What is SEO: A Complete Guide to Search Engine Optimization

If you’re not sure whether your website is mobile-friendly, you can test it with this tool from Google or go to Search Console and see if there are any issues in the Mobile Usability section. It means that most of the websites are crawled and indexed in their mobile version instead of the desktop version. Not only for the obvious reasons but also because the usage of HTTPS protocol has become a minor ranking signal in 2014. In other words, your website may perform worse in Google if you don’t use HTTPS.

• Rubright shares three best practices for link-building outreach — so you can earn links without paying for them.
• This can help you build a solid online presence and reach a broader audience.
• An industry leader in the marketing arena, the AMA provides countless membership benefits, training and certification, networking opportunities, and much more.
• Good content also has a greater chance of being shared on social media and attracting links.
• This module provides a foundational understanding of search engine optimization (SEO), covering key concepts and ranking factors.

Choose a High-Value Keyword

The focus is on delivering reliable, high-quality search results to users, which has guided Google’s content policies for years. For instance, concerns about mass-produced content a decade ago led Google to refine its systems to better reward quality content, rather than imposing bans based on the method of creation. Understanding the nuances of search penalties is important for maintaining and improving your website’s visibility. Penalties can significantly impact your site’s search engine rankings, either through automatic algorithmic actions or manual reviews by the search engine’s team. Here’s a beginner-friendly overview of algorithmic and manual search penalties, their differences, common issues that trigger them, and solutions for recovery. It’s also important to note that manual penalties are communicated through Google Search Console, an essential tool for website owners.

Once you’re on the Services page, you can click on any of the specific services. In the example below, the main menu has links to three pages; About, Blog, and Services. Google Search Console will give you a basic overview of your website’s performance and alert you if there are any major issues. As long as your website is easy to use and functions properly, you probably don’t need to worry too much about technical SEO. To earn more social shares, you can involve other influencers in the content creation process. Then, when the content is published, they’re much more likely to share it when it goes live.

Grow your online visibility.

The majority of search engines offer advice on how to raise your page rating, but the precise algorithms are closely guarded and often updated to prevent abuse. This is an important metric to track because the higher you rank, the more traffic you can get from search engines. Keyword rankings refer to where your website ranks on a SERP for specific keywords. Organic search traffic refers to how many visits your site gets from organic (unpaid) search engine results.

Title tag and meta description are HTML elements that represent the title and description of the page. SEO Anomaly They are displayed in the search results or when the page is shared on social media. A sitemap is a structured list of all pages on a website available to be crawled by search engines. Having one is yet another way to let crawlers find all your pages.

Algorithm Updates and SEO Changes

External links are not the only thing that matters for SEO, internal links (the links within one’s own website) play a large role in SEO as well. Creating an XML sitemap can also be a good way for larger pages to help search engines discover and crawl all of the site’s pages. Many keyword research tools like Semrush and Backlinko display search intent of keywords. Making it easier to understand what users are likely looking for.

Technical SEO is the process of optimizing your website’s technical performance. And makes it easier for search engines to discover, understand, and store your content. Schema markup, also known as structured data, is a powerful SEO tool that helps search engines understand the content of your website more effectively. By adding schema markup to your website’s HTML, you provide search engines with explicit clues about what your data means.