How SEO Works, Technical SEO, Site Structure, Crawling, Indexing, Page Speed & More
If you’re looking for a quick primer on how SEO works – and what steps to take to make your site search-engine friendly, then this is the article for you. Learn about all of the key elements that make up technical SEO, site structure, crawling, indexing, page speed, key ranking factors and content planning and production in order to rank your site higher on Google.
What is SEO?
SEO is the process of optimizing a website for Google search with the goal of earning higher web traffic levels and improving the visibility of the site.
There are many different factors that go into SEO, including technical aspects such as site structure and page speed, as well as more creative elements like content marketing and link building.
To really understand how SEO works, it’s important to have a basic understanding of how Google search works. When you type a query into Google, the search engine uses algorithms to scour the internet for webpages that are relevant to your query.
Relevancy is determined by a number of factors, including the quality and quantity of a site’s content, how often that content is updated, how many other websites link to it, and much more.
The goal of SEO is to improve the visibility of your website in Google search results so that you can earn more traffic from potential customers. There are many different ways to do this, but some of the most important methods include creating high-quality content, building links from other websites, and improving your site’s technical aspects such as speed and structure.
If you’re interested in learning more about SEO and how it can benefit your business, we encourage you to check out our blog for more articles on the topic.
Techniques for Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process of optimizing a website for Google’s search algorithm. It is a complex and ever-changing field, but there are a few key techniques that every technical SEO should master.
First, make sure your website is well-structured and easy for Google to crawl. This means using a clean and well-organized URL structure, using proper tag hierarchy, and providing an XML sitemap.
Second, optimize your website for speed. Google wants its users to have a fast and seamless experience, so it favors websites that load quickly. Make sure your website’s code is clean and minified, your images are optimized, and you are using caching and a content delivery network (CDN).
Third, create high-quality content that is relevant to your target keywords. This means doing keyword research to find the right keywords to target, and then creating informative and engaging content around those keywords. Your content should be shareable and linkworthy if you want to earn valuable backlinks from other websites.
Fourth, keep an eye on your website’s search engine rankings and track your progress over time. Use Google Search Console or another tool to monitor your website’s performance in the SERPs (search engine results pages). Look for any sudden drops in traffic or ranking position, which could indicate a problem with your site. Regularly auditing your website will help you identify technical SEO issues so you can fix them before they
Site Structure
Site Structure
The way your website is organized has a big impact on how easy it is for search engines to find and index your content. A well-organized website makes it easier for search engines to understand what your site is about, and can help them index your pages more effectively. Here are a few things to keep in mind when organizing your site:
– Use a simple, clear hierarchy for your website. Organize your pages into categories, and try to use no more than three levels of nesting.
– Use descriptive names for your pages and files. Avoid using generic names like ‘page1.html’ or ‘image2.jpg’.
– Use meaningful URLs. Search engines place more weight on keywords that appear in the URL of a page.
– Create a sitemap. A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the pages on your website, and can be used to help search engines index your content. You can learn more about creating a sitemap here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/156184?hl=en&ref_topic=8476
Crawling
SEO is the process of optimizing a website for Google search with the goal of earning higher web traffic levels and improving the visibility of the site.
One important part of SEO is website crawling. Crawling is how Google discovers new content on the web. When Google crawls a website, it follows links on pages to find new pages that have been published. Once it finds new pages, it adds them to its index and attempts to understand what they are about.
Google uses many different factors to determine which pages should rank higher in search results. Some of these factors include the quality of the website’s content, how well the website is designed, and how fast the website loads.
You can improve your website’s crawling and indexing by ensuring that your site has a well-structured hierarchy and by providing clear and concise internal linking. You can also improve your site speed by optimizing your images and using a good caching plugin.
Indexing
Google’s algorithms are constantly changing and evolving, so it’s important to keep up-to-date on the latest best practices. One area that is particularly important for SEO is indexing.
Indexing is the process that Google uses to crawl and discover new web pages. Once a page is discovered, it is then added to Google’s index. This process happens automatically, but there are ways to speed it up.
If you want your pages to be indexed quickly, make sure you follow these best practices:
1. Use a sitemap.xml file to help Google find your pages.
2. Submit your sitemap.xml file to Google using the Search Console tool.
3. Use robots.txt to control which pages Google can and cannot crawl.
4. Make sure your pages are well linked together so that Google can easily find them.
5. Avoid using nofollow tags on links, as this will prevent Google from following them.
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Page Speed
Web page speed is often conflated with ‘site speed,’ which is actually the speed of a site as experienced by users. Page speed is one of many factors that affect site speed. Web page speed is also a factor in search engine rankings.
