What is SEO and how it works?

SEO is an acronym for “search engine optimization”. It is a long-term marketing strategy employed in order to improve a website’s visibility and organic search results in google and other global search engines.

SEO works by improving the quantity and quality of traffic to a site from search engines, ideally resulting in increased revenue. The techniques used vary from technical (on-page optimization) to editorial (off-page optimization) but the goal is always the same: improved visibility and higher rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

The vast majority of users now access the internet through their mobile devices and this trend is only going to continue. This means that it’s more important than ever that your website is mobile-friendly. Google’s ranking algorithms now take into account a site’s performance on smartphones and tablets, meaning that if your site doesn’t work well on a mobile device, you may see a drop in rankings.

If you don’t have a responsive web design the first step should be to create one. This means adjusting your layout to fit all screen sizes from desktop down to smartphone screens. Not only will this make it easier for users to interact with your site but also help improve your SEO rankings as google looks favorably on sites that are correctly optimized for mobiles devices.

Understand why you need SEO?

The first thing that every business needs to understand is why they need SEO. If you are starting a new website or blog then it’s always possible that your website will be on the “first page of Google” naturally but if you have an existing site that has been around for some time, achieving this can become increasingly difficult.

Do you need to ask yourself what results in you want from your online efforts? Do you simply want more traffic or do you wish to rank on the first page of Google? Once you have determined this, start thinking of ways to achieve these objectives using SEO.

Working smart with no use of the Black hat tactic

First of all, let me tell you something about black hat tactics. What are black hat tactics? Black hat tactics are SEO technique that is intended to manipulate search engine results in an unfair way. These techniques can get your site penalized, removed from the index of the search engines, or even banned.

Why you must avoid using these Technical Black Hat SEO Tactic?

One of the most important reasons why avoiding black hat techniques is so crucial is trust. If you don’t play fair with Google and other major webmasters, they will not be honest with you either. A key part of getting your website ranked more highly on Google comes down to having strong relationships with other top websites linking back to yours. To achieve this it’s important that sites feel safe doing so – if they start to fear that your links may come with strings attached (such as a manual penalty) then they may be less inclined to link to you.

Google takes the user experience into consideration, and it’s their main priority over anything else. It doesn’t matter how great your website is if people can’t browse or use it efficiently on their devices. As we touched on earlier, more and more users are browsing the internet via mobile than ever before so this is definitely something you want to take into account when optimizing your site.

Today most webmasters know that how important backlinks play a vital role in Search Engine Optimization. However, just building links isn’t enough! There are many different types of backlinks such as Do follow, No follow, Pinging, Forum Commenting, Blog Commenting, Bookmarking, etc.

What are On-page and Off-page SEO?

On-page SEO is all about the factors that exist on your own website; this includes things like using keywords in the title and URL of your pages, image optimization, making a mobile-friendly website, speed optimization,  adding metadata to your site (such as descriptions and titles), using certain HTML tags (such as <h1> elements) and writing quality content.

Off-Page SEO is everything happening “off” of your own website – these are factors that point towards or away from your site but don’t appear within it. Think of these as recommendations or endorsements for your business; examples include high DA PA backlinks, sharing on social media sites like Facebook & Twitter, press coverage, reviews & testimonials, etc.

Find the right SEO service agency

If you find that you don’t have the time or skills to effectively implement and manage your SEO campaign, then it’s a good idea to look for an experienced SEO company like Grow Digital Marketing to take care of this for you. It can be very difficult for companies who are new to SEO – they may not know what works and what doesn’t, which keywords will provide them with the best search engine ranking results or how often their site needs updating.

Selecting the right agency is critical as they’ll hold your hand throughout the whole process and help you implement all of these techniques in a way appropriate to your industry. You should always try and find out what previous clients think of their services (and if possible contact some of them), look at case studies of successful projects the agency has managed as well as how it communicates with its clients.

Most Agency provides three different services for SEO:

1) White hat or ethical services – Using white-hat methods to improve a site’s ranking and therefore generate more traffic and revenue, without having to resort to underhand tactics such as link spamming (you’re likely to get penalized if you do this). White-hat optimizers will often work on building up your site organically over time whilst avoiding things like automated software and using an excessive number of keywords.

2) Grey hat services – Is a bit unethical but not illegal such as utilizing hidden text (including using text that is difficult for a search engine’s algorithm to find), cloaking (showing different content to human visitors than to search engine crawlers), link farming (gathering links from low-quality websites) and doorway pages (pages created solely for the purpose of ranking high in search engines).

