What is SEO, is the most frequently asked question by beginners who are just learning to build a blog or website. This is because doing SEO is believed to make it easier for your blog or website to get high rankings in search engine results, such as Google.
Is that true? Let’s explore more deeply what Search engine optimization is and how to optimize SEO on a website.
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What is SEO?
In simple terms, SEO can be described as a tactic or action to optimize a blog or website. The optimization carried out allows search engines to assess whether the blog or website is worthy of being displayed in the top position of search results or not.
By getting a high ranking from search engines, then the potential for your organic traffic will also increase. Not only can it make website traffic high, but the traffic can also be more precise and in accordance with the purpose of the website you are building.
However, keep in mind that SEO is not a one-time job. More than that, SEO is a process that has no end. That is, you have to continuously optimize your blog or website.
To get high and targeted traffic, then you must understand and learn how search engines work in ranking blogs or websites, where this assessment is based on certain qualification requirements.
You also need to follow various rules set by search engines, in this case, Google. Therefore, it is very important to learn how to optimize SEO, what are the main indicators of SEO, and the Google algorithm. You can learn all that through the following review.
How SEO Works
The purpose of SEO is to optimize the website so that internet users can find what they need by using certain keywords or keywords. At least, there are three benefits offered in the optimization process, namely providing relevant information, bringing in more organic traffic, and making search engines a reliable source.
Search results may not appear immediately. This is because the search engine optimization process is not as simple and easy as imagined. Search engines have three main tasks in performing on-demand searches, including:
Crawl
Crawling is responsible for collecting information from all websites. One page to another, and one link to another. This process is the initial stage of the search engine optimization work process.
Indexing
If it has collected information, then the web crawler will store the information in the entry list: index.
Ranking
The search engine will display the content according to the search results that best match the rankings in order.
For the quality of search results to be guaranteed, search engines use a set of rules and regulations commonly referred to as algorithms. This search engine algorithm will ensure that people who use the internet can get relevant information from various trusted sources.
Advanced SEO Tools
The following tools are often used for SEO optimization:
Ahrefs
Ahrefs SEO Tools is a very powerful paid tool for you to use for keyword research, knowing backlinks, seeing the position of the article you wrote on google search, knowing competitor keywords, knowing competitor backlinks.
With this Ahrefs tool, you can monitor the progress of your website’s SEO. You need to know that these tools are not cheap, and you have to pay every month.
Google keyword planner
This tool is a free tool that has been provided by Google. With this tool, you can find out about keywords and the amount of search volume. To access it click here.
SEO Quake
SEO Quake is a plugin on google chrome, with this SEO Quake you can see competitor traffic for free and very easily.
SimilarWeb
With this tool, you can see the global Alexa rank of competitors’ websites, find out the number of competitors’ visitors, find out competitors’ bounce rates, monthly visits, page per visit, and average session duration of competitors. To install on Google Chrome, you can download it here.
Keyword everywhere
With this keyword everywhere tool, you will find out the detailed number of keyword search volumes per month. This tool is very useful for those of you who are doing new keyword research because this tool also provides derived keywords or LSI keywords.
How to Use SEO
After understanding how SEO works, you also need to know how to optimize SEO properly. It should be reminded once again, that the SEO process cannot be done in one go, but becomes a relentless process. This is because search engines are always updating their algorithms to provide the best search results every time.
SEO consists of two categories, namely offsite SEO and onsite SEO. What’s the difference between the two? Here’s the explanation:
Onsite SEO
As the name implies, onsite SEO means optimizing a website or blog from within. So, the optimization of this category relates to the arrangement and adjustment of the existing elements on the website. This method will make it easier for search engines to crawl information more easily. Examples are as follows:
- Image Alt Text
- Do not use keyword stuffing or attempts to manipulate the ranking order on Google search engines
- Well formatted URLs
- Use of proper headings, i.e. H1, H2, and so on
Then, what must be done to optimize onsite SEO? Here are some things that need to be done so that onsite SEO is properly optimized.
