When advertising cost spikes higher and higher through the time, many companies have switched their focus to more cost-efficient strategy, especially Search Engine Optimization. Besides, the root doesn’t lie in cost only, customer behavior also proves for the necessity of SEO. Even though social sites are growing rapidly, searching has always been a constant behavior of Internet users. According to a survey from Pew Internet, 92% Internet users have searching behavior, 59% of them search on a regular basis.
The spectrum of SEO is really complex with different levels accompanied with technical knowledge & Google algorithm as well. However, in this article, you will find basic & easy-to-follow guideline to optimize your website for search engine index.
Let’s get started with how to build SEO Strategy. In SEO area, it is divided into 4 main pillars: On-page Optimization, Off-page Optimization, Optimization for Index and User Behavior. Before jumping into specific areas, there are some notice points you must be aware.
(1) Keyword
Keyword must be researched to focus building content & backlink with it.
(2) Web host
Website hosting also makes a great impact on SEO ranking due to the performance of speed & uptime. Google announced its 2010 algorithm, where page loading is confirmed to be a SEO-influential factor.
So after you have some strategic keyword and a strong solid website hosting base, let’s go through 4 main pillars of SEO strategy.
1. On-page
On-page optimization not only involves techniques around keywords and content as old-school method, but also technical structure of the site to make it accessible by search engines. On-page optimization is friendly with search engine and your reader as well. It is better for them to skim through and enhance the readability. Hereafter are popular techniques which can make a great contribution to your ranking.
Title Tag
Title tag is the first factor Google investigate to index your website. It should be descriptive about your business but in a short form. A good title tag helps both Google & reader identify your business. It should include your website or business name together with defined keywords. Make it different from your competitor.
Meta Tag
The 2nd important factor of onpage optimization is meta tag. It is a small piece of text describing your business (it is longer and contains more details than title tag). To write it, you can look back the title and ask yourself: How can you explain it more clearly. The answer will be a hint for you to have a good meta tag, which supports the title and make readers get better understanding about your business.
HTML Tag
It is related to very basic HTML tactics to highlight your content so that your keyword can be easily identified and indexed. There are some common header tags, such as /H1/, /H2/, /H3/, /Strong/,… They are in the order of prioritized content.
Anchor Text
Building links among your sites is a good way to keep readers on site longer and beneficial for Google index. You should use specific keywords for the anchor text instead of generic one. For example: VPSTrust Hosting is better than Visit our website.
Image Optimization
Google cannot index image without your image name & alt-tag to describe the topic of image. Image optimization here also means the resolution and size optimization. A heavy file slows down the loading speed. In case you want to place a hyperlink under your image, use your keyword or image name.
2. Off-page
It requires jobs out of your website, building links in other pages to increase brand credibility and drive traffic back to your website. It can be the traffic from social media, newspapers and other review websites. Hereafter are some suggestions for you to build off-page backlinks.
- Pay for PR articles in some magazines or newspapers with the link back to your site.
- Guest blog in other websites with useful branded content.
- Partnership to exchange backlinks.
- Make a deal with affiliate with content focusing on your keywords.
- Approach review sites to introduce your product & ask for review articles.
- Refer website on social channels
- Video maximization with link back to website
3. Index
This includes some technical tasks to guide Google further about your website content. A well-structured sitemap, robots.txt file, website hosting, 404’s page redirected, etc. are some tactics you can refer.
4. User experience
Last but not least, user experience seems to receive low attention but it is the most and long-term strategy. A friendly user-experience will keep them stay longer on your site, view more pages and also come back by enter your brand name in search engines. It is the key to rank well besides some small above tactics.