engage. Suppose you wish to write about cars; you can target a specific audience for this. Engage the petrolheads by using keywords relevant to their search, like ‘transmission,’ ’engine capacity,’ etc. This technique will give you a better search ranking, by prioritizing a certain group.
- Writing a good headline
Always a must for content writers. Not only because of SE, but also for the sake of the users. A user typically sifts through the search results and all he or she has for reference at the first look is the title, so the headline is very important because coming on top of that search result may not help you increase engagement if your headline isn’t relevant to the user.
Search engines, too, first crawl through headlines for clues. You cannot just use a headline generated using keywords. It’d certainly look mundane and may not attract an audience. You will have to hit the perfect creative balance between catchy & optimized to get better results.
- Optimizing content for voice & mobile search
Voice search has become a regular phenomena. With home assistance devices like Amazon’s Echo & Google Home, it’s becoming inevitable that future content needs to be optimized for voice search,especially in mobile AIs like Siri & Google assistant making voice searches more relevant.
SEO technique for this type of search needs to be conversation type. Instead of ‘Sydney-Christchurch flight fare’ people would search ‘cost of ticket from Sydney to Christcurch.’ Also, people tend to use why, how, who, and other interrogative terms while searching for information.