Features Of SEO
In 2023, you may be beginning to wonder why SEO is important for business and why it’s still used today despite the continued momentum of social media and influencer marketing. In this 3-part blog series, we explore the features of SEO, the benefits and why you should be using SEO. This is part 1 where we’ll be covering the features of SEO!
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the process of optimising your webpages content for both search engines and users. This means you appear higher up in search results, so more people see your website, more people click through to your website and you’re able to provide your product/service to more users.
How does SEO work and what are the features of SEO?
SEO can be split into three main areas; On-page SEO, Off-page SEO and Technical SEO.
On-page SEO is mainly focused on the content on the webpage. The main things to focus on with this area of SEO are:
- Content – Produce high-quality content that is useful and provides value to the reader
- Keyword – Incorporating your keyword into your content (but not too much)
- Internal links – Linking to other relevant pages/content of yours
- URL – Make the URL of the page reflect the page topic itself
- Headings – Make sure all headers refelct their importance on the page (e.g the main topic of the page should be a H1 header)
- Meta titles + descriptions – Adjusting the meta title and description to accurately refelct the pages topic and content
On-page SEO is exactly what it sounds like, and it is absolutely cruicial to SEO. Technical SEO is another cruical element and it’s mainly about:
- Load speed – If your site doesn’t load within 3 seconds, users will leave and click on another link
- Page speed – How quickly does your page become responsive?
- User experience (UX) – Keep the user at the forefront of your mind; how would they experience your site?
- Site architecture + redirects – Make sure your site has redirects where necessary and ensure your webiste has a discernable structure
These may seem like small features but they do make a big difference in regards to bounce rate and general user experience, which is one of Google’s big ranking factors.
Off-page SEO is also exactly what it sounds like. This area of SEO encompasses all your SEO efforts that aren’t on your webpage/website. This includes:
- Backlinks – Other sites that link to yours, which tells search engines that your content is reliable and authoritative.
- Social Media – Promoting your website on social media through links on posts, stories, reels, etc.
- Reviews – Users who leave reviews essentially ‘vote’ that your site is trustworthy, which improves rankings in SERPs.
It’s important to understand that SEO all links together. For example, by doing what Google likes, such as optimising your valuable on-page content, you also improve user experience, which can influence users to leave positive reviews. Both of which improve rankings. Valuable on-page content not only pleases Google and other search engines but can also spark some backlinks if someone believes your content is trustworthy and valuable to their audience. All aspects of SEO work together like clockwork.
How do you review SEO?
Reviewing SEO is crucial. If you’re not evaluating your SEO a couple of months after making a change, you’re basically walking blindfolded in the woods (i.e you have no idea what effect your changes have, positive or negative).
To review your SEO efforts, you can use tools like Google Analytics to track impressions, clicks, bounce rate, etc. This tool provides multiple specificity options such as location, page, etc. Another great tool to consider is SERanking, which provides similar data to Google Analytics but also tracks your page rankings over time.
Regardless of the tool you use, it is imperative you track and review SEO once you make a change to your SEO.
Final thoughts:
Implementing SEO is a continuous and ongoing process, but the return on investment (ROI) is very much worth it if done correctly. The goal of SEO is to drive more targeted traffic to your website, and it’s only getting more competitive. So, if you want to succeed in the digital world, you need to learn how to do SEO and how it can go hand in hand with other marketing channels. Join us in part 2 for the benefits of SEO!