SEO

The art of SEO is rapidly changing all the time. It depends on many factors, mostly from Google. If Google makes changes in its policy, about what will affect website ranking and authority, many of our SEO strategies will be obsolete.

Google also works on improving its algorithms and crawlers. So, they can be smarter in detecting any SEO scams.

Rules for good SEO optimization

1. Content Quality

Content quality plays a bigger role every year. As I mentioned, Google crawlers are becoming smarter and more sophisticated. So, you have to create content that is thoughtful, detailed, intelligent and possibly above anyone in the industry. You should create content having your readers in mind and not SEO.

These are some basic content SEO rules that you need to satisfy:

1. Pages have to be created with your readers and the customer experience in mind.

2. Do not make false claims or content in general.

3. Think about what makes your website unique, interesting and different from other websites from the same geographical area.

4. Your website has to tell your company’s story with a unique voice.

5. Try to avoid any suspicious services and programs that offer SEO content optimization help.

2. What type of content does Google appreciate?

Google loves deep and meaningful content. A quality article from 500 to 1500 words. So, do not purposely try to drag out your text or put as many keywords as possible. Your article has to have a substance.

What this means is that you should write recommendations, advice, make your own analysis, thought-provoking pieces and create relevant topics.

Keywords are still important and relevant as ever before. Still, making sure that your content is natural and pleasing to your readers is more important for SEO. Because this is what Google algorithms are searching for today. So, you can’t overcrowd your text with keywords or force certain topics in any way. You can be sure that Google is classifying your article in the right category and it will show it in an appropriate search result.

Promote your content through online ads, newsletters, and social media. It will not attract people by itself, no matter how good it is!

3. Optimize your webpages for appropriate keywords

Do not focus on your main keyword, instead, try to think about what keywords people could Google search, that is connected to your content. So, it’s all about knowing as many keywords and synonyms for your main keywords as possible. This is a golden rule for content marketing.

The most important tool for Google rankings is called – SERP. Under those new rules, the top place in Google rankings is #0. This is a featured snippet that will be shown above the top search pages.

A featured snippet allows people to learn a lot more about the website and its content without leaving the Google search page. Therefore, SERP is being used as a bait for people to click on that website. Google wants to produce the most relevant search results possible. So, it’s in Google’s interest that people click on the most relevant and quality page possible.

Basically, SERP is ‘’El Dorado’’ for every business website owner. 

4. How to have a chance to touch this SEO perfection?

Go straight to the point – do not write long, main topic unrelated intro. Give people relevant information and talk about what interests them throughout all the articles. Do what I did in this blog. 

Research Keywords – make sure that your copywriter or SEO expert creates a keyword plan and conducts research about the topic. Therefore, you can write about keywords that are relevant to your topic but are not covered by your competition.

Make list articles – Google loves any type of list and numbering. It makes article analysis much easier. People love it too. They can scroll the article with ease and read what is most interesting to them.

Frequently asked questions – incredibly effective with a clear goal of answering questions. Google likes it as well because it is easy to judge the quality of that article. Also, it’s your opportunity to answer any questions about the product that is potentially tricky with a well-thought-out answer.

Links – Links are great for Google crawler’s easy indexing and a better understanding of the relevancy of your content. Google actually states that links and backlinks are the most important factors for ranking websites # 1 i # 2.

The creation of a quality backlink network should be key to your SEO strategy in 2020.

5. There are a few types of links you should be focused on!

1. Editorial Links present quality backlinks that you get if you have great content.
It is so important that you don’t ask others for links. Instead they are linking your content willingly. This means that you have a quality content that other people in the industry value. For Google its the most important type of feedback about your content quality.

2. PBN – Private Blog Network – This is part of the so-called Grey Hat SEO. It’s not illegal per se but you are playing with fire. Why is that? Well, the idea is to create a network of websites that you will take over and fill with quality content. The Internet is full of people willing to sell you expiring or developed domains. Along with a domain you are automatically absorbing their website rank as well and therefore boosting your own Google rank and authority. Keep in mind that Google constantly searches for illegal PBNs. Even worse your competitors are looking at your backlinks as well. So, you must be really careful when using PBNs. It’s also a very expensive SEO strategy.

RankBrain – This is Google’s machine-learning artificial intelligence system that tries to implement an interpretation model for a better understanding of content.

In simple terms, it’s an algorithm that should help Google to have a better understanding of the context within your text. RankBrain uses a system of synonyms for keywords in your article, to better understand the content and its meaning.

Google is talking about RankBrain since 2015. At the end of 2019, we still don’t know much about it. Sadly there is not much that we can do to trick or abuse this system in any way.

In fact, RankBrain conforms what I was telling you about the quality of content. With this sophisticated algorithm, keywords have become much less significant for SEO.