3) Black hat services – Consists of techniques that break the terms and conditions of a site’s use, such as keyword stuffing, Duplicate Content, Link schemes, etc. Which can get your website banned from Google.

SEO is one of the most effective methods for generating more traffic to your website. It can be difficult to know where to start, but by following these simple tips you’ll be on your way to better rankings in no time!

How to get started with SEO?

SEO can be a very complex and ever-changing field, so it’s important to stay up to date with the latest changes to Google’s algorithm and how they may affect your website. In order to get started, you’ll need to:

1) Identify the keywords that you want to rank for – these can be found by doing competitor analysis (find out what words and phrases your competitors are targeting), using Google AdWords Keyword Planner or other similar tools, or by brainstorming a list of potential keywords.

2) Optimize your website for these keywords – this includes using them in the title, URL, meta descriptions, header tags (H1, H2, etc.), image alt text, and inside the body of your content.

3) Build links to your site – this can be done by submitting articles and blog posts to article directories, guest blogging on other websites, participating in social media discussions, and using link-building tools like HARO and BuzzSumo.

4) Monitor your progress and make changes as necessary – SEO is an ongoing process and you’ll need to continually tweak your campaigns to ensure you’re getting the best results.

SEO is one of the most effective methods for generating more traffic to your website. It can be difficult to know where to start, but by following these simple tips you’ll be on your way to better rankings in no time!

Some common SEO mistakes that businesses make include:

1) Not including their target keywords in their page’s URL – A descriptive URL makes it easy for both visitors and search engines to see what the content of a page is. For example, if your page was called “5 steps to increase traffic”, having a URL of “www.mysite.com/article123” would be much less informative than “www.mysite.com/5-steps-to-increase-traffic”.

2) Not optimizing their images – Ensure that you always include an image ALT tag (the text that appears when you hover over an image with your cursor). This will describe the picture and allow search engines and those who use screen readers to understand what your page is about even they can’t see the image.

3) Not using meta descriptions – The meta-description gives you the opportunity to describe what each page on your website is about. Because this text shows up in search engine results, it’s important that you include relevant keywords and phrases so that people are more likely to click through to your site.

4) Ignoring user experience – Making sure visitors find your site easy to use and navigate around is a crucial part of delivering a positive user experience. If they can’t find what they want quickly and easily, they’ll move on to your competitors!

5) Focusing too much time on SEO – It’s very easy for businesses to spend all day talking about their own website when in fact their customers will be looking for reviews from other customers.

How to make your business “SEO Friendly”?

SEO is not only for big companies, small businesses can also reap the benefits of optimization by following a few simple guidelines.

1) Claim your business listing on Google My Business and ensure that all of your contact information is accurate and up-to-date.

2) Make sure your website is mobile-friendly – over 60% of searches are now carried out on mobile devices, so it’s important to make sure your site looks good and functions correctly on smaller screens.

3) Optimize your website content for keywords that are relevant to your business – this will help you rank higher in search engine results pages for those terms.

4) Use social media to share your content with a wider audience – sites like Facebook and Twitter have huge user bases, and by sharing your content on these platforms you’ll be able to reach more people.

5) Get positive reviews and testimonials from happy customers – these can help to boost your website’s credibility and increase trust levels amongst potential customers.

6) Regularly update your website with fresh, new content – this will keep people coming back for more, and will also help to improve your site’s SEO ranking.

By following these simple tips, you can make your business “SEO friendly” and start seeing the benefits that optimization can bring.

If you’re looking for an experienced SEO company to take care of your optimization campaign, then contact Grow Digital Marketing today. We have years of experience in helping businesses achieve top rankings.

Conclusion

SEO is extremely important for any business that wants to reach a wider audience, but it’s easy to make mistakes that can result in your website not being found by search engines. By following these simple guidelines you’ll be on your way to boosting your rankings in no time!

About Grow Digital Marketing: Grow Digital Marketing is a full-service internet marketing company that provides SEO Services, Web Design Services, and Social Media Services in the USA, UK, Australia, and many other countries. Contact us for more information on how we can help your business grow online! Be sure to visit our blog often so you don’t miss out on our latest articles about Search Engine Optimization!  If you enjoyed the article please share…

All the best,

Anik Hassan