As a web author or creator, getting your website and content to rank consistently at the top end of Google, Bing, and other search engines can be tough to figure out.
Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing your online resource or website configuration to make it discoverable through user queries.
However, there are different types of SEO and it can be tricky to determine how much time to spend on each one of them.
On that note, let’s take a look at four different types of SEO that would give you the highest reward for your time;
On-Page SEO
on-page SEO is an optimization strategy that involves modifying your page’s content to improve visibility and increase traffic. For this type of SEO, content like your title tags, images, and internal links is crucial.
The purpose of on-page SEO is to help the user and search engine understand what the page is about, identify the page’s relevance to the query, and justify the page’s ranking in the search engine’s results.
Google, the most popular search engine in the world, states that the most fundamental marker of a web page’s relevance ranking is its content.
A page must contain specific keywords that would match the user’s query. In fact, a 2020 analysis of 11 million Google search results found that top ranking pages contained in their title tag the specific keyword used in the query.
On-page SEO also maximizes user experience for better bounce rates and longer dwelling times.
A clunky site that loads slowly would frustrate and drive away visitors. To improve ranking through a better user experience, you should focus on reducing redirects, optimizing images, and utilizing browser caches.
This type of SEO demands a considerable but not the most significant chunk of your time, depending on the project’s magnitude, and this could be anywhere between two and ten hours.
You should constantly review your page to ensure expertise, trustworthiness, and authoritativeness, all critical elements of the search engine ranking.
You should also periodically review content that may be susceptible to change to ensure they are still valid at the time.
Local SEO
As the name implies, local SEO helps your page become more visible in local search results.
According to Google, 46% of its searches have local intent, which means that any business or venture with a physical location in a particular geographical area can benefit from it. You can run SEO audits for local businesses to improve your ranking.
Local SEO has created unique ranking signals such as query location, NAP citations, Google My Business profile, and listings. With these signals, when a person queries the Google search engine, it would provide the best results as applicable.
To reach the end goal of full local SEO, you must rank on The Map Pack. The Map Pack is a set of three local business results that have their locations from Google Maps.
The goal of local SEO would be to boost your rank into the top three of the Map Pack rankings by building NAP citations and optimizing the Google My Business profile.
Aside from taking the time to build a My Business profile, local SEO relies on marketing and reviews, so building a reliable brand is essential because bad reviews negatively affect your rankings.
Off-Page SEO
In direct contrast to on-page SEO, off-page or off-site SEO refer to actions taken outside one’s web page to improve search engine ranking.
These actions could include creating backlinks, improving social media engagements, or promoting branded content.
While the complete ranking algorithm of search engines like Google is unknown and constantly changing, the SEO community believes that off-page SEO is a hugely significant peg.
It is substantial because it signifies the essential markers of relevance, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness to the search engine’s algorithm.
The essential element of off-site SEO is backlinks. Backlinks are links or websites other than yours that lead back to your site. They indicate quality, and high-value ones will earn a higher ranking because the algorithm would process your site as trustworthy.
There are three main types of backlinks based on how you earn them. Natural backlinks exist without any action from the page owner.
Manual links generally result from marketing, such as asking customers to add them to their pages and share your content.
Self-created links are commonly overused and are frowned upon by search engines. It is the deliberate addition of backlinks to blogs, forums, or other inorganic content.
The success of off-page SEO depends on the linking site’s popularity, the relevance of the content on the linking site to yours, and of course, the linking site’s trustworthiness.
A study on search engine ranking factors shows that off-site SEO-related factors carry more than 50% of the ranking factor weight, and as such, you should spend the corresponding amount of time on it.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO deals with organic rankings. It is the process of ensuring that your website meets the technical prerequisites of search engines.
Even with great content and good website architecture, your site would not increase in ranking if the technical elements like the search engine’s ability to find, crawl, render, and index pages, are off.
Search engines prioritize mobile-friendly responsive websites with certain technical features like load speed, an SSL, and an XML sitemap.
A mobile-friendly responsive website automatically adjusts to devices to allow easy navigation. To Google especially, having a responsive site is significant to its ranking algorithm.
SSL stands for Security Sockets Layer, a technology that encrypts the server’s and browser’s links.
An encrypted connection would begin with ‘HTTPS’ rather than ‘HTTP.’ Search engines would prioritize sites with secured links, so you should install an SSL certificate on your website if not installed by default.
An XML sitemap is a markup language file that aids the search engine’s crawl by outlining where each page is on the site. It would also provide information like when you modified the page and the frequency of updates. Some website builders would automatically include the XML, but others would need an XML generator.
Duplicate content is another technical SEO element. Search engines would ask web page owners to fix any identical content issues they find because it confuses the algorithm and manipulates rankings.
The time spent auditing the technical aspects depends on the size of the site, but most SEO technicians advise five to ten hours.
About the Author
Cristina Par is a content specialist with a passion for writing articles that bridge the gap between brands and their audiences. She believes that high-quality content plus the right link-building strategies can turn the tables for businesses small and large.
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