Page Speed Insights (PSI) reports on the real-world performance of a page for mobile and desktop devices. PSI provides valuable insight into how different resources contribute to the load time of a given page. The report also includes suggestions on how to improve page load times.
The Google Search Console provides many tools to help you understand and improve your site’s performance in Google Search results, including the PageSpeed Insights tool.
Key Ranking Factors
To ensure your website is visible in search engine results pages (SERPs), there are a number of ranking factors that come into play. Technical SEO, site structure, crawling and indexing, and page speed are all important considerations when optimizing your website for better visibility.
Technical SEO refers to the behind-the-scenes aspects of your website that can impact its ranking potential. This includes things like your site’s code, Meta tags, sitemaps, and redirects. Ensuring your site is properly coded and using the correct Meta tags can help search engines better understand your content and index it accordingly. Creating an XML sitemap can also help search engines find and index all the pages on your site more easily.
Your site’s structure also plays a role in its ranking potential. A well-organized website with a clear hierarchy is easier for search engines to crawl and index. On the other hand, a website with a messy structure or broken links can be more difficult for search engines to navigate and may result in lower rankings.
Page speed is another important ranking factor to consider. Search engines want to provide their users with the best possible experience, so they prefer websites that load quickly. Optimizing your images, minifying your CSS and JavaScript files, and using a content delivery network (CDN) can all help improve your site’s page speed.
By considering these key ranking factors, you can make sure your website is optimised for better visibility in SERPs
Content Planning & Production
Assuming you already have a website or blog setup, the first step in improving your site from an SEO perspective is to take inventory of your existing content. This includes both the text and media (images, videos, etc.) on your site, as well as any off-site content like guest blogging or infographics that link back to your site. Once you have a good understanding of what content you have and where it’s located, you can start to assess what needs to be improved or added in order to make your site more visible and attractive to search engines.
When it comes to creating new content, it’s important to keep SEO in mind from the very beginning. This means planning out your content topics with keyword research and crafting headlines and meta descriptions that will help your content get found in search results. To further improve the SEO of your new content, be sure to include internal links to other relevant pages on your site and optimize your media files for fast loading times.
It’s also important to regularly update and improve existing content on your site. This could involve adding new images or videos, updating outdated information, or simply freshening up old blog posts with new keywords and phrases. By continually improving the quality of your content, you’ll not only keep visitors coming back for more, but also improve your chances of ranking higher in search results.
Keyword Research On-Page
Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the right keywords to target for your website. It’s a crucial part of any SEO strategy, as it allows you to understand what people are searching for and how difficult it will be to rank for those terms.
There are a few different ways to do keyword research, but the most important thing is to start with a seed list of keywords that are relevant to your business. Once you have that list, you can use a variety of tools to find more specific and long-tail keywords that you can target.
Once you have a good list of keywords, the next step is to start optimizing your website for those terms. That means using them in your titles, descriptions, and content in a way that is both natural and effective. It can take some time and experimentation to find the right balance, but it’s worth it if it means getting more traffic from organic search.
Keyword Research Off-Page
Off-page SEO is the process of optimizing a website for Google search with techniques that are not on the website itself. This includes link building, social media signals, and other factors.
Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to your website. This is done by creating high-quality content that other website owners will want to link to. The more links you have pointing to your site, the higher your site will rank in Google search.
Social media signals are another important factor in off-page SEO. When you share your content on social media, it shows Google that your content is popular and relevant. This can help your content rank higher in search results.
There are many other factors that contribute to off-page SEO, but these are some of the most important ones. If you want to improve your website’s ranking in Google search, make sure you focus on both on-page and off-page SEO.
Conclusion
SEO is a complex and ever-changing field, but the basics are relatively simple: it’s all about making your website more visible and accessible to search engines. By understanding the what, how, and why of SEO, you can start to implement changes on your own site that will improve your ranking and visibility.Technical SEO refers to the behind-the-scenes work that helps search engines find and index your site. This includes things like optimizing your site structure, improving page speed, and ensuring that your site is crawlable by search engine bots.
The better your technical SEO is, the easier it will be for search engines to find and index your content. And when they can easily find and index your content, that means more people will be able to see it in search results. So if you want more people to see your content, start by making sure it’s as easy as possible for search engines to find it.
Ready to Supercharge your website’s SEO?
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