In 2019, pretty much everyone knows that SEO (search engine optimization) is crucial for marketing your business online. Still, many businesses have questions about the basics of SEO and, more importantly, how they can optimize their website to achieve their marketing goals.
So, our team at JXT Group has put together this primer – these are the ABCs of SEO. With this quick guide, you’ll learn all the fundamentals of how SEO works and how it can be made to work to promote your business.
What is SEO?
SEO is a set of practices — both technical and creative — that are used to improve your search engine ranking so that when someone searches for a particular term or keyword phrase, your website shows up at the top of the listing.
Because Google is hands down the top search engine, when people talk about searching online, they’re talking about searching on Google (Note: perhaps the next most important site for searches is YouTube, and YouTube is owned by and part of the Google suite. So, when you improve your SEO with Google it has impacts for YouTube, and vice versa)
With an improved ranking, your website gets increased visibility, a key component to drive traffic to your site and boost your sales and conversions.
SEO (search engine optimization) is distinct from SEM (search engine marketing) in that SEO is optimizing your website for ranking in Google’s organic listings while SEM is placing ads on Google for set keywords. While both practices aim to increase your website’s visibility in Google Search, SEM is a PPC (pay-per-click) advertising model in which you pay to get your website at the top of the listing, which comes with a clear marker denoting that it is an “Ad”. SEO, on the other hand, is about ways to optimize your website so that your website comes to the top organically – in other words, without your having to pay for additional advertising.
The question is: how do you optimize your website so that it functions well with Google’s algorithms? To answer: remember your ABCs!
A is for Architecture
The first step in search engine optimization is to make sure your website is built well and easy for Google to index.
Here are 4 key features your website must have in 2019 to rank high with Google:
- Mobile Friendliness – your site has to load easily and work well on both desktop and mobile devices. This means any complexity has to be removed from your mobile site so that visitors can interact with your site just as easily and intuitively on mobile as on a desktop. This can include seemingly subtle but important website design elements. For example, clickable elements have to have enough space around them, even on a small mobile device, so this often requires formatting changes. Google looks at your mobile site as the main version of your site.
- Speed – your site not only has to load easily, it has to load quickly on both mobile and desktop. Google will look at the mobile site as the main website to determine your speed metrics. Website speed is also very important for usability. Studies show that a 100-millisecond delay in load time can cause conversion rates to drop by 7%.
- Security – in 2019, your full website should be encrypted with SSL (secure sockets layer), the standard cyber technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. These are sites that start with https:// not http://.
- Code – the code throughout all your web pages should be clean and easy to read. You want to use unique title tags, meta descriptions, and H1 tags on all pages. In addition, any included images should contain alt text.
B is for Backlinks
In today’s day and age, SEO is all about quality. This includes the quality of your backlinks, which means that any site that links back to yours should be reputable and relevant. Just one great and relevant link is worth more than many spammy or irrelevant links!
Here’s how you can improve your backlinks:
- Utilize tools like Moz Link Explorer and Google Search Console
- Create compelling, sharable resources to generate new quality links
- Work with influencers on social media – especially those who have already proven themselves and rank high with Google
C is for Content
Not only do you want to focus on the quality of your backlinks, but you also need to pay attention to the quality of your content too.
Google wants to see website owners focusing on the end-user. Think about your ideal audience and the content they will find valuable. You want to provide fresh, authoritative, value-filled content. And, ideally, you should be updating your website continuously and adding new valuable content to keep visitors engaged.
One of the best ways to do this is with a blog.
A good blog can help SEO by keeping your website current and relevant. It will also help keep people on your site for longer, which is one of the key metrics Google pays attention to. Blogging also provides more opportunities for internal linking to pages on your own site. Plus, a good quality blog article gives other quality sites reason to link back to you!
When it comes to creating a successful blog for SEO, you want to make sure your content resonates with your readers. You want your posts to be engaging so they provide your audience with an opportunity to interact with your brand and your site. Generally speaking, longer articles are better (at minimum 500 words), though you also don’t want articles so long that readers take one look and immediately click away.
Ideally, your content will be easy to consume with a clear structure, headings, and short paragraphs – this way readers quickly grasp the value you’re offering!
Are all SEO services the same?
Now, you may be wondering: how do I choose an ideal service provider to manage my business’s SEO?
Here are 4 key considerations:
- Know your goals – Your first step ought to be to consider the business goals you want to achieve with SEO. Are you trying to get traffic from specific groups? Are you trying to find leads to sign-up for your email list? Are you trying to push up good reviews of your brand? Are you trying to boost revenue from new sales? It’s good to know from the outset how you will measure SEO success.
- Ask for referrals and/or do your research – once you know your goals, it’s a good idea to assemble a list of potential SEO service providers, so you can find out what they have to offer and look for a good fit. Good questions to ask include: What processes will you use to accomplish our business goals, and why? What internal resources do you have to support us? What is your reporting and communication process?
- Make sure you have good communication rapport – improving your SEO can involve trial and error as you and your SEO service provider work together to find out what works best for your particular brand and situation. Like any good relationship, it may not always be in a honeymoon phase, but to be effective over the long-term, you want to make sure you’re able to communicate well. This ensures that you can be proactive to problem-solve any issues that arise.
- Structuring the contract – ultimately, you want to make sure you get a contract structure in place that works for your business. It’s typical to pay an upfront cost followed by on-going monthly fees for a certain defined period of time, but some service providers can/will be more creative. Make sure you get a contract that works for you.
With a smart SEO strategy in place, your business can take full advantage of Google’s algorithms so that they work for you. Whatever your business goals in 2019, an effective online marketing strategy is something you can’t afford to be without!
This article was recently published in the May 2019 issue of Millennium Inc. Magazine.
