Welcome in the wonderful word of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You just make
your first steps in SEO and you don’t know where to start, don’t panic this article is
made for you. Find all the basics that you need to know about on site optimization,
through elementary requirements and become unbeatable in writing content SEO
Friendly. First, let’s go back to the origins…
Once upon a time Googlebot
No need to introduce the biggest search engine of all time but get to know
Googlebot, the Google’s exploration robot. To explain it very simply, Googlebot is
programmed to visit websites. He is responsible for giving good or bad points to
websites according criteria which can influence their ranking on search engine
results. When Googlebot visits a website he analyzes the code source HTLM and he
explores the links. After that he sends all this information to Google for indexation.
Google’s mission is to put forward and organize the most relevant information and to
make it usable for everyone.
So SEO is the process webmasters go through to encourage the search engines to
rank their page higher in Search Engine Page Results (SEPR). It involves working on
the website itself.
Discover now 5 commandments to follow to manage wisely your SEO and to boost
radically your ranking on search engine results.
1. You shall speak HTLM language
This first step is mandatory to begin in SEO because Googlebot only speaks HTLM.
So if you want Googlebot to increase your visibility by submitting and optimizing your
website on SEPR you need to communicate with him with the good tools. It means
use tags and meta tags. The goal is not to give you a list exhaustive of all the tags
you can use in HTLM but it’s more to tell you which are essentials. To be understood
by Googlebot you need to go through the section
placed to the top of the HTML webpage.
Let’s start with the tag <title>. This tag is vitally important on your SEO strategy.
When you search on Google, the first thing you read is the <title> tag. This is the tag
that will, in most cases, generate a click to your site, it must make people want to
click on it. To be attractive the title tag needs to be full of keywords but shouldn’t
exceed 60 words. So never forget it
Then, focus on meta tags. In this category you must have two: the meta description
and the meta robots.
<Meta name = « description » /> corresponds to the description just below the URL
in search results. This description needs to be full of keywords as well and relevant
enough to make you stand out from the other links. No more than 200 words. This
tag is placed just below the tag <title>.
<Meta name = robots /> is a tag which Googlebot is uses and refers to adopt a
particular behavior. For example : Index or not your webpage or follow or not your
links. This tag is also placed in the <head> section of your webpage. And finally,
never forget to structure your <body> section with title <h1> to <h6> . <h1> is the
most important title of your <body> section so never forget to put at least one <h1>
tag otherwise your webpage is almost futureless.
2. You shall apply basic ergonomy of a website
One of the first goals of your website is to make your visitors feel comfortable and
find their landmarks to make them want to stay and come back. The more they come
and stay the more Googlebot increases your ranking in SERP. Because he
considers that your content is relevant to people.
The speed at which your site loads is crucial. Visitors are increasingly in a hurry.
They get impatient very quickly if your page appears too slowly. Most of the time,
your pages must not weigh more than 100KB inclusive. This point is crucial, and
pages that take too long to load scare away visitors and penalize the SEO.
Avoid gadgets : Leave aside gadgets: Forget the flash animations and other gadgets
that do nothing to your website. Gadgets tire eyes and turn away visitors to value’s
content. Ergonomy and design should serve content and not the opposite. Your
visitors are accustomed to a certain type of presentation, don’t disturb them with a
risky design. Think ergonomic and follow these simple rules to make them feel at
home.
3. You shall respect a text code ratio
Text code ratio is one of the factors used to determine the relevance of content by
Googlebot. Text must represent at least 25% of you webpage. If it’s below that, you
have to add text and refine the code. The higher the text ratio the better the visibility
for the website. Nevertheless, keep in mind that your content is targeting on people
and not on robot so the key to optimizing your webpage is to build it focusing on user
experience.
4. You shall optimize your links
A website is no more than a set of HTML pages linked together by links. So in the
SEO world, links are the key. Here are some tips to optimize them :
Let’s start with Permalink. Permalink corresponds to the URL of your article. In order
for it to be properly indexed by Google do not overload. Ideally, your url consists of 2
to 4 words separated by dashes (preferred keywords) in relation to the content of the
article. The best would be that it looks like this:
nameofyourwebsite/nameofthecategory/titleofthearticle. The file must be written
correctly because it appears in search results.
Then, have you ever heard about link juice? If the answer is no, here are some
explanations that may interest you. In short, when Googlebot visits your website he
pours all his juice in your index page. Basically: he pours all your SEO potential in
your index page. Then, you have to pour this potential to all your other webpages by
drilling small holes in your homepage to let the juice down to your other webpages.
The more a page contains juice, the more it will be important to Google. However, be
careful, because if your page has too many links to different pages, the link juice that
will be sent will be less concentrated for each page.
Then, get to know backlink. Backlink is nothing more than a link A to a link B. Today
the backlinks are essential in SEO. It’s this allows you to get more juice and a good
reputation. You just need to produce qualitative content. Backlinks is a part of offpage
SEO like Social Media Optimization (SMO). So, never underestimate the social
networks that represent a strategic entry to your website.
5. You shall use the good keywords
Keywords are vital to your website’s SEO. Keywords are the foundations of your
entire SEO campaign. It’s crucial to have the right keywords otherwise the SEO
campaign could be a big failure. Two factors are important to establish a list of
keywords :
• It must be searched very often on search engines.
• It must match with the website/page content.
There are 2 categories of keywords
The Best-seller keywords : These are all keywords that best characterize your
website/page and those that bring you a lot of visits.
The Long trail keywords : These are all words that make up your relevant articles.
Consider that googlebot is in love with content. The more you create content seo
friendly the more Google boosts your visibility. If you don’t know what keywords to
choose you can help yourself with tools like Google Insights, or wordtracker to see
the trends. When you have found your keywords, integrate them naturally on your
website/ page, follow their effectiveness and product a lot of content to inrush the
long trail keywords.
In conclusion, always keep in mind that to optimize your ranking on Search Engine
your website needs to :
• Have a lot of content
• Have a relevant content
• Have a quick speed load page
• Have a clear code HTML
• Respect the basic ergonomy of a website
• Be well organized in category and sub category
Tags: SEO
