SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation is a process used to improve the quality and quantity of contents so that these may have more visibility in the search engine result pages( SERPs) and get more organic traffic for relevant search terms or keywords. It is the most crucial way for your SEO success. SEO consists of a lot factors that help your site rank high in the search results. When you conduct a search in the search engine via a browser, search engine gives you the most suitable results matching your keywords or search terms. There are billions of pages and posts in the search engines and which are to be displayed as search results is a matter that depends on a lot of factors. Search engines crawl and index these contents and when search made, they provide those pages or posts which rank higher, most relevant and authoritative. You must optimize your contents for Search engine optimization(SEO) if you want to make your content rank high and attract organic traffic. Website not optimized for search engine visibility does not rank and that’s why whatever you write, use at least proper SEO basics if you don’t know advanced SEO. Nowadays, unlike traditional ways, Search engine optimization is ever-changing and ever-growing and not limited one.
How Does SEO Work?
As a beginner, you should know how SEO works. It has its own tools and rules to execute functions in order to crawl, index, apply algorithm and provide better output to in the search engine result pages( SERPs) against a relevant query or keyword. Every search engine uses bots to crawl and index authoritative contents which are submitted to it via site ownership verification. There are sitemaps such as XML Sitemap or HTML Sitemap for verified sites in their database. Sitemap contains all important posts, pages, categories and contents of the verified and submitted websites in their indexation lists.
When a searcher tries to find out something via browser by typing keywords or using voice, the search engine runs its own algorithm to provide the best output to the searcher. Now, out of millions of contents which one will appear in the search engine result pages? It takes into account hundreds of SEO factors while displays a search result to the searchers. Posts having more backlinks, internal links, well-structured content, relevance, page authority, exact meta description rank higher and appear as search results.
Why SEO Matters?
Now, you can ask us why SEO matters in the field of search engines. It may be curious if you don’t know about it a bit. Because without it your contents will neither rank nor be visible in the organic listing. Search engine optimization is the main driving force for your contents visibility in the search engine result pages. Your pages and posts have no value without it. It implies that without SEO your site will not attract traffic by providing results against relevant keywords. People make millions of search on search engines to provide information on products and services to the visitors with commercial purpose.
Under such a competitive scenario, your contents do not appear if you have not optimized these for search engines. On the other hand, contents optimised for SEO appear in the search results based on certain factors. To put in another word, the more you optimize your contents for search results, the more you get organic traffic.
SEO is important because it:
- Gives value to HTML tags like h1, h2……h6 etc.
- Generates meta data for your contents.
- Provides rich snippets in the search engine result pages(SERPs).
- Informs search engines about relevant contents for relevant search terms or keywords.
- Suggests various links like internal links, external links and backlinks.
- Increases pagerank and domain authority.
- Provides information on keyword density.
- Crawls, indexes contents and adds these to Sitemap.
SEO Components
You should know various SEO components in order to use properly in right place to increase your site’s visibility. I have said earlier that search engine optimization is ever-growing, ever-changing and consists of a lot of factors. I am not going to deep to discuss about it in details, however I highlight some important aspects of it, namely, on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Maintaining these two aspects boosts your website’s ranking in the search engines.
On-page SEO is a SEO technique used to optimize web resources so that it can rank higher in search engine result pages and drive more organic traffic. There are a lot of factors contributing to it and out of these the most important ones are content and HTML element. Content is the king of all. A well-organised content gives value both to the readers and search engines. That’s why visitors come back to it again and again. Content should be of long form—-consisting of 1000-2500 or more words. Search engine like Google loves such kind of contents, as it takes into account various details and entices visitors to come back again. The content you write must be quality-based, namely, it must be of good quality. The more quality, the more visitors.
Keyword is an important factor of Search engine optimisation(SEO). Keyword is the type of word or search term that you use to write an article. The whole article is based on it. Before writing a content, you must think of keyword. Without using proper keyword,you cannot rank better in the search engines. Having right keyword helps you to write a good content and helps visitors understand it. So, choose a keyword while you are going to write a content.
You can use keyword research tools to find out various keywords, its search volume and other related data. When you search for a term, it will show you several keywords having variations a bit, although all of these are frequently used in search engines. Using a rich and proper keyword is a good practice for Search engine optimisation(SEO). You can use keywordtool.io or Google keyword planner—-all these are free, you don’t need to spend a single dollar.
Also, you can make a search on Google to find out relevant keywords for a search term. Suppose, you searched for “Marketing tips”. Now, look at the keywords which are used in search engines and relevant for marketing tips. Thus, you can Google a search to find out more similar terms relevant to a keyword.
Now, another question for you, which type of keyword you should use in contents such as posts or pages? In my opinion, if you are a beginner use longtail keyword. Because at primary stage, you have less authority in site and contents. Under such a circumstances, it is better for you if you encounter less competition and more visibility in search engines. That’s why longtail keyword is the best choice, it has less competition and more organic traffic. When your website gets popularity and good authority, you can use one or two word based keywords instead of longtail keywords.
