As the web keeps growing and technology advances, there’s no shortage for ways to innovate, expand, and implement techniques to make your website more “visible” online. SEO is one of those techniques. Arguably the foundation for getting your site traffic, any company that wants to succeed on the web should have some form of SEO implemented.
As always – I never liked all the initial fluff and stuff when I read blogs, so we’re going to get right into it.
Less time to read? Here's a brief overview:
- SEO simply put, is the way to get your website ranked high on any of the major search engines.
- Just about everything on your site affects SEO, and standards have been created to help even the "unlearned".
- Some of the main techniques in acquiring SEO include Keywords, internal & external linking, Alt-text for images, and laying down your words right.
1. What Really is S.E.O.?
I’m sure you’ve heard the term before, perhaps one day when your geek friend was boasting how they got their site onto the first page of Google…though before you laugh them off- there is what to show off about.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which includes the technologies and techniques involved in getting your site high-ranking in any search engine. (Be it Google, Yahoo!, Bing etc..). Companies are hired solely for the purpose of helping increase the rank of their clients site, in order to bring in more traffic.
Although SEO may not be the do-all end-all when it comes to marketing strategies, if you are one that is trying to get a hold of being on the first page of Google or Bing, this is the way to go. Obviously, we can’t go through everything in one short blog, but we’ll try to cover the basics to give you the ability to go back to your website and “SOUP IT UP”.
2. What Affects S.E.O.?
SEO covers just about everything on your website. When Google (for example) sends their crawlers out to inspect all the websites available, they want to display to users searching specific keywords the most relevant information possible. (This way, they stay at the top of the search engine giants, because they are being the most helpful to users).
Back to these crawlers- they’re going through every single website, and reading all the text. Then, they decide (according to each search engine’s algorithm) what is the “best & most readable” website. This includes imagery, headers, and text, keywords (we’ll get to later), links, social media, and so much more.
Once they decide who is best, they place it at the top- and then, once a user searches any releveant information to that specific website, it will get displayed at the top of the first page on Google.
3. Techniques to Increase your S.E.O.
Let’s go through some really important implementations to utilize for your site, and ones that aren’t work-intensive. In other words, SEO 101.
4. Some Helpful SEO Tools
Depending on the CMS you’re using, (or if you’re not using one at all) there can be some useful tools to help assist you on your path to a better SEO presence. Here are my personal favorites:
- WordPress
- If we’re talking WordPress, we have to start off with Yoast SEO. Yoast is the standard for WordPress users, and has an easy to learn, intuitive interface. With thousands of 5 star reviews, they are known to be the top. Note: They do try to upsell their premium version which comes with more features.
- Next up is RankMath. RankMath is for the more technical user, one who might want to spend more time comparing, contrasting, and really trying to fine-tune their SEO as best possible. One of their amazing features is that they created an AI to help you write out the best possible article.
- SEO Press prides itself on being completely ad free, and it is. They also are available to use for a 100% white label solution, if you are planning on using it on your clients sites, and don’t want them to know who’s behind the scenes.
Image of the SEO Press Plugin for WordPress
- Shopify
- Sadly, when it comes to Shopify in general, apps don’t tend to be free. That being said, SEO Booster is my favorite. With over 2300 five star reviews, I’m not alone. They have a free 7 day trial and
thereafter they will charge $29/month. - Tiny IMG is the best, if you’re looking to specifically fix up your images on Shopify. They actually offer a free plan which includes 50 free images a month, and they do all the heavy lifting for you.
- Smart SEO is another very solid option. They also offer a 7 day free trial, with their lowest plan coming in at $9.99/month. They offer a bunch of SEO tools, including fixing broken links, image alt-text, adding tags to your site , and more!
- Sadly, when it comes to Shopify in general, apps don’t tend to be free. That being said, SEO Booster is my favorite. With over 2300 five star reviews, I’m not alone. They have a free 7 day trial and
thereafter they will charge $29/month.- No CMS
No CMS? No worries! You still are able to enhance your SEO, though it might take more time, especially if you aren’t the developer. As a general rule, the
title tags are where search engine’s look for good keywords.
- They also search through thetags, something I haven’t even covered in this article. If you can find the meta at the top of the page of HTML, add keywords to help Google and other search engine’s identify what the page is about.
- Images you have uploaded you can add the alt-text directly into the tag like so: src=”random_image.jpg” alt=”Here you put in the alt text”>
In Conclusion
Depending on the kind of site you are looking to create or have created, utilizing SEO tactics can vary. Bare in mind that there is so much more to SEO that hasn’t been discussed in this article (meta tags, organizing your content correctly, creating sitemaps etc.) that this should just be taken as an “ice breaker”.
Know of any of your own unique SEO ideas? I’d love to hear! Feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll try to reply asap.