What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

 

SEO is the process of utilizing optimization methods to rank a website or web page within the search engine result pages based on trust/authority and relevance specific to the users search query.

 

Search engine optimization can be broken down into the following core components:

• Keyword Research & Analysis
• On-page Optimization
• Off-page Optimization
• Link Building (Internal & External)
• Benchmarking & Reporting

Keyword Research & Analysis

One of the most important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) and often times implemented poorly. A keyword or keyword phrase may receive 600 or 5,000 searches per day, however the traffic gained from these search phrases may only make up 20% of your sites keyword traffic.

There are more likely to be thousands of other keyword variations who may only have 35 or 85 searches a day, however make up for the other 80% of traffic. This has been named within the industry as the "long tail". You will definitely want to focus the majority of your SEO effort on growing and understanding the "long tail" effects on your site.

Learn more about how to conduct keyword research and analysis through my easy to follow guide.

 

On-Page Optimization

Now that you know which keywords or keyword phrases to target, it is now time to embed your keyword targets strategically throughout your site or page architecture. There are many factors that are taken into account as it relates:

• Meta Tags
• Image Alt Tags
• Keyword Usage in Copy
• Internal Linking & Anchor text
• Site & Page Architecture
• Sitemap's
• Robots.txt
• URL Structure

Off-Page Optimization

There are many off-page historical and technical factors which influence the search engines algorithms. Including:

• Hosting
• Domain Aging
• External or Backlink Analysis
• In-bound Link Acquisition Strategy

Link Building

Search Engines utilize hypertext linking as one of the more important factors of their algorithm. This is done on both an internal and external basis. Depending on how well you have internally linked your pages and how many other domains link to your website pages, this will play are large role into how well you rank specific to each search query.

 

A few link building strategies include:

• Press Release Optimization
• Directory Submissions
• Local and Regional Linking
• Social Media Marketing
• and many more.

Link buidling is extremely important when it comes to SEO. Search engines view inbound links to you sites pages as a "vote" towards the content. However, it is important to state that although quantity of links is important, the quality of incoming links from other domains is far more. Therefore, constant monitoring of your entire link profile is a must.

 

Benchmarking & Reporting

After identifying your target keywords, it is very important to benchmark your current ranking positions within the search engines associated to the keywords. This will allow you monitor the incremental rank position changes within each search engine. A report of your SEO tactics will serve as a guide as well as scorecard for any future or past strategies.

 

Check out many of the SEO tools that many SEO professionals use daily.

 

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