Keyword density is another important factor that you have to maintain properly in order to get success in the field of search engine optimisation(SEO). It refers to how many times you have used a particular keyword for given post or page. There exists a lot of debate on optimal keyword density for SEO, however, it is better if it stands at between 0.8% to 2.5% or 3% for a blogpost. Maintaining it properly helps both the search engines and readers to understand it. It implies that per one hundred words your keyword should appear 2 or 3 times.
Use keywords in your contents as much as required but don’t cross the optimal limit set forth for it lest it may affect your site adversely. If you use keywords frequently that crosses the optimal limit, then there is a greater chance that Google may penalyse that post. Because it is a black hat SEO and stands against Google Webmaster Guidelines. So, try to keep it under 3% although some experts recommend to keep it between 1-2%.
To see how many times you have used keywords in your contents you need a SEO plugin. Search engine optimisation plugins help you to see keyword density in a post. There are many seo plugins in the marketplace and wordpress plugin repository such as Yoast or RankMath. You can use either of the two and both of them are trustworthy. You need to choose and install it on your website in order to use its features properly. Just install the plugin, activate it and put your keyword in the keyword box. It will show you up all relevant information for a given post against a keyword. You cannot use a plugin until you install and activate it. If needed, you can read our guide on how to install and activate plugins in a wordpress site.
Maintaining exact keyword density is a good practice in the field of search engine optimisation(SEO). Applying this is better for optimising your contents but overdoing is not recommended. Using too much keywords leads to stuffing of it. It is another crucial factor that you must take care of while going to write a post. So, avoid keyword stuffing for optimising your post.
To avoid keyword stuffing, you can use another synonyms of the same word or phrase. No matter to worry. Google uses Natural Language Processing(NLP) and so it can read, guess, scan and provide best output to the searchers for a relevant keyword. So, you can use similar words or LSI keyword in your contents. Using such type of words gives more relevance and value to your contents and moreover it becomes more comprehensible both to the readers and search engines. Also, you can use thesaurus to get more similar words for your keyword. That said, avoiding keyword stuffing is a must if you want to rank better in the search engine result pages.
Where you can use keywords within your post? If you ask us such kind of question I will give you thanks. Because it is very important for your success in the digital world and it is too much relevant to Search Engine Optimisation(SEO). You can use keywords in HTML elements, body of the contents, alternative text of infographics, meta description, tags and URL.
HTML elements here refer to title and subtitle of a posts. Generally, when you write the heading, it is in <h1> tag. The other subheadings may be h2, h3……..h6. In block editor, when you write the main heading of a post, it becomes in h1 tag. Based on your needs, you can add other subheadings.
Body of the contents contain paragraphs and blocks containing texts. You can put all kind of textual descriptions in this sections of a blogpost. Within this area you can use keywords to give relevance to your post. Using keyword should be natural and not manipulated. Keep in mind that you are writing for human readers, so try to maintain consistency, readability and relevance.
You can use keywords along with alternative texts in the alternative text field. Alternative text is generally used to describe the purpose of an infographics or image and it has great value in Search Engine Optimisation(SEO). It is useful both for search engine and readers. If the image does not upload properly, the texts provided therein will appear therein.
Meta description is another crucial factor in the field of Search Engine Optimisation(SEO). When you search for a term or keyword in Google, it shows you many results. These results are actually meta description. It contains short description of the page or post consisting of upto 155 or 160 characters.
The texts inside the blocks are in fact meta descriptions. It contains the keywords of the post or page for which the owner has used it. In Google, you can see about 155 characters as meta description. It gives visitors an idea about the post. The keywords I used here is ‘Robot game for kids’ and these are the posts with the same keywords. A searcher can understand your contents just looking at these snippets and he may read it or leave. A seo plugin automatically generates meta description for your post from the first paragraph. Also, you can add or edit it manually to an individual post.
You should include keywords in the URL of your post. The URL should be short, consisting of about 75 characters. Because, search engine like Google shows only up to 75 characters of URL in the search results. Before publishing a post, be confirmed that you have used keywords in the URL of your contents. Look below at the screenshot and note that the URL of the post contains the keyword “http” which I have indicated with an arrow inside the rectangular block.
Tags are important to search and find out relevant contents. You should add tags for every post and you can add it to the tag field. Even you can either keep hidden or show the tags to the visitors along with the post.
In Block Editor, click on the Settings icon, scroll down along the scroll bar until you locate tags. Now, click on tags, the field will open. Enter tags for your post with relevant keyword in the box and close it.
