SEO, or search engine optimization, is an ever-evolving practice imperative to site success. These are the most up-to-date SEO techniques currently in use.
At its core, the essential SEO practices are “on-page” and “off-page” SEO. “On-page” SEO refers to the elements that you are able to directly control on your site. “Off-page” SEO relies almost exclusively on site user behavior, visitors, and other publishers.
Best On-Page SEO Practices
Content Creation
Quality content is the number one requirement for successful on-page SEO. This is necessary to improve user experience and draw more people to your site. What dictates “quality content” varies depending on the type of site that you are operating, but it generally consists of text and graphics that are helpful, accurate, informative, and well-written.
While Google is always seeking out “fresh” content, it is much better to post higher quality content less frequently, than to post lower quality content more frequently because low-quality material can decrease your credibility with your audience, thus lowering visits to your site. It is also important to note that when discussing a trendy topic, the more updated your content is, the better.
Code
Code is the language used to communicate with the search engine bots. While content is written for visitors to your site, code is used specifically for optimization of the site and its content for search engines. This is the portion of your site where it’s important to implement the proper keywords into your title, description, and in the written body of your posts. Relevant keywords that accurately describe your site or specific posts are very important for a successful SEO campaign.
The theme you choose for your site is also important to take into consideration. WordPress is a highly recommended platform because they take care of roughly 70% of the technical aspects of your site’s SEO. The other 30% can be taken care of by using an SEO optimized WordPress theme and various plugins.
Site Architecture
It is important to consider the usability of your site when implementing SEO. An easily navigable site not only provides an optimal user experience, but also allows for ideal accessibility for search engine bots. Page speed, quality links, and easy navigability are imperative to successful on-page SEO, allowing the bots to explore every aspect of your site.
Best Off-Page SEO Practices
Basic off-page SEO essentially revolves around link exchanges, article marketing, and directory submissions, which helps get you more credibility by having links to your page mentioned outside of your site itself. The more quality links you can achieve, the better. There are also a other, more advanced methods that search engines are giving more credence to now.
Links or Link Building
While inbound links overall are very important, search engines tend to favor quality links over the number or links you have out there. Therefore, organic links from legitimate, trusted sources are invaluable to off-page success. Inbound links are also more successful with the use of keywords called “anchor text”. The more relevant your anchor text is, the higher your chances of ranking well for those keywords are.
Social Web
Social websites can help to influence your Google rankings through the sharing of your content, your online reputation, and the interactions you participate in on the major social networks. It is a widely-held belief that as more trusted and authoritative people share your content, the more it will be considered to be of a high quality and value.
It is important to consider that social media websites are an integral part of website success and being a part of the major ones is imperative. FaceBook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to name a few, are not only popular, but are also terrific ways to market your site to a mass audience that you may not be able to reach otherwise.
While there are so many, smaller elements and factors to consider in SEO, these are the basics that can help you get your site up in the rankings. When all of these factors are implemented simultaneously, the results should start showing immediately.