Many bloggers, content marketers, and website owners are struggling with search engine optimization – SEO.
They’re being overwhelmed with the intricacies of SEO, which led them to often wonder;
- Why does my site need SEO anyway?
- Why can’t I get it done?
- Why can’t my website or blog posts be found without SEO?
- Does SEO really matter to my site?
The list of questions and queries about SEO keeps going on and on.
Even if you have in-depth knowledge in SEO, the constant change in Google’s algorithm means that you must regularly update your knowledge with the latest trends in SEO to stay ahead of your competitors.
And if you’re new to SEO, please ensure to read this entire article to get a comprehensive knowledge of SEO.
In this article, you’re going to learn the following:
1.What is SEO and how it works?
2.What are the Top SEO Secrets/Techniques?
3.Various SEO tools & how to perform SEO audit on a website
4.SEO mistakes that would penalize your website
5. Myths relating to SEO
Please, pay close attention as each section is explained.
#1. What Is SEO
Search engine optimization expert, Rand Fishkin of Moz described SEO as a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results.
Here, the primary role of SEO is to enhance your search rankings and help drive organic traffic to your site via search results.
However, as Rand Fishkin points out, SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to upgrade your search rankings.
How Does SEO Work?
SEO is not all about building sites and blogs that are search engine-friendly. It entails building a site and creating contents that are user-friendly.
Your website must be fast, and the content you create has to be informative and useful.
This will make possible for your website and content to be easily indexed by search engines, and rank high on SERP.
Google’s search engine, for example, uses an algorithm to measure each website and web-content and give a score accordingly.
What SEO does is that, it send signals to search engines, letting these machines know that your website and content are good for indexing.
#2. What are the Top SEO Secrets/Techniques?
There are numerous advanced SEO techniques that can help you rank high on Google. But we will be addressing just a few of them.
Conduct An SEO Audit On Your Site
It’s important to regularly conduct a website audit or examination to help you figure out where to make needed changes to enhance your site’s visibility.
Maybe you’re not getting more search traffic to your site. Auditing your website will enable you to attract more traffic and grow your site.
Areas to look for when auditing and/or examining your website are, but not limited to the following:
- Ensure that your URLs are well structured and optimized for search engines to identify what your web-page is about
- Make sure that all images on your website and content have ALT tags with keywords.
- Ensure that you fill out the meta description and meta titles for all your web-pages
Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?
It is common knowledge that Google favor websites[1] that are mobile-friendly over those that are not, because almost everybody is now using mobile devices.
In fact, research shows that more than 60℅[2] of all search queries are performed on mobile devices.
Just over a year, ago, global mobile internet users surpassed desktop users. So if your site or blog is mobile-friendly, you’re certainly going to increase your website traffic.
Repurpose Old Blog Posts
Reworking your old blog content is a great way to save time on content creation and help you create epic blog posts that will reach more audience, increase engagement, and dramatically boost your search rankings.
For instance, Brian Dean of backlinko[3] said that repurposing old blog content increased his organic traffic by over 111℅
So, look for your old blog posts and brush them up. Here’s how to repurpose your[4] old blog posts.
#3. How Can I Perform A Website SEO Audit?
As indicated earlier, conducting a website SEO audit is a must for every website. It helps you see areas with SEO problems that need to be corrected.
There are many tools that can help you conduct amazing SEO audit on your website.
Some of the best SEO tools in the marketplace are:
For instance, Quick Sprout scans your website looking for SEO aimed at growing your web traffic and present you with information on how to make changes and improve your search rankings.
Here’s how to perform a website SEO audit with QuickSprout.
1: Open QuickSprout software > enter your website URL into the box, and hit the “Analyze website” button.
2: This will take you to a results page showing you all the SEO issues you must correct. That simple!
The green colors indicate that your website SEO is good, while the yellow means you’ve got SEO optimization work to do.
As you can see from the screenshot above, I performed an audit of the RocksDigital website. Below is the result I got.
#4. What Are Some Common SEO Mistakes That Would Penalize Your Website?
It’s important to know the rules & mistakes of SEO because Google doesn’t care if your ignorance of the fact or not.
When you make these mistakes, the consequences can be devastating.
There are many SEO mistakes that can put you on Google’s blacklist. Some of these common mistake to avoid are:
Keyword stuffing: Keywords are important to your SEO achievement because they pull in Google to your site.
Yet, the drawback is that it will be immediately trailed by a kick down on SERP.
Broken links or Dead links: These are links that are dead. They no longer point to their intended page. They give you a bad reputation in Google. Hence, search and remove broken links.
Not having a unique title tag: Title tags are among the most essential on-page SEO components. Ensure to create a unique title tag for each webpage.
No unique meta descriptions: Make sure that your meta descriptions are descriptive as possible and within the stipulated character limit.
#5. SEO Myths That Are Keeping You From Growing
There are numerous SEO myths that are killing your chances of success. Stop believing these myths for optimal success.
A few of such myths are:
SEO will drive all traffic: This is false. Do not put all your budget into SEO, thinking that it will generate all the leads you need.
A well-optimized website is all you need: According to Laura Cole of Vivial, in order for your website to outrank your competitor’s website, link-building, offsite blogs and Google My Business optimization are needed.
Websites with higher rankings generate more sales: This is not true because numerous keywords have distinctive levels of search volume and buyer purposes. This can have a negative impact on sales.
Read More: 10 Basic Steps To Conquer Social Media Marketing Strategy
Conclusion
I have outlined what you need to know about SEO. I believe that this article will help you under that SEO plays an important part in your search rankings.
If not done correctly, it certainly will destroy your marketing efforts.
Therefore, make sure to conduct a website audit, perform a proper research before you create your blog content, and optimize all that’s necessary.
Featured Image: image provided by author
In-Post Images: image provided by author & shutterstock.com
