A 7 Step Guide To Basic SEO

November 23, 2022

By: Tiffany Hindman

What is SEO, and is it important for a site to perform well on the web?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a vital feature to any site new or old and is used to improve the quantity and quality of traffic to a site. Improving your site rankings is not always easy and is a continuous process throughout the life of your website. Below are some useful tips to help you rank higher on Google, there are still many intricacies not listed here but these are a few easy steps to get you started.

  1. Keywords
  2. People First Content
  3. Mobile First Indexing
  4. Removing Unhelpful Content And Broken Links
  5. SEO for Images
  6. Backlinks
  7. Avoid Intrusive Interstitials

1 – Keywords

Choosing the right keyword is just as important as where they show on the page. Your keywords should show in the following areas:

  • Toward the beginning of the title tag
  • In the URL
  • In the first 50-100 words in the content
  • Show 2 to 5 times in the rest of the content

Using single keywords will no longer get you ranked. According to the Google Hummingbird update you will also need to include synonyms of the original keyword in the content, this is to help the crawler understand your content better.

There are a few places you can look to help you find relevant keywords, the most obvious being Google Suggest. This is done by typing going to Google.com and typing in a word to find other suggested keywords.

 

Google search results page with "Keyword" as the search
Pro Tip: Google suggested search is not the only area where you can find keyword ideas, using YouTube or Bing in the same way can be helpful as well.

2 – People First Content

With Google’s latest algorithm update launched in August of 2022 there have been some new suggestions to create content for the user rather than the search engine. With this update there is a higher ranking awarded to sites whose users are satisfied and have had their needs met with the content provided. Google’s research has shown that when content is created specifically for search engine traffic there is a correlation with displeased users, and these searches tend to leave the sites quickly in search of content that can actually answer the questions they have. Avoid allowing Google to index search result pages – users do not want to go from one search result page and land on another. Creating landing pages to curate relevant content is the best way to actively engage users with your site and keep them on the pages longer.
Google search central page screen shot

3 – Mobile First Indexing

Historically Google would use the desktop versions of websites content to index. However most people are now using mobile devices to access Google Search therefore for new websites (or sites previously unknown to Google) Google will crawl and index pages with the smartphone agent first. There are a few guidelines Google recommends when creating a mobile first site:
  1. Ensure the content on the desktop and mobile site are the same – it is fine to move content around on mobile to make it more friendly to users, however the content should remain the same.
  2. Make sure your mobile and desktop content have the same structured data – it is recommended to start with product, breadcrumb and videoObject
  3. Ensure the Metadata (descriptive title and meta description) is the same for both versions of the site
If you are ever unsure if your site is up to Google’s world class mobile standards you can check to see if it passes the Google Mobile Friendly Test here.
Google mobile friendly test website screenshot

4 – Removing Unhelpful Content And Broken Links

Useless Content
Google has stated in the past that they would prefer one strong page to many smaller pages, therefore removing any pages that have been found to be unhelpful or with high bounce rates can help your rankings.
Broken links
One of the easiest ways to earn ranking points with Google is auditing your site for broken links. Correcting any broken links with redirects or just updating to the new URL is the best possible solution. You can check for any broken links using the following steps:
  1. Log into Google Analytics
  2. Expand the Behavior area on the left side then go to Site Content > All Pages 
  3. Check that you’re searching at least for the last month (this can be set to a longer time frame if this is the first broken link audit you have preformed)
  4. Scroll down below the graph and click page title then advanced
  5. Type 404 in the search box (this is the error message number associated with broke pages)
  6. You will be given a link with errors
  7. Clicking on that link will provide the links that result in the 404 Error
  8. Then you can go to your site and update them if you know where they are located or create 301 redirects to send these links to a valid page
Pro Tip: It is a good practice to create a 301 redirect when renaming any page – this ensures users will be directed to the correct page until the new page is indexed by Google or if the user has the page bookmarked.

5 – SEO For Images

Alt Text
There are several different ways images can be helpful with SEO. First and foremost is using alt text for images. Alt text is useful on sites in a couple different ways:
  • If the image does not load the description of the image will show
  • If a person is using a screen reader
It is important to note that the alt text of an image should be short but descriptive.
Choosing the Correct File Names for Images
Much like the alt text, image file names should be descriptive, it is not recommended to have a file name like this image1.jpg.
Image Sitemap
Just as the page sitemap is important for the crawler to be able to access and index different pages on the site, an image sitemap can be just as useful. This type of sitemap can provide Google with information about the images found on the site and will increase the likelihood that they will be found in the Google image results. This page structure will be similar to the XML sitemap of the webpages.
Other Image Tips
  • Avoid using CSS to display images that you want us to index.
  • Provide high quality images, these should not be too small for the area or have a low resolution

6 – Backlinks

Google’s algorithm is largely based on backlinks. Backlinks go by many different names such as incoming links or inbound links, but what are they exactly? The definition is simple, these are links that point directly to a page from another site. Backlinks will let Google know that your content is credible and useful. Therefore the more backlinks you have the higher your Google ranking will be.
Creating Quality Backlinks
When thinking of backlinks it’s important to focus on quality rather than quantity. These quality backlinks have the following characteristics:
  • They come from a trusted website
  • They include your target keyword
  • The site or page that your backlink is coming from is related to your keyword
  • The links come from different domains – not just the same site over and over
  • The link text occurs naturally in the text

7 – Avoid intrusive interstitials

What is an intrusive interstitial you may ask? To put it simply these are page elements that obstruct a user’s view on content. These can include pop ups for promotions or email sign ups. According to Google these types of experiences can frustrate users and cause them to lose trust in your website. Pro Tip: Google recommends using small banners. These are banners that would be added into certain areas of the content and would not block or cover any important information. All in all SEO can be time consuming and complex but not impossible. It is important to plan content carefully, take time to review your site’s existing pages and make your site as mobile/user friendly as possible. While all these steps may not rank you in the top spot for highly competitive keywords, they will get you a solid foundation to continue building on.

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