- Keyword research
The choice of keywords is something that really needs to be considered. The keywords you choose must be right, so they can bring organic traffic to the content you post. The keyword itself is a specific idea or topic that is typed by users in search engines. So, it can be said that keyword search is very important.
Keyword research will help us to understand what keywords are often used by internet users when accessing websites on search engines. Make sure to include the target keyword in the article title, heading, and content.
- Website optimization
Several ways can be done to optimize the website, including using a good website structure, creating relevant content, and providing easy navigation.
All three are very important to increase website traffic. A website must have a good structure because it will confirm search engines regarding the most important website pages.
In addition, providing relevant content on the website is also very profitable, because it will bring a lot of quality traffic. Meanwhile, the ease of navigation in accessing the website will certainly make website visitors feel more at home on the site.
- User experience
Every visitor who comes to your website, of course, must be served properly. Good service from the website owner to the visitors will certainly make them more comfortable to browse your website. Not just stopping for a while, then closing it again.
If you manage a business website, then make the website page like a professional online store. Visitors who open an online store website, of course, want to know more about the products that you offer. Therefore, please provide detailed information about the product.
All information must be submitted to the head of the prospect. Be it product benefits, price, composition, choice of color or taste, expiration date, and other product-related information. In addition, you also need to add relevant images to attract more potential customers.
To make it easier for visitors, you should create product categories to make it easier for visitors to search. For example, the online store that you build is selling beauty products. So, you can create categories of beauty products, such as categories of skincare, lipstick, perfume, eye makeup, etc. With the product categories, visitors will find it easier to find products according to their needs, without the need to linger looking for one product at a time.
Don’t forget to also set the layout or layout of the website. Don’t confuse visitors with an irregular layout. For example, place the shopping cart feature in the top right corner of the website page. Thus, visitors will more easily see and access these features. With a regular layout, visitors will feel more comfortable.
- Loading speed
Website loading speed is very important to increase website traffic. Of course, anyone will be annoyed if they visit a website that takes a long time to load. When a web page does not open, internet users usually prefer to close it. As a result, website traffic will decrease.
On the other hand, a website that loads fast will be preferred by visitors, because they don’t have to wait too long for a website page to open. This will also make the website get a high ranking from Google. Therefore, loading the website must have a good speed, so as not to lose a lot of visitors and not get a bad score from Google.
Off-site SEO
Compared to onsite SEO, offsite SEO is less technical. But, that does not mean that offsite SEO is not so important. Offsite SEO is useful for promoting websites. With this technique, people out there will know that your website is worth visiting. Well, some ways to do offsite SEO are as follows:
- Content marketing
Currently, content marketing is the most powerful way to increase a website’s ranking in Google search results. If you use a well-structured content marketing strategy, then there are many benefits to be had. These advantages include bringing in new visitors, improving the reputation of an online store or business, influencing visitors to buy the products offered, as well as saving on promotional costs.
- Promotion
To get a lot of followers or subscribers, the website must be filled with super good and interesting content. However, even though it is filled with various interesting content, the website is still empty of visitors. So, the way to increase followers is to do promotions.
By holding a promotion, it will be more and more people who are interested in visiting the website. This is because generally, people are very interested in promotional things. Besides being able to attract more visitors, the promotions that you do can also make your website superior to those of competitors.
- Public Relations
To make the business you are building more advanced and known by many people, doing public relations is very important. Even though several costs must be incurred, they will be proportional to the benefits that you will get. Some of the advantages of implementing public relations include being able to build brand awareness, manage authority, provide additional information, and improve community relationships.
So that’s an explanation of what SEO is and how to optimize SEO well. After learning the ins and outs of SEO, now is the time for you to apply it. Again, remember that SEO is a continuous and never-ending process.
So, don’t just settle for one try. Do other SEO techniques so that your website gets a higher ranking from Google. There are no instant results in the SEO process. But, you need to start from now.
