SEO is the acronym of Search Engine Optimization.
It is the process of getting traffic directed to your website by using good quality content relevant to what people search for.
In other words, it is how you get your business on Google’s first page.
SEO
People are looking for you.
Be there!
Attention!
Attention is hands-down, the most important and valuable thing you should be focusing on.
Everyone is seeking for attention. From hungry babies crying for their feeding to multi-national companies with hunderds of “hungry” employees.
Nowadays, with so many media channels, apps, and content, getting noticed and standing out is harderer than ever.
Our attention span is getting shorter by the day and that is because of the way information and modern, fast-pacing lifestyle is shaped.
So what do you need to do?
You need to create an attention grabbing strategy.
And it has to be a really good one!
Otherwise, you are going to be swiped or scrolled out of view in favor of a funny cat video. Or a super-model that was caught farting on camera.
It is a jungle out there!
So what does this have to do with my website’s SEO?
Your SEO efforts should follow the “attention grabbing” strategy.
Your content should be grabbing your website’s users attention immediately.
And make them stay. And read. And read more.
And get value. And get value. And get value. (did I already say about getting value?)
Because, at the end of the day, what you need to qualify for a first-page result is user experience and content quality.
Search engines are smart. Way smarter than you may think.
They have a really insane, almost horrifying, artificial intelligence and their constant machine-learning capabilities crashes low-quality content and tricksters trying to apply old ranking methods (I am talking to you “keyword stuffing” dinosaurs).
THE BASICS OF SEO
On-Page SEO
On-Page SEO is the sum of things that are in your control. It is how you structure your content, how you write, what you are writing and how easy it is for search enging to also read your content.
Most Important On-Page Factors
Content
Publishing “search engine optimized” content is important. What is more important though, is your website’s visitors and their experience.
When writing content for your website, your main goal should be to provide value, give answers, solve problems and always have a “user-first” approach.
Data Structure
Structured data is really important to search engines and helps them understand and index your website’s content.
Make sure that your website is optimized and provides the correct hierarchy and markup for search engines.
Page Structure
Your website must have a logical architecture for its content with the headings, sections and paragraphs clearly defined.
Remember that the easier you make it for your visitors to read your content, the longer they will stay on your website.
Off-page SEO
When we use the term Off-page SEO we refer to all the factors that contribute to the ranking of your website and exist outside of the actual website.
Most important off-page factors
Backlinks
Backlinks are links to your website from other websites.
The more known and reputable the sites that link to your website/content, the more strength your links have for the improvement of your website’s ranking in the search engines results page.
Social Media
Social Media Marketing can help build your business’ reputation and perception.
While links from social media platforms isn’t a direct ranking factor for search engines, they increase your brand’s awareness and exposure and contribute in the larger picture of SEO.
Brand Mentions
Simply put, brand mentions is what other people are saying about your company and your products or services.
They can be in the form of online reviews, articles, blog posts, forums and social media posts and tracking them is key for measuring your brand’s reputation online.