Contrary to the common notion, SEO is not a simple game of simply choosing the right keywords and expect a website to show up on the top search engine result pages. The idea would have been true if all the search engines functioned as you wanted them to.
For the uninitiated, we bring you the SEO 101, a beginner’s guide to SEO. Read along and tread the path with a knowledge that will surely benefit you when you plan to create a strategy to bring your website among the toppers.
First Things First: What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Simply put, SEO is a strategic practice to improve your website’s rank in the organic search results of a search engine’s result pages. This not only increases your website’s visibility on the internet but also improves your worth as a brand, product and/or service provider.
There are many components that can improve the rank of your website various search engines when it comes to SEO. Some of these elements are keywords, tags, image tags, inbound links, internal link structure, site structure and design, visitor behavior, and many other offsite tools.
Why you need it?
The first and the most important reason is that SEO continues to work competently towards boosting your website’s ranking on search engines. The effective strategies and tools will ensure that SEO continues to be in every website owner’s promotional arsenal. It is more cost effective in comparison to PPC and email marketing programs and delivers excellent results.
What do you need to do?
An important fact every website owner needs to keep in mind is that SEO techniques have evolved a great deal in the last few years. There was a time when you could easily stuff your keywords in the content, Meta tags, and descriptions written for your website without any fuss. But no more, the search engines have also evolved at an equal pace and will detect any page that has redundant keywords. Google may ban your website permanently if it finds you have used keywords more than you should have.
Another remarkable change in the SEO techniques is the entry of Social Media. Social media didn’t matter a few years ago. But the whole scenario has changed in due course of time and now, you prominence on different social media platforms is an important factor in determining your website’s ranking on result pages.
Let’s get back to keywords now. There is no hard and fast rule that guides you how often you can include the certain keyword(s) in a given content. The basic idea is to trust your intuition. If you feel your web content contains more keywords than you need, or you feel they are being forced into a sentence, try to reduce the keyword density, or use another keyword.
Try to focus on what your audience wants, and you will be able to find better keywords, which you will also be able to include in your web content with ease. Use an easy to understand language and stay away from jargons and complicated words.
In other words, it’s you who needs to reach out to your customers, and not the other way around.
