Ever wonder how experts enhance their blogs as they write them to ensure a significant reach to their target audience? Let me show you how. Starting with the basics, SEOs, or Search Engine Optimization, is the application, enhancement, and improvement of content, websites or digital brands to have the best results possible on search engines (Google, Firefox, Bing, etc.). SEO ensure that these engines understand the site’s content and components to have a stronger appeal toward target audiences.
The fact that you are reading this post right now shows how these tactics work, and I’m going to show you how to do this too. I used Wix to create this very website, so keep in mind I will be using it as a point of reference while I explain the techniques and how to apply them step-by-step.
Let's talk about the 8 main elements of SEO:
Content: Targeted, high quality, and up to date content is essential for SEO success. By providing intentional, detailed, and fresh information I ensure that those reading this post have the intent of applying the knowledge I’m sharing.
Keywords: Identifying strategic terms, the target audience uses on search engines to improve results ranking (appearing closer to the top on Google results). I used the keyword "SEO techniques" for this post after doing a quick analysis of search trends, you can see I incorporated naturally in the title, and throughout the post to keep readers engaged and optimize search engine relevance.
HTML: which stands for HyperText Markup Language, helps search engines understand the content of the site to enhance SERPs (search engines results page). Some components of HTML are:
Title tags- specify the page’s topic and plays a factor in its SERPs ranking
Meta description- quick summary of page to allow users to determine personal compatibility
Schema markup- the code/words that helps search engines identify and categorize the content of websites
Heading tags- classifies the content in order of significance
Alt text- describes graphics (images) used in the content to the search engine and accessibility tools
URL slug- identifies the specific page inside the website, telling the search engine and users the particular topic.
You can see this reflected in the full URL for this post How to take advantage of SEO Techniques in Your Content (With Real-Time Example)
Site Architecture: The structure/ layout of the website, which can impact SERPs rankings. There are 5 key factors to ensure SEO and meaningful ranking
Crawlability- describes how easy a search engine access and navigate through the site’s pages. This is crucial for indexing a site to guarantee SEO
Duplicate content- providing unique content, ensuring the content on your page is not available anywhere else will guide users to your site, instead of them having to decide between multiple options
Mobile responsiveness- ensuring that the website is compatible with mobile devices
Speed- some search engines may lower your SERP ranking if the page is not fast or efficient. There are resources like PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, or GTmetrix
Security- improve consumer trust by ensuring site security with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates which originate from the site’s server. This website was created with Wix’s Light Premium Plan which includes SSL and other security measures.
E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness; search engines use these standards to rate the quality and reliability of the content in the site. Some ways to boost EEAT are to show the experience and experience first-hand in the site itself (like I’m doing by explaining my own process with Wix), give users (readers) all the information possible by being thorough and global, using backlinks (links to other sources/ pages), and allowing transparency and security with clear information and consumer/user reviews.
Links: the use of backline, as described earlier, is using one website in another, which is critical for SEO. To use this efficiently use high-quality links from well known, established websites which will add value to yours. Don't saturate your websites with links either, balance is key. You can see how this is beneficial from the very same links in this post, while they don’t drive traffic away from this post, they ease accessibility to the precise topics I am mentioning.
Social media: while it is still uncertain social media has a direct influence in SERP rankings, it does help bring visibility and recognition to your site. Consistent, and quality content that is easily shared will also increase SEO. By creating simple, yet intricate content, this blog facilitates sharing and commenting and provides the chance to join a LinkedIn community with likeminded individuals.
An honorable mention is local SEO, which applies for physical businesses. This is used to substitute for SERPs based on geographical location. Google for example promotes businesses who have completed a Google Business profile which includes all important information in regard to the business (contact, address, URL, hours of operations, etc.). and if you want to get “extra points”, secure good, reliable reviews.
Applying these SEO techniques while writing for or building your website will be essential to enhancing and promoting your content, ensuring it reaches your target audience. By applying techniques like using keywords, optimizing site structure, adding backlinks, and modeling authority and trust, you can significantly improve your search engine rankings and user engagement.
Now it’s your turn to apply this knowledge! Don’t forget to share your progress in the comments below or join our LinkedIn community to participate with others who are also optimizing their content for success!
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