What is SEO?
According to Red Authority, SEO is an activity that helps to improve the search engine rankings when browsing. When users search on google, websites that come up on the results page contain the key words in the content of that website. It also conducts a page ranking process, which refers to the most popular visited pages being at the top of the list. It also analyses the quality and number of links coming from other web pages. If web pages link to each other, search engines rank them higher. Examples of such search engines can be Google, Bing/Yahoo. High quality content encourages people to link to your site, this leads to search engines ranking your page higher.
The video below includes information about what SEO is and what it is used for. Key factors such as on-page, off-page, page ranking, and key words are also discussed. It helps us understand the importance of SEO, especially for business’s who want to direct online browsers to their website.
On-Page SEO
According to the Moz blog, on-page seo mainly refers to the content of web pages. It ensures the optimization of web pages individually, resulting in more relevant content in search engines and higher ranking. Brian Dean states in his blog that there are a list of factors that search engines love, examples include:
- Start your title with key words
This is the most important factor, because the closer your key word is to the title, the better.
- Add modifiers to your title
Examples of modifiers: ‘2017’ ‘best of’ ‘reviews’ – ensure higher ranking of the website.
- Posting longer content
Long content on certain pages tend to rank higher much higher thank others – ”length is strength”
- Optimization of Imagery
Always ensure that your target keyword is part of the image text in the content.
- Include keywords in the first 100 words
This helps the search engine identify the text of the content quicker.
- Correct URL’s
URL’s should be SEO-friendly, short and include the main keyword.
Off-Page SEO
According to search engine land, off-page factors are ones that publishers cannot control directly. These factors are also used by search engines, as they found that relying on publisher-controls didn’t always provide great results. Alex Chris states that off-page SEO mainly refers to actions performed outside of the boundaries of your page. Three most important consist of:
Off-page SEO refers to activities you can perform outside the boundaries of your website. The most important are:
- Link Building
This is the most popular and effective method. This helps compete with competitors and rank higher within search engines
- Social Media Marketing
There should be a direct link to your website from all social media accounts.
- Social bookmarking
Not the most popular method, however still gains more ranking.
Julie Moldovan 