WHAT IS SEO?
SEO is the process of increasing a site’s visibility in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. SEO is broken up into two parts on-site SEO and off-site SEO.
ON-SITE SEO
On-site SEO is editing, improving, and adjusting the HTML and content on a website. Optimizing a website increases its ability to be found, indexed, and ranked for specific searches in search engines such as Google. In general on-site SEO can also enhance the user experience by making it easier for them to understand where specific content is and what pages are about.
The simplistic view of on-site SEO consists of two types of activities: Optimizing content and removing errors, removing errors could be considered optimizing content. I see these activities as separate because optimizing content generally involves the creation of new content. Removing errors comprises fixing missing pages, server errors, and maintenance activities.
Simple things to look for when Fixing Errors
- Fixing any missing pages created by deleting old pages, client errors, or server errors
- Fix duplicate content errors, the most common duplicate content errors are duplicate titles and descriptions
- Fix any missing titles or descriptions.
Rules of Optimizing Titles
- Titles should target one-two keywords
- Titles should always be unique for each page and never duplicate
- A title should be under 70 Characters
Rules for Optimizing Descriptions
- Descriptions should be unique for each page and never duplicate
- Descriptions should be around 155 characters
- Descriptions should contain keywords, don’t repeat a keyword more the twice
Rules for Optimizing Content
- Use appropriate HTML for the content
- Use Heading tags, Paragraph, and other tags
- Use keywords in the text on the page.
- Use closely rated terms like the road: biking, cycling
- Create New and Fresh content, Blogs, news, etc…
OFF-SITE SEO
The second element of SEO is Off-Site SEO. Link building is the primary off-site activity; every link pointing to a site is essentially a vote for that site. However, not every vote is created equal; some links carry more value than others. Sites that have more popularity and more authority provide more weight if providing a link.
Rules for Building Backlinks
- Links should be from high-quality sites
- Links should be from relevant sites
- Links should contain targeted keywords, this is called anchor text
<a href=”http://sitename.com”>Keywords</a> - Links should come from a variety of different sites
- Links should look natural
These quick rules are not the “tell-all secret” to SEO. However, if you are looking for a basic start and looking to get the greatest bang for your buck when performing your SEO, follow these quick SEO rules and you can begin to see an impact.
