I have written this beginner’s guide because I think SEO Google positioning knowledge should be for everyone, not just a few “experts.” Search engine optimization can indeed be a bit messy with certain words, methods, and tools, but it is also true that with the most basic concepts you can achieve very good results. What is SEO? SEO Google positioning factors. How to make your potential customers find your website when they search for it on Google?
Let’s go to the mess!
Google positioning – What is SEO? How does it work?
What is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. Wikipedia defines it as “the process of improving the visibility of a website in the organic results of different search engines”.
It is very important to be clear that SEO refers to organic results, that is, not paid. The complementary option (paying a cost per click to occupy the first places for a given search) is known as SEM or Search Engine Marketing. To put a comparison, SEO is like looking for good free parking next to the site where you have to go, while SEM would be the equivalent of paying for parking.
As with almost all disciplines of online marketing, SEO has evolved a lot over the years. Originally, web positioning techniques were very primitive and based a lot on repeating some specific keywords, whereas now user experience is much more important.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the set of actions aimed at organically improving the positioning of a website in different search engines, in order to increase the quantity and quality of the traffic it receives.
Why is SEO important?
As extraordinary as your website is, it will not generate visits by itself. You will have to make sure that your potential customers reach that website.
There are different techniques to attract traffic:
Of course, SEO requires a significant effort and it will take time to see results.
How does SEO work?
All search engines have the same goal: to show the best and most relevant results to their users.
SEO works by demonstrating to search engines that our content is the best for solving the query in question.
In our case, what interests us is the positioning in google, to attract traffic to our website and this is achieved according to the Google Webmaster Guidelines.
How does Google work? Google positioning
As we have seen the objective of Google is to show the best and most relevant results to the searches of its users, for this it carries out the following process:
What is Seo On Page?
SEO On Page is the one that we can apply to our own page and includes the techniques that we can use to optimize our website. SEO On Page ensures that the web is optimized so that the search engine understands its content.
These processes occur within our website and therefore we have the capacity to improve them. They are technical factors, but they represent a good part of the success of an SEO strategy.
Within the SEO On-Page, we would include content optimization, keyword optimization, image optimization, friendly URLs, user experience, internal architecture and linking, loading speed, adaptive design and code optimization.
Seo On Page key factors
1- Keyword optimization
When starting a new web project, we have to decide what keywords we will use to position ourselves, these will be the words by which users will find us on Google.
Starting a project is the best time to do keyword research, taking into account the competition and the search volume of those keywords.
When placing keywords, it is important to avoid over-optimization. Google will penalize us if we use them too many times in the content.
It is better that each content focuses on just a few keywords, in this way, it will be more specific and relevant.
2- Content Optimization
Surely you’ve ever heard that “Content is king”, yes, the content of the site plays a vital role in the ranking of your search engine.
The content is not only the blog articles, the texts of the home, those of the categories, all the texts are also contained.
To write good content, you have to use tags H1 (which is the title of the page), H2, and H3 and put in them the keywords and synonyms. These tags make content easier for visitors to read, and also help search engines better understand this content.
3- Image Optimization
The graphic material is also part of the content, and it is very important for the user experience and the time spent on the site.
Images we use on our website or blog content should include keywords in the image name and in the alt tag. This will help search engines to index them so that our images can appear when users perform an image search for a keyword.
4- Titles and Descriptions (Title and Meta Description)
These tags are essential for web positioning.
Title Tag: The title tag on each page tells search engines what your page is about. It must be 70 characters or less, it will include the keyword on which our content focuses, I could also include the name of our website or blog.
Tag Description (Meta Description): Tells search engines a little more information about each page. You must include the keyword and convince our visitors that the content of the article is relevant to them.
5- friendly URLs
The URLs of your website or blog must be “friendly”, that is, they inform about the content of the page and they must be simple.
These two URLs correspond to the same page:
- https://www.postdune.com/?p=2212/
- https://www.postdune.com/google-positioning-what-is-seo/
In WordPress, there are several options that you can access from the Settings > Permanent links menu.
Only modify the URLs if you are starting with your website, if the pages are already indexed when you rename them Google will not find them and you will have to make 301 redirects.
6- Page loading speed
Another factor that influences SEO On Page is the loading speed of the pages. When a website takes time to load, the user will search for another website on the results page.
The loading speed cannot exceed two seconds, for this it is essential, apart from optimizing the code and caching the web, taking care of the size and weight of the images, making it the one the web needs and not greater.
7- Architecture and internal linking of the site
The website design must make it easier for search engines to scan or crawl pages and content.
Creating internal links between pages, and creating and submitting a sitemap to search engines can help improve the crawlability of our site and provide search engines with a better understanding of its content.
8-Responsive adaptive web design suitable for mobile devices
Many consumers are looking for information and brands on their mobile devices, these users must be able to browse our website in comfort whatever the device they use for it.
What is SEO Off-Page?
The SEO Off-page includes the parameters that do not depend on our website, which are external factors. Although they do not depend directly on us, something can be done to use them to our advantage.
The main strategy of the SEO Off Page is to get external links that point to our website (backlinks).
The link building is the strategy of getting our external pages to put links to our website or blog.
Trust is an important factor in Google ranking. A good way to improve trust is to get authoritative sites to point to our site by linking to us.
The profile of links (link profile) of our website improves when we are linked to sites of recognized prestige in the same sector, not all links have the same value, if these sites give a vote of confidence to our page, Google will understand that we deserve that trust.
For a long time, these links have been manipulated to deceive Google, but this is no longer so easy, and although backlinks are still important within the algorithm, they have lost authority.
The more quality content you publish, the easier it will be for your readers to share that content, also on social networks.
If your readers trust your content, Google will too.
Creating valuable and quality content is a good way to improve SEO off-page.
What is Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO?
When it comes to SEO, there are two different approaches that can be taken to optimize websites for search engines: Black hat SEO and White hat SEO.
Black Hat SEO
Tactics that focus on optimizing content only for search engines and not for visitors. Black Hat SEO does not follow the rules that Google imposes on us and applies techniques to improve positioning artificially.
This type of SEO can be penalized or prohibited by search engines, it is not recommended for a site that claims to be sustainable and capable of attracting new potential customers in the long term. It is very dangerous in the face of positioning in Google.
Depending on the severity of the penalty, a website may not be able to recover from the penalties. The only way to build a sustainable online business, which will generate more organic traffic over time, is to follow SEO best practices and create effective content that your visitors find valuable.
White Hat SEO
Set of techniques to optimize your website for search engines and visitors, building a sustainable business. This type of search engine optimization involves focusing on the human audience who will click and read the content on the site.
It is the SEO that we must do if we want to have a good position in Google.
The goal of this type of SEO is to produce the best possible content that is easy to read and navigate, while also following Google’s guidelines for optimization.
Google Positioning – What is SEO and how does it work?: final conclusions
After learning what is SEO and how it works you can work to make changes to your website to improve SEO and increase your ranking on the Google results page.
There are many factors that affect SEO, but the most important thing to consider is if our content is valuable and relevant to our target audience.
SEO is hard work and the results are not seen overnight, the results can take months. The positioning in Google is slow if you are starting with your website, Google can take six months to a year to position yourself well in the SERPS.
However, following SEO best practices, and creating quality content that focuses on helping our readers is the best way to build a sustainable online business that will continue to generate new free organic traffic for a long time to come.
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