SEO The Breakdown
In this SEO a starters guide for 2023 you’ll learn what SEO is and the language surrounding it. But, before we begin, it’s worth mentioning that Google as a leading search engine has no limit when it comes to its algorithm updates. This is why search engine optimization is sometimes like a game of cat and mouse. Here you’ll discover how to make Google help you get discovered online. In this SEO a starters guide we’ve got a SEO strategy to get your site as high up on the search page as possible.
What is SEO?
As we know by now, SEO stands for search engine optimization. The aim of SEO is to make a website become visible but organically. For example, if your website contains a piece of content that was SEO-friendly, therefore increases your chances of getting visitors to your website. As a result, you may even grow your customer base.
SEO a starters guide 2023 - strategy
The plan as mentioned is to drive visitors to your website, therefore this requires planning. This is why Keywords and external links are included on the pages of websites. And everything users see on a page is put there intentionally by a SEO.
But, before we go any further let’s look at the vocabulary for SEO.
- Keywords – Are terms that customers search for when searching the internet for something. For example, if your shop sells fresh oranges, imagine that a potential customer may search for ‘fresh organic orange juice’. If your website contains this content, then it increases your chances of being discovered. Keyword tools like Semrush is a keyword research database, and lets you analyze everything you need to know about a keyword.
- Crawling is the way by which search engines discover your web pages.
- Indexing Search engines store all web pages that it knows about in its index.
- Ranking This is what search engines use to determine where a web page is placed in the search engine results page (SERP).
- SERP Search engine results pages are web pages presented to users when they search online using a search engine like Google.
SEO generates more traffic
As part of this SEO a starters guide 2023, it is essential to highlight the importance of SEO. Implementing a SEO strategy means that more people will visit your site. And organic traffic is the kind of traffic you want because it is free. This strategy allows your brand to constantly rank high in the SERP. SEO is more than a strategy. It is now a full time job for people. Companies are hiring people as a SEO, a role dedicated to researching trending keywords and placing them in content both copy and images.
What’s the role of Google and page ranking
As we know, Google is a search engine. When we type a query into Google, it’s task is to provide users with the most relevant information. Google’s algorithms that select pages that will appear on the SERP’s and rank the results according to their relevancy. Basically, the most popular ones rank first. Behind this process two factors are considered:
- Relevancy, once a search is conducted on Google for example, it will determine the search on a keyword or perhaps an image.
- Authority, depends heavily on the popularity of the page and if the readers trust the content on the page.
Because we the general population are not privé to these complex algorithms that’s up to the job of a SEO to try and see what factors influence the ranking of a page.
Content
How to create more content on your website? Blogging is a great way. Google appreciates content rich websites. Therefore, this is beneficial from the point of view of SEO. This may seem challenging for websites that are ecommerce orientated. But, when you think about it, the internet is the place where users go to when they need to solve a problem. ‘How To’ articles are generally a good way to go.
Keyword
Keyword research is undoubtedly very important. Using a keyword research tool like Semrush as mentioned above, is a great way of helping you to brainstorm topics that are interesting to read. Also, by doing this research you can also understand what your target audience is looking for. There are plenty of paid and free keyword research tools available on the market.
Images
As part of SEO: A starters guide 2023 we should mention the use of images. Have you ever left a page because it was too slow to load? I certainly think so. Let’s pretend you are planning a holiday, and you open a page to see the gallery of photos on a website. Now imagine how frustrated you become because the images won’t open or take forever to load. That website has consequently lost a potential customer. Images can be compressed for a faster loading speed on the page. Also, don’t forget to make images responsive on all devices!
Voice search and SEO starters guide
The age of AI has arrived. And we are all very excited but wary at the same time. However, in our SEO: A starters guide 2023 we feel it is interesting to get this topic talked about. As more people are moving towards conducting searches on voice-activated devices let’s see how SEO will adapt to this. Here is where things become interesting. Until now we have talked about text-based searches and now the focus is on voice-based searches. For marketers the challenge lies in the fact that both searches require different strategies when creating their content.
Optimizing voice-based content SEO starters guide
When users conduct a voice-based search via a device the content must be optimized for natural language. When we ask Alexa something, it is essential that Alexa can assist us because the content sounds natural when spoken out loud. The rise in voice searches means a lot of the SEO research will focus on optimizing strategies that will allow users to access the content.
We at Ekeria have SEO specialists that conduct daily searches for our clients to make sure that their websites are always optimizing and staying ahead of the competition.
Contact us for a free consultation and let our experts assess how your website ranks in terms of SEO.