SEO Explained: How It Works And Why It Is So Important3 min read
It is said that ‘there is no better hiding place than the second page of Google search results. This saying is popular among the most hardened nerds on the web. However, it has some truth.
Anyone who runs an online business and owns a site, no matter the industry, must focus on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This ensures that their products and services appear as high as possible in Google search results.
Appearing among the first results of Google or other search engines gives a business an enormous commercial advantage. A correctly indexed website attracts thousands of visitors. These come to the site and decide whether or not to buy the products/services on offer.
So, if you want your site to get a higher ranking, precise and thorough work is necessary. Whether you’re an absolute newbie regarding SEO or not, you’ll find the information below very helpful.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization is a set of best practices that allow Google to map your site and position it as high as possible on the first page of its search results.
Optimisation, generally speaking, goes through five basic elements. These include keyword research, permalinks, optimisation of page content, paragraph and subheading division, and internal links.
Elements Of SEO, Explained In A Simple Way
It is necessary to assume that the sites with the best SEO are those that Google recognises as the most useful to users searching for a certain type of information.
The more well-kept, in-depth, and specialised the site is on a given topic, the more Google will reward it by pushing it up in the search results.
Keywords
Google first analyses the keywords on your site, or keywords. These immediately identify the topic your business is about. Each page must have the primary keyword and may also include secondary or related keywords.
The keyword must be present in the slug of your site or the URL’s final part and the permalink. This is a URL consisting of the domain name of the site and the slug itself.
The keyword must also be in the SEO title: the one users see on Google. And in the meta description, which is a short description of the content on your page with a maximum limit of 160 characters.
Content
The content on the page also contributes to improving your site’s SEO. Let us imagine, for example, an online newspaper. To rank as high as possible in Google search results, an article written by a journalist should meet the following criteria:
- A minimum of 300 words
- Divided into paragraphs with H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6 headings
- Primary keyword must appear in the first paragraph
- Sensible keyword usage: the keyword should be repeated several times in the body of the text, but without exaggeration
- At least one internal link
Paragraph structure
Google is, in this respect, rather meritocratic. SEO aims to rank as highly as possible sites considered useful to users. Not only those that are more in-depth but also those that are easier to read.
For instance, the division into paragraphs, instead of a single block of text, makes reading easier on desktop and mobile devices. Additionally, the presence of internal links pointing to similar topic signals to Google that your site is authoritative.
Other elements
Other elements contribute to improving a site’s SEO. These include the page loading speed and the quality of the sitemap. The management of these is more complex and usually requires technical assistance from a webmaster expert in the field.
In a nutshell
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