To make your site more optimised for Search Engine Optimisation(SEO), you have to be confirmed about what type of site address you want to use. As usual, there two versions of site address, namely with www( prefix) and non-www. In search engines these are two types of sites. You have to fix the www issue for both your site address and wordpress( site address). Site address is normally the web address of your site that visitors see and interact with while they are visiting it . On the other hand, WordPress site address is related with your wordpress site that you can access, handle and manage from within your wp-admin bar as back end user.
Now, you can see above where both the wordpress address and site address have separate rectangular block to display their respective web address. To look this for your site, come to Settings by scrolling down along the menu bar of your wp-admin. Click on ‘Settings to expand its sub menus. Click on “General”, it will expand and you can see these both addresses for your site and wordpress.
If they differ in address in respect of “www” then make them same by adding “www”. On the other hand, if you don’t like to add it as prefix before their domain, then skip but keep both of them same in web address. Many web masters don’t use www in their site’s custom web address, however it is not good for Search Engine Optimisation(SEO). I always recommend to use www, as it is good for search engines. So, add www to your site URL.
You need to set up permalink for your website properly. In wordpress, you can find various permalink structure such as:
- Permalink by plain
- Permalink by date
- Permalink by post name
- Permalink by custom structure
Now, you have to keep in mind that you are writing for human readers, not merely for search engines. That is why use such kind of permalink as is comprehensible and easy to guess. In such kind of permalink, both the search engines and readers not only can read and understand your post but also guess about what it is.
Permalink by post name is such kind of URL structure which I have mentioned above and it is best for Search Engine Optimisation(SEO). So, choose and check it. Go to Permalink Settings under Settings right from your wp-admin and check the round button in front of post name.
Website security is too important to count. Visitors who interact with your site may leave it if they find that it is not secure. That’s why you have to provide security to those who visit your site. Under such a scenario, your website needs a security protocol that blocks all kind of data breach and https is the best choice. HTTPS secures site. Search engines take into account hundred of factors to evaluate a site’s ranking and give priority to those sites which have enabled https. Even Google announced https as a ranking signal in August 7, 2014
So, you need to enable https in your website too to boost your ranking but in order to run this security protocol in your site you have to install an SSL Certificate. SSL Certificate too is ranking factor in Search Engine Optimisation(SEO). It allows to pass information between servers and browsers via encryption. None can interfere with or decode your data insofar as it remains in transit. It accrues credibility about your site to the visitors. So, use ssl certificate to make your site secure and trustworthy.
Insofar as Search Engine Optisation(SEO) is concerned, link building is a great ranking factor that contributes to many aspects of it. Link increases user experience(UE), browsing time and site’s reputation. Basically, three kind of links relate to a site such as external link, internal link and backlink. The first two kinds of links are easy to build because there is no complexity in it. You can make it as you like in your contents, posts or pages within your site. The third one is different a bit from the first two, as it takes time and proper strategy. However, each one has its own role in the arena of Search Engine Optimisation(SEO).
Now, let’s throw light on each of these links so as to build it at proper time place. External link is, generally, a kind of link that when clicked points to destination source from which it originates. Such kind of link goes from your website to an external site. It has the following syntax in HTML:
<a href=”https://www.externalsite.com/post”>Text to be clicked on</a> or
<a href=” URL of the page, post or content”>Link Text</a>
Try to link to external posts relevant to your content while you are going to write a post. It is a good signal that your content is relevant to that of others.
Internal link points to another post or page within the same website. When you write a new post, link it to other posts within your website. It is a good link building practice to increase your site’s visibility in search engines and drive more organic traffic. Besides, when visitors click on the link, they go to the destination URL and find new opportunity to gain more web resources relevant to their queries. That’s why apply internal linking for your post in order to boost your Search Engine Optimisation(SEO). In HTML it has the following syntax:
<a href=”URL of the page or post within same website”> Link Text</a>
Backlink is another kind of link that gives more value to your site. When anyone from an external site links to your website, he, in fact, builds a backlink to your site. It has more influence than the other two kinds of links mentioned above. Every website needs backlinks to appear in search engine result pages. Because Google Pagerank Algorithm treats it is as a kind of vote. Your website gets more credibility and authority if it gets a backlink from relevant website. It has been found that the sites which rank high and appear in the first page of Google’s search results, have gained more domain authority and pagerank because of good backlink profile.
Write quality based content, use proper keywords and meta description. Quality is the most crucial factor to attract more and more visitors to your site. Heading too should be attractive and relevant to your contents. When a visitor looks at the rich snippet containing exact keywords relevant to his query, he cannot leave it until he reads and browse over it. Because it will provide him relevant search results, full of information. So, in order to get backlinks, write quality based content containing infographics, proper keywords, SEO-fiendly URL and it should be in long form, consisting of at least 2ooo or more words. While you write a relevant, popular and high quality content and publish it, there is a greater chance that the top search engines will show it in the search results.
There are a lot of factors which search engines take into account while show a page in the search result pages(SERPs), however, quality of content is a great ranking factor both to the web spiders and to the human readers.