Is there anything else that would be useful to know about SEO?
Well… yes but you probably know that already. For a better page rank, take care about the text that you are writing in meta tags and headline. Also, take care about image optimization and description, mobile version of your website and its performance.

All of them are helping Google to understand what your website and content are all about. A smooth functioning, a well-optimized website is a key for achieving a good Page Rank.

Back in the days, the Google search algorithm was very different – stuffing your content with keywords was pretty enough to rank high. 

Today, Google pays attention to very different things on your page. The focus has shifted to content quality, relevance, and user engagement, and all sorts of off-page factors also play a huge role.

Google’s search algorithm evolves rapidly as well, and tips and guides that are even a few months old become outdated in a blink of an eye. Not only that, the algorithm is so complex that no one – even experienced SEO fellows – can tell you what really is going on under the hood.

Still, on-page SEO shouldn’t be ignored since it is the basis of search optimization.

With that being said, below is a list of things that you should do to help Google understand what your page is about and keep users engaged.

1. Optimize for search intent

If someone’s looking for something like “buy a tennis racquet”, then they are probably looking for webpages like Amazon to buy racquets from. They are ready to make a purchase, and they want to be able to quickly find a place where they could do so.

What this means is that if you want to optimize your page for “buy a tennis racquet”, then you need to deliver what the user expects.

Thankfully, you don’t have to guess what Google will rank for a certain keyword and what people want to see. Just type the desired keyword into the search field and have a look at the top results.

These are the pages that Google thinks are worthy enough for the reader. Your content should be similar to those. Google, among other things, uses all sorts of engagement metrics to rank webpages, so the pages you see at the top have probably performed well with users.

If your page isn’t what people want to see, then they won’t stay long, and Google will get a signal that your page isn’t relevant for that keyword. And no matter how many times you’ve used the keyword or how well-placed it is in your H2 headings, your page will probably rank low if people don’t like it.

2. Keep your content simple

This one is also related to dwell time and user engagement.

The average reading literacy of Americans appears to be at a level of a 7th or 8th grader. What does this mean for you as a content creator?

You need to create simple content that isn’t filled with complex sentences and technical terms. 

Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. A wall of text won’t look too good for the average reader, and most will probably get confused and leave your page if they don’t understand your language.

Be informal and write like as would talk. Make sure that your content is understandable by someone who has no knowledge in your field. Bring up examples or analogies to make your writing easy to digest.

And perhaps most importantly, place images when relevant to water the text down a little. Besides, use headings (again where relevant) to make the text more organized and help people jump right to the part they are looking for.

3. Be very strategic with your keyword placement

These aren’t the times when keyword-stuffing could help you rank high. Nor will things 100% work well if you “sprinkle LSI keywords” or use keyword-rich headings.

Today, Google doesn’t really need those to understand what your page is about.

If you have a website with some content, visit the Google Search Console and have a look at what kind of keywords your content has shown up for. Most of them will be phrases that haven’t been even used in your content!

Google’s algorithm can “understand” what your page is about and rank it for keywords that are semantically close to the content of your post. This means that you don’t have to use the exact target keyword – you can change it a little, and Google may still catch it!

Also, if you are a good writer, you’ll add plenty of LSI and synonym keywords naturally. And well-written content will likely make it easier for Google to understand your post.

4. Pay attention to page loading speed

Page loading speed is also a ranking factor, especially on mobile. Google’s mobile-first approach means that mobile SEO is more important than ever.

Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to see how well your page is doing. Pay attention to mobile speed and try to optimize it by using lighter images and minimizing useless HTML code. 

Don’t get obsessive with page speed though. Once you’re good enough, extra milliseconds here and there probably won’t make much difference.

5. Use image alt tags

If your post has images (which it should), make sure to add descriptive alt tags to them. Include your target keyword where relevant, but don’t obsess over it.

Alt tags will help your images rank on Google Images, which may bring some sizable traffic. Besides, if your images fail to load, the alt text will show up instead, which may be useful for people using a screen reader (which means increased engagement rate).

6. Use short & descriptive URLs

Instead of an URL like https://yoursite.com/22313.php, use https://yoursite.com/proper-seo-guide. 

This will make people more likely to click on the link since they’ll know what to expect. Not only that, but you can add your target keyword to such an URL, which may give your rankings a little boost.

7. Add internal links to every post

First of all, internal links allow Google to index and better understand the pages on your site.

Secondly, with internal linking, you can send page authority (PageRank) from stronger to weaker pages.

And finally, internal links can help you guide users to the pieces of content you want them to see.

Only add internal links where relevant. You may also use keywords in the anchor text if they look natural. And yeah, 2-3 internal links a post should be good enough.

8. Link out to others

Finally, link out to other websites as well. Preferably, link out to authority sites since linking out to bad sites could worsen your rankings.

Linking out to related pages can help Google figure out what your page is about. Not only that, but readers will see that you aren’t making claims out of the blue and that you can be trusted as a source of information.