What is SEO?
The acronym “SEO” stands for search engine optimization and it is about improving the ranking of non-paid (organic) sections of the search results.
To understand the SEO one must know what a search engine is and does it work.
A search engine is an algorithm working which brings you the best results that it considers the “best”.
Premium and free SEO tools are used to optimize the content and website for search engines. There are hundreds of tools that can be used for this purpose by combining them together for a better seo results. For instance, paraphrasing tool and plagiarism checker can be used for content writing. Keywords finder and readability checker can be used to avoid keyword stuffing.
Now how does a search engine find you the best answer to your query is the question?
To discover the correct answer, search engines have to categorize the billions of websites that make up the internet. They breakdown the masses of information and data and try to make the decision about how well the answer fits your query.
It finds answers based on relevancy to your question, site speed, quality of the content and metadata. Although Google has not made the inner working of the algorithm public but we have the rough idea that websites are ranked on the basis of the following steps:
- Relevancy
Let’s say you are looking for the recipe for vanilla cake. Google will look for the websites which include these keywords.
- Usefulness
Content should be useful for it to be placed at the top. Search engines would not position the website at top of the results if it’s not useful.
- Authenticity
Google search engine has the authority to select a website. The quality of the website is determined by a number of means. For example, it will look for the number of links and pages that are associated with it. To put it in simpler words, if your website is linked to a normal blog and our website is linked to BBC.com, the chances of appearing my site on the top will be higher.
There are additional components which determine the rank of a website
- Uniqueness of the content
- The loading speed of your site
- Number of people who engage with the website
Conclusively, it will be very beneficial for the bloggers to understand the algorithm as it helps to produce the content that ranks better in each platform. There are numerous factors that have proven to improve the search engine ranking for bloggers.
The following are the 10 steps that you can follow to enhance the ranking of your blog.
- Upgrade the quality
The ultimate SEO trick is to enhance the quality of content within the range of relevancy. There is no shortcut for creating quality content. If you want to rank higher in Google, just try to create the page that is best on the internet on that particular topic.
- Aesthetics of the website
Graphics play a huge role in search engine rankings. Let’s say people land on your site, they take a look around and just don’t like what the website looks like. He probably won’t spend another two seconds on the website. This is the reason you need to design the site in a way that attracts the user. For that, try to add details, videos, and links, etc. Do not only rely on tags and keywords.
- Featured snippets
Featured snippets are one way to get the most out of your blog content. These are shown first in the search results along with image, video or a table. Optimizing the content with featured snippets will help you to drive the more traffic on the blog.
- Improve the speed of site
One way to stand out among your competitors is to enhance the speed of your site and make it user friendly. There is no other way around it. If the site is not mobile optimized, it will hinder the experience of the user and will adversely affect the website. It is believed to be the most important factor in reducing the bounce off time.
- Optimize URLs
URL is an unusual fingerprint which holds a special location of the website on the internet. A URL should be completely readable and there should be no underscore and capital letters in the URLs. Do not use special characters in the URLs. It makes them look suspicious. Include the exact keywords and phrases in the URL whenever possible. It helps in increasing the ranking as well as in authentication of content for Google.
- Select the formats that have the best chance of driving traffic
There are certain blog formats that get more social shares and links. Blog posts that take a side on strong issues and those which have an in-depth analysis are more likely to get a higher ranking in search engines.
- Keep the number of links in page minimum
While it is recommended to bloggers that links should be added on a page, but Google suggests the number should be under 100. This is not for the search purposes in fact it advised based user experience purposes.
- A great title
It can be claimed that the title is the most effective piece of tool in a blog. If your title is not effective and appealing, there would be no clicks on the site. Even if they do click, very soon they will bounce off the website. The user should be intrigued to click on the website. To gain the attention of the reader, try to include the words like “how to”, “secret”, “mistakes” and “list”. For example,
- How to create your own home garden?
- Common mistakes while designing your living room.
- 20 inspirational ideas to design your kitchen.
- Add links to your blog post
Mentioning other blogs with links is a useful trick to increase the ranking of your site. It is a noble practice in fact you may get a chance of getting a link back. Quality links are not only a valuable commodity but really helps in ranking the site higher.
- Use of social media
You might already have a hunch about this but yes, social websites can also be utilized for other useful purposes instead of just endless scrolling. Why not promote your own blog through your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
Conclusion
Blog posts are time-consuming. So, if you are blogging make sure that it continues to drive organic traffic and it should rank higher in search engines.