All you want to know about SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search Engine Optimization : Tips & Tehniques

SEO always has been a misery for all the webmaster, as it  is complicated to define the right techniques for right way of doing SEO. Every Single SEO experts have their own way of defining SEO techniques.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization (Organic and Natural results ) is an online marketing technique to get higher search engine visibility in different search engines. 

Search Engine Optimization

Why an Industry requires SEO for their online business?

Their are many statistics, figures and articles available online who defines the importance of SEO for any online business. This is an important aspect of marketing to reach out the targeted audience present online who are looking for your business services and products.

Important facts why SEO for my website :

• Almost 85% to 90% users click on organic results 
• Conversion rate for a user is more through higher search engine visibility in organic results
• Users trust organic results more than paid results
• SEO results stays for longer terms in comparison to paid results
• Credibility is always higher for organic results 

Why SEO

After knowing the importance of SEO, it is required to understand how to do SEO in correct manner.

Types of SEO :

SEO is broadly divided in two main category 

• On-Page SEO
• Off-Page SEO       
  

But here we will understand SEO in four different ways

• Technical SEO
• Architectural SEO
• On-Page SEO
• Off-Page SEO

 Technical SEO : 

There are many technical factors which are considered to be very important from SEO point of view. A webmaster should always take care of :

1. Website/Webpage load time 
2. Redirection 
3. HTML and CSS errors
4. Coding Issues 
5. Error Page

1. Website/Webpage load time : Website or webpage load time plays important role in SEO. Search engines do consider how quickly webpages load for users on different internet speeds.

Check your webpage speed

2. Redirection : There are two different redirection 301 redirection and 302 redirection. 301 redirection is permanent redirection which is used when a page has to be moved permanently to another page. 302 redirection is temporary redirection used to move one page to another in temporary way.

Proper redirection are very important as this way websites does not loose their targeted audience.

3. HTML & CSS Errors: Search engines do look for a bug free and error free coded website. Check your website errors @ W3C Validation 

4. Coding Issues: There should be no error in code. Errors can be like broken links, missing links or too much use of scripts, external functions calling or any other sort of other coding errors.

5. Error Page (404): Webmaster should always create a 404 error page for their website, so that if users look for a non existing page they should visit that page. This way webmasters can ensure of not losing their targeted audience.

Architectural SEO:

There are few below points for architectural SEO:

1. Web folder structure & naming

2. Proper navigation 

3. Use of breadcrumb

 1. Web folder structure and naming : Webmasters should ensure that they should have a properly named folder structure and all the pages should be stored under respective web folders. i.e there should be a proper hierarchy defined for webpages which helps users and search engines in understanding of website.

 2. Proper Navigation : There should be a proper navigational structure present on website, which should be easy to understand and helps users to navigate through the site. There should not any issue where users are not able to find a way to reach a particular page on the site.

3. Use of Breadcrumb: Search engines have started giving preference to breadcrumbs. Breadcrumb is a kind of navigation panel for users and search engines, which shows the users journey on the website.

On-Page SEO: 

On-Page SEO consists of many important factors 

1. Domain Name
2. URL Structure & Naming
3. Meta Tags - Title, Description & Keywords
4. Web Content
5. Image Tags
6. Heading Tags
7. Title Attribute
8. Sitemap.html & sitemap.xml file
9. robots.txt file

1. Domain Name : While thinking of a website development, first think which should come in mind for webmaster is the right selection of domain name. if domain name includes targeted business or industry main keyword, it is always said to be good from SEO point of view.

2. URL Structure and Naming : URL naming part we have already covered by doing a proper web folder structure.

Previously search engines were not able to read special characters like @, & ? + = in a dynamic URL, due to which redirection were required to change a dynamic URL into a static URL.

 For example in above image we can see that a dynamic URL got ranking in search results.

3. Mata tags : Titla, Description are very much important for each page, as it clearly defines what each page is talking about. We need to define them effectively so that a proper message can be transferred to users and search engine crawlers  that what they will get when they come to particular page.

Meta keywords used to play an important role in search engine rankings, but Google has stopped giving priority to that. If a webmaster is targeting Google, then he does not have to worry about meta keywords. But it is not harmful to use meta keywords as there are other search engines as well, who do consider keywords as part of their ranking algorithm.

4. Web Content: Content is king online. 

Every search engine looks for fresh, quality and user engaging content. So if you have a very good and quality content written on your website keeping user engagement and interest in mind, you should not be much worry about getting higher search engine visibility.

5. Image Tags : Image tags or Alt tags are attributes assigned with each image present on a webpage. Webmasters should always name all the images properly present on their website and they should try and keep image small in size so that webpage does not become to heavy.

6. Heading Tags: There are six different heading tags present from H1, H2, H3 to H6.

7. Title Attribute : These attributes are basically assigned with links present on webpages. Title attribute helps search engines to know what that link is going to talk about.

8. Sitemap.html and Sitemap.xml file : Both the sitemap are made to make search engines and users journey easy on website.

Sitemap.html file is one stop for users where they can see all the web URL's present on that site. This file also helps from internal link point of view and search engines can easily navigate through the site.

Sitemap.xml file is especially created for search engine crawlers. With this file crawlers come to know about all the links present on website and also the frequency at which they have to revisit the page.

9. Robots.txt : Robots.txt file is created for search engine crawlers to define what all pages they are allowed to crawl or not.

Off-Page SEO: 

With Google algorithm updates like Penguin and Panda, off page activities or link building activities have become very complicated.

Main idea for link building is now to focus on quality and relevancy not on quantity. 

Also user generated content or to be particular social media participation has started playing a big role in search engine rankings.

Best Off-Page techniques :

1. Social networking platforms sharing 
2. Content distribution or syndication on high quality Article Sites, Blogs
3. Social Bookmarking
4. Forum Participation
5. Asset Optimization - Document Sharing, PDF Sharing, PPT Sharing, Press Release, Videos etc
6. Guest Blogging
7. Classifieds
8. Directory Submission - Now a days not much priority is given to these sites

Off-page or link building activities differs as per the industries as it completely depends where exactly your audience is present.