SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (part1)

Once your website is finished, you have to make sure it is visible in search results to potential visitors. In order to ensure the highest rankings, you have to pay attention to search engine optimization (SEO).

Earning top search rankings is the key to nailing your online business. Befriend Google with our easy-to-follow guide and tips from proven SEO experts.

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITE ON GOOGLE.

Now that you’ve created your very own website, you’re facing the challenge of how to promote it in the most effective way.
Yes, website promotion can be a strenuous task, but it’ll be worth the effort once you reap the fruits of your labour.
By harnessing all the possibilities Google has to offer and making use of the right tools, you’ll stir both your website and your business in the direction of success.

In this article, we’ll demonstrate why search engine optimization (SEO) is the pillar of successful Google promotion and break down all its elements as well as the necessary steps you’ll need to take. Moreover, we’ll delve into some tried-and-tested techniques and tools that will bolster your promotion endeavours.

Without further ado, let’s explore all the ways you can unlock the full potential of Google and SEO.

WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)?

Search engine optimization is a process in which you affect your website’s visibility in search engines. Although Google is the most popular search engine, it is not the only one. Other engines, for example, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu and AOL are also used, but most traffic still comes from Google.

Marketing managers from around the world are struggling to win first place in the search engines. In fact, top 5 results get 75% of total clicks. No wonder why marketers put so much effort into search engine marketing, especially search engine optimization.

1.47% OF DIGITAL MARKETERS SAY SEO IS ONE OF THEIR MOST EFFECTIVE TACTICS—BUT 39% ALSO IDENTIFY IT AS ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT.(TNW NEWS)

2.SEO LEADS HAVE A 14.6% CLOSE RATE, WHILE OUTBOUND LEADS HAVE A 1.7% CLOSE RATE. (WRIKE)

3.ACCORDING TO GOOGLE, ONE IN SIX PEOPLE ON THE PLANET USE GOOGLE TO DO MORE THAN 1 TRILLION SEARCHES EACH YEAR. (SEARCH ENGINE WATCH)

SUBMIT YOUR WEBSITE TO GOOGLE

First things first, you should submit your website to Google via its Search Console. Of course, Google will discover your site even if you don’t submit its URL, but it will take some time. Since every search engine crawls the Internet in order to index pages, submitting your site will speed things up. Moreover, if you make changes to your website, you can just re-submit it. By re-submitting your site, you’ll keep Google in the know and get it to index your website’s latest version.

Furthermore, you can also submit your site to Bing and Yahoo because the more, the merrier!

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT KEYWORDS

As previously mentioned, you need to make sure people find your business online by ranking well in search results. To accomplish this, you’ll need to focus on search engine marketing, or, to be precise, your site’s content. Unlock the full potential of words and phrases that best reflect (and can help) your business. Google collects and analyzes words and phrases on your website, as these words tell what your site is about, and then ranks your pages for these keywords.

Think of keywords as a bridge between you and the searchers. Having said that, choosing the right words for your content is a must if you want online audiences to visit your website. Keywords will not only improve your search engine organic rankings, but they will also be your starting point for search engine advertising. The more you understand the power of keywords, the better you will perform search engine optimization.

Let’s explore the world of keywords in more detail, shall we?

CONDUCT KEYWORD RESEARCH FOR SEO

Given the importance of keywords, once you start doing your research, you should bear in mind the following two things: the number of searches per month and how competitive your keyword is. These two factors are what keyword research is all about.

When in need of a solution for their needs, your potential visitors rush to Google. You need to put yourself in their shoes to try to understand what keywords they are going to type into the search box. That being said, your content needs to be centered around your target audience.

KEYWORD STRUCTURE AND LENGTH

As we previously mentioned, the competitiveness and number of searches is what you should pay attention to. These two factors are in direct connection with the structure and length of a keyword.

Speaking of structure, every keyword has a head, a modifier and a tail. To be more precise, a head is, of course, the main word, whereas a modifier is a word you can easily replace if you want to change some aspect of your keyword. Every other word you use to further describe your search represents a tail. Both the modifier and the tail relate to the head.

 In this example, the word ‘shoes’ is the head (the center of our search). ‘Discount’ is the modifier, and the word that adds more detail to our head is ‘online’ (the tail).

When it comes to the length of a keyword, we can talk about short-tail, medium-tail and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords are simple and consist of only one word, that is, a head. These keywords are very competitive, which makes ranking for them difficult. Medium-tail keywords have 3 to 4 words and are exactly what you need to pursue in order to rank. As you can guess, long-tail keywords entail more than four words. People generally don’t take notice of them due to their low monthly search volume, but you can rank quite easily for them.

For example, the word ‘ring’ is a short-tail keyword, whereas ‘women’s engagement ring’ would be a medium-tail keyword. As for the long-tail keyword, we could use ‘white gold women’s engagement ring’.

You’ve probably noticed that the longer a keyword is, the lower its search volume becomes. Even though medium-tail keywords would be a safe choice in this case, you shouldn’t choose difficult keywords and try to rank for them if your site is not big enough. However, even when you find those suitable keywords, your work isn’t finished. By this, we mean that once you realize which keywords perform better, you should focus on them.

HOW TO FIND THE BEST KEYWORDS FOR YOUR CONTENT OR WEBSITE

To help you on your quest for the right keywords that both your website and search engine marketing will benefit from, we’ve gathered a list of tried-and-tested tools. Let’s see what you can do with these tools and how they can help you get keyword ideas.

1.GOOGLE SUGGEST

Google’s ‘Autocomplete’ is a nifty tool that most people tend to overlook. You’ve probably noticed that when you start typing into the search box, Google starts completing your phrase/sentence by offering a few suggestions. In addition, the search engine also provides a ‘Searches related to’ section, which is located at the bottom of every page. This section contains additional suggestions which are related to your query. Don’t rely solely on Google auto-suggest, as it’s quite limited. However, you’ll understand your topic better thanks to this tool, and that’s what makes it a good way to start your keyword search.

2.GOOGLE TRENDS

The number of searches per keyword changes all the time, and you should keep an eye on its fluctuations. To see the rising and falling trends, you should use Google Trends. If the search volume is rising, you’ll have an open door to create content centered around your keyword and a better chance of ranking for it before it becomes too popular. Moreover, not only will this tool provide you with some additional keyword ideas, but it will also inform you about where your potential traffic could come from.

3.GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER

Keyword Planner should be your go-to tool for getting keyword ideas. Once you’ve signed up for a free Adwords account, head over to Tools and click Keyword Planner. Here you should select the “Search for new keyword” option and just enter the word or phrase you want to get ideas for. After hitting the ‘Get ideas’ button, you’ll be presented with two options: Ad group ideas and Keyword ideas. As for the former, these keywords are put into potential ad groups, whereas the latter is a list of keywords that are closely related to the keyword of your choice. Even though this tool is focused on paid advertising, its keyword ideas feature is a powerful way to gain more insight into keywords, as you’ll see the search volume, competitiveness and price of each keyword.

4.LSI KEYWORD GENERATOR

LSI Graph is another free gem worth mentioning. Latent semantic indexing keywords are related to your main keyword and as such broaden the scope of your search. When you have a plethora of keywords that are semantically related to the primary one, your content will be more credible to Google. In addition, your content won’t suffer from keyword stuffing, and readers will go through it with ease. Google will also rank your site for those related searches, which, in turn, will lead to better rankings and traffic. Enter your keyword, click ‘Generate’ and you’re good to go.