A quick, simple guide to how SEO works and what is involved in a professional campaign:
Google is always trying to serve the best possible search result for the searcher, it has many ways to determine what websites fit that description.
“SEO is the complex Science and the high Art of skillfully placing a Website at the top of Google Search results for a given Search term.”
SEO in Basic Terms
SEO is split into 2 main categories:
- On Site/On Page SEO
- Off Site SEO/Off Page SEO
Onsite is everything to do with the website itself.
Offsite is all work done outside of the website
On Site/On Page SEO
On-site is divided into Technical SEO and Content related tasks.
Technical SEO is the optimization of the Technical aspects of a website.
Content SEO is related to what is written/displayed on the website and how it is structured.
Some Important Basic Technical SEO Concepts:
• Identify crawl errors with a crawl report. Check and correct coding issues
• Check HTTPS status codes. Check & optimise Site’s robots.txt file
• Check XML sitemap status. Site Map creation
• Check Site load time. Site Speed testing and optimisation – Google likes fast sites
• Ensure your site is mobile-friendly.
• Audit for keyword cannibalization. More than one page competing for the same keywords
• Perform a Google site search.
• Check for duplicate metadata.
• Meta Tag and Title optimisation for keywords
• Check for broken links
• Set up Google Search Console
• Set Google Analytics and conversion tracking
Some Important Basic On-Page Content SEO Concepts:
• Creation of Content Strategy
• Contextual Linking – Links within the website
• Keyword Distribution – Needs to be at the perfect ratio
• Create engaging and relevant SEO optimized content for pages, articles and blog posts
• Check for duplicate Content
• Check existing content for originality – No plagiarism
Off Site/Off-Page SEO
Some Important Basic Off-Page SEO Activities
• Link Building
• Brand Mentions
• Commenting
• Forums
• Influencer Outreach
• Guest Authoring
• Social Networking
• Social Bookmarking
• Content Marketing
The importance of high-quality, high DA Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites, directories, blogs etc. to your site. It is one of the most important ranking factors for Google. If the domain that links back to your website has a high Domain Authority score (DA), some of that authority is passed on to you.
White Hat and Black Hat SEO
White Hat SEO is every optimisation technique that is approved by Google.
Black Hat SEO describes techniques that are not endorsed and can lead to a penalty.
Local SEO
This is SEO for a certain business location, usually up to a 50 km radius.
Local SEO optimizes Google My Business and is primarily for local searches.
That is a very basic, simplified overview of what Search Engine Optimisation looks like in 2021.
This is an example of the work a standard Alphera Media Group SEO Company Campaign includes.
- Setup ·
- Extensive Keyword research
- Agency Analytics Set Up (For rank tracking and reporting)
- Google Search Console Set Up and verification
- Google Analytics Set-Up
- Bing Webmaster Tools Set-Up
- Profile and listing creation for 30 NZ Business Directories
Initial Review and Analysis
- In-Depth manual and software-assisted Site Analysis
- Duplicate Content Check
- Competition Analysis
- Keyword Research and Analysis
- Baseline Ranking Check
- Keyword URL Mapping
- Broken Links Check
- Google Penalty Check
- Content Strategy
On-Page Optimisation
- Canonicalisation
- Header (H1) Tags Optimisation
- Internal Link Structuring & Optimisation
- Image and Hyperlink Optimisation
- Robots.Txt creation
- XML Sitemap Analysis
- Title & Meta Tags Optimisation
- Existing Web Content Optimisation
- Fresh Web Content Suggestions
- Schema Implementation for Contact Address
- GEO Targeting (via GWT & Code)
- Address add to website pages.
- KML Site map
- Desktop Speed Optimisation
- Google Analytics Conversion Set up
- Schema Implementation for Logo Reviews
- Location based Page Analysis
Local Search Optimisation
- Google My Business Setup & Verification
- Google Places – Photo / Multimedia
- Business Directory Listings / Local Citations
- Bing Local Listing Set Up
- Google Maps Optimisation
Monthly Content Marketing
- Article Writing
- Blog Writing
- PDF Creation
- Classified Writing
Monthly Off-Page Marketing ·
- Article Submission
- Blog Submission
- PDF / Doc Submissions
- Article Promotions
- Blog Promotions
- PDF Promotions
- Classified Submissions
- Blog Commenting
- Search Engine Submission
- Social Bookmarking
- Profile Listings
Monthly Reporting
- Search Engine Rank Report
- SEO Activity Reports
- Google Analytics Report
More helpful Information about SEO:
The Google Algorithm for ranking Websites has been known to change up to 9 times in a given day. This affects ranking results.
Google now considers over 200 SEO factors, (With over a 1000 different technicalities) for ranking websites. Good SEO is concerned with ticking the right boxes on most of these.
SEO is free advertising, once the all work is completed and the site is ranking on page 1 of google there is no cost for website visitors. Good SEO work can last for years, depending on how competitive the niche is.
The Google rankings can fluctuate very dynamically. This is due to a variety of factors. The higher the ranking, the less volatile the positions.
Rankings for new sites could fluctuate heavily for up to a year
Google says it’s normal to see search rankings for new sites fluctuate heavily within the first year. Factors are the competitions SEO efforts, Algorithm changes and changes made during SEO carried out on the site.