A Beginner’s Guide To SEO Marketing
First things first, SEO or Search Engine Optimization can make or break your business. How many times has it happened that you were searching for something on Google and couldn’t find it on the first page, so you gave up even though there are many other pages of results? The answer is probably all the time. This is why SEO is important. It makes sure you are on that first page. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that you have a fair idea of what SEO is especially in today’s digital age. Now if you are wondering why is it important, why would you need it, and what you need to know about SEO marketing strategy, then you have come to the right place. In the following paragraphs, we will decode all the questions and doubts that you might have about SEO marketing.
What is SEO Marketing?
The goal of SEO is to improve your website’s position in search engines which is how it gets its name- search engine optimization. It achieves this by having numerous strategies, actions and best practices. There are two types of SEO- on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO is any strategy that you can control on your website to increase your rankings. For example, if you use things like keyword presence, site speed or header text, then you are using on-page SEO. While off-page SEO is anything you do on other websites that may increase your rankings- for example using links. Increasing your rankings in search engines takes time, a good knowledge of SEO marketing and successfully executing both on-page and off-page SEO. For your site to get ranked number 1, it has to have a more powerful SEO than all the other sites in relation to a specific query.
Why is SEO So Important for Businesses?
SEO is used by Google to regulate which website deserves to be ranked higher for each query that is generated. Modern SEO makes sure that the search results are not manipulated in a way that the website with the most links or the most pages isn’t always ranked number 1. SEO makes sure the search results are fair and it decreases the ability for the search results to be manipulated. Google has become an integral part of almost everyone’s life and one reason for this is because people trust it. Getting a top spot in search engines like Google shows that your website is a credible source. Additionally, the higher your rankings, the more clicks and traffic your website will get. Another reason why SEO is important is that it improves user experience and hence makes it more likely for customers to convert into repeat buyers.
SEO marketing is also cost-effective. If you are working with a tight budget then using SEO marketing is an effective way of getting qualified traffic to your website without shelling large amounts of money. SEO is important for all businesses- doesn’t matter if new, old, struggling, or successful. If you have a website for your business then SEO is a much-required digital marketing strategy for you. The reason for this is that you can control SEO, unlike the many factors about your business that are out of your control. However, with an SEO strategy you can control rankings and consequently control how many visitors your website gets. This impacts how many leads you will generate which impacts how much profit you make.
How does SEO work?
1. On-page optimisation:
As stated before, on-page optimization is the strategy that you apply within your website to attract search engines that are looking for relevant keywords that users type in. Here are a few on-page optimization techniques that you can use.
- Create a meta-description for your page: This is a summary of your webpage. A meta-tag is a snippet of code that will appear in the source code of the webpage. Hence, make sure you choose your keywords and phrases carefully. Additionally, it is better to use keyword phrases instead of keywords and you can even use Google Keyword Planner.
- It is important to include keywords in the title of your content so the search engine has an idea of what the content is about.
- Make sure the title has a keyword density of about one to two words. The rest of your content should typically contain a keyword density of less than 3% of the total content.
- Keep in mind that your content should be equally suited for your audience as it is for search engines.
2.Off-page optimisation:
These are the steps that you take outside of the website to increase your visibility and ranking in search engines. One way of doing this is by having high domain authority sites link back to your website. Guest blogging is another good strategy for off-page SEO. In this strategy, you ask other webmasters to publish your content on their blogs. Posting on social media is another method that you can use. Here are a few tips for off-page optimization.
- Make sure that you post to high authority sites or sites that are relevant to your business when doing guest blogging or forums.
- Have your blogs published on bookmarking sites like Reddit.
- You can even improve your ranking through the business review.
3. White-Hat SEO
White-hat SEO refers to optimization that complies with the rules set by Google and other search engines. Here are a few ways through which you can practice white-hat SEO and make sure your business is ethical and sustainably successful.
- Create content that is high in quality and is original.
- Make sure that your websites have easy navigation and boost the loading speed of your web pages.
- Basically, anything that makes sure that your users have a good experience.
4. Black-Hat SEO:
Any practices that would improve your rankings on a search engine but will violate the rules set by the search engines are categorized as black-hat SEO. When you get caught and you will definitely get caught will lead to your website being banned from Google and other search engines. Here are a few of the black hat SEO strategies that can get you banned.
- Keyword stuffing: This is the technique where you stuff as many keywords as possible onto the webpage.
- Plagiarising content: This is when you copy and paste a substantial amount of content from another website.
- Hiding content: In this technique, you hide your content within the code of your website or make the text colour the same as the background.
- Clickbait: This is the tactic of making your title deceptively catchy which attracts users to the site, but the content is usually unrelated.
- Creating gateway passages: these pages are created only for the search engine and most users are not directed to this page.
- Link buying: In this strategy, you pay another webmaster to backlink to your website.
To avoid getting into trouble you should acquire digital marketing services from a renowned and experienced digital marketing agency in Mumbai as they will be well aware of all the tactics that can hurt your website’s SEO.
5. Page Speed:
A lot of people leave sites if the page does not load in at least 5 seconds. Additionally, Google ranks websites higher if they load faster as this adds to the user experience. Here are a few tips that you can follow to increase the loading speed of your website.
- Refrain from using too many plugins.
- Improve your server response time.
- You can try and reduce the number of redirects on your webpage.
6. Mobile optimisation:
Statistics reveal that around 70% of internet traffic is generated by mobile phones. Therefore, it is important to have a mobile version of your website. Google also uses this criterion for website rankings and ranks websites higher if they have a mobile version of their website.
7.The quality of your content:
Last but not least, content quality is everything. Quality of content is one of the top criteria for Google to rank a website higher. You can create amazing and original content through these formats:
- Authoritative blog posts
- Listicles
- How-to articles
- Infographics as it is much more visually engaging.
These are the 7 important things that you need to keep in mind while doing SEO. Now that you are all caught up on how SEO works and why it is important, build your own SEO audit checklist with the above-mentioned points, analyze your website, use it to market your business better, and remember to never use black hat SEO techniques. Ideally, you should reach to best SEO company in Mumbai to achieve the best results. We at Kerkar Media would love to grow your business online! Happy Digital Marketing!
