What Is SEO?

 

SEO is Search Engine Optimization. It’s shorthand for all the different things that people need to do to drag their pages up to the top of the results page of search engines like Google when internet users search for specific things. If we don’t do this work, people simply won’t click on it.

 

What should you do before doing SEO?

 

Before starting with SEO, we need to work out what the hell we’re trying to achieve in the first place. Each piece of content can serve a different purpose, and we need to get the goal down - Am I looking to drive more traffic to my blog or Youtube video? Who’s eyes do i want on it? What are the specificities of the content itself? What’s the format? As such, I should start by writing a project brief that outlines these objectives, and I can then move onto the SEO work itself. SImple!

 

What are Keywords?

 

Keywords are the words that people type into a search engine when they’re looking for something. Marketers can use keyword identification tools to identify relevant keywords for their goal and include them in their content. This increases the likelihood that the page will appear in search engine results, and that people will actually click into the page. 

 

What is Black Hat SEO & White Hat SEO?

 

If the internet is the wild west, then Black Hat SEO is one of the villains. It’s the Bad and the Ugly, and refers to when people try to trick Google in order to rank higher in search results. Examples of this lawless activity include keyword stuffing that makes content practically unreadable for humans, spamming blogs with backlinks, stealing articles wholesale and republishing them. This isn’t the way to win in the West and Google could well end up banning you. One more coffin please as Clint would say.

 

On the other hand, White Hat SEO is the possite. It’s the Good, it get’s the girl, saves the town, and wins over the skeptics. Examples of White Hat SEO include publishing high quality information that can make people spend more time on your website - something that Google will reward. Other examples include keywords actually written for humans, quality guest posting, and adding valuable comments elsewhere online with backlinks (but which aren’t spammy, obviously. That’s for the other guy!)

 

What is the difference between On Page & Off Page SEO?

 

On page SEO refers to the work that website owners have direct control over. It encompasses positive content habits such as writing content that goes deeper into a subject than content that is available elsewhere. It also covers thinking like creating an amazing user experience, improving keyword usage, and improving page load speed. This all means that internet users find what they want from your content, enjoy their website session, and just love life on your site.

 

Off page SEO happens away from the website and it’s largely outside of the website owner’s control. This encompasses things like backlink construction that builds your website into a respectable network of sites that Google will look on favourably, social media shoutouts (“hey all, I had a wonderful evening with a bottle of vino and #skillshare), and social media shares. These all make your website look worthy, and the Googlebot will reward you by ranking it higher on websites. 

 

What are the most common SEO Ranking Factors?

 

Number 1! Number !! That’s the goal when it comes to search engine rankings. Google is a fussy eater however, and favours a few things when it comes to deciding how to rank a website webpage. And according to this pancake loving marketeer, the top five ranking factors are quality content (informative, well written, metastasized), the volume of high quality backlinks, click through rate, dwell time (the last two feeding into Google’s Rankbrain), and mobile optimization. Simples!

 

What is the Google RankBrain?

 

Rankbrain sounds somewhat Brave New World. But it’s actually a program that scans the web for useful information. It runs in the background of Google and tries to find the most useful information for specific keywords. The two key factors are click through rate and dwell time. So obviously the SEO title and meta description are important influences on the click through rate, but RankBrain also considers dwell time - how long internet users spend on your website. It’s also important to consider voice search - it’s a big way that people search online now (and particularly on mobile). Keywords are also important here - use them often (but let’s be serious, no spamming - word everything for humans and not for Google).

 

What do we mean with Dwell Time?

 

Dwell time refers to how long people stick around on your website after visiting it from their Google search results. But it’s not just that - they have to be engaging. Interacting. Scrolling. Google likes action!