The requirements for SEO keep changing, and it’s not easy to keep up with them! So we thought we’d give you a little kick, eh-hem, a little kickstarter of some of the set-ups that are a must.
Quick Review: What is SEO?
To start off your SEO Kickstarter, let’s refresh our memories. Search Engine Optimization is basically how you make your web page rank better for search engines. What does that mean exactly? Your ranking is the position of your content on the search engine results pages, or SERPs. Yes, there are a lot of acronyms involved when it comes to digital marketing. Here’s a handy link of 20 digital marketing acronyms for 2020, just in case you’re looking to brush up.
Back to rankings. If you’re #1, that’s amazing! It means that when people search for a specific term, your web page is the first result that shows up. (This of course disregards ads and promoted results, which is not something we’ll go into this time.) So, if you can make it to the first page, which the vast majority of pages never do, that’s a good result.
Okay, that’s it for the general review. If you want to learn more about SEO, feel free to contact us through our Facebook or website.
Time for your SEO Kickstarter
Here we go. When it comes to setting up for optimization, you’ve got to start from the beginning. Keywords come into play right from the foundation of your website. To rank effectively, the structure of your website should be built so that each of the pages target their own set of relevant keywords.
Website Structure
For the purpose of this example, let’s pretend you’re going to launch a website that sells games. That’s a pretty broad market. You specifically want to sell console games, computer games, and board games. Obviously, you want each of the categories to rank for their keywords and you want to attract people who are searching for specific games.
What do you do? You break down the website structure into categories of course, with each category focusing on a search keyword. In the little graphic below I’ve drawn a little simplified sample site structure. The homepage targets the main keyword which is “games” and the subpages are the 3 categories we mentioned earlier.
When you structure your website like this your theme is clear and so are the target and secondary keywords for each page. You can also go a step further and break down in each category into subcategories. For example, you can break board games down into almost a hundred categories from A to Z.
Remember, less is more. Each page should target one primary search keyword and a few secondary keywords.
Optimized Content
The key here is being Google friendly. The adage of digital marketing in the 21st century is,”Content is King”. You need content that is engaging, informative, and relevant. Content length is another SEO Kickstarter that’s important. Depending on the type of page on your website, different content lengths are ideal. For example, data shows that 2,000 words is the average length of long form content, in other words a blog. https://www.sweor.com/seocontentlength
That’s a good, yet simplified, way of looking at things. The main things you should remember are to make content that is relevant and engaging, long form content attracts more backlinks and shares, which are important for your website ranking. And, use your keywords, but avoid overusing them. Google knows when you’re trying too hard and stuffing them into your content.
If you want to make your life a little easier, a good thing to do is to use WordPress. Why? Because, WordPress is the best CMS for SEO. It makes it easy for you to make your website user-friendly, attractive, and is the best SEO kickstarter. Whether you’re talking Meta-Titles or Meta-Descriptions, WordPress has got you covered. And, when it comes to creating content, it actually guides you and gives you feedback.
Optimized Titles
Wait…what? Yes, you heard me. You can optimize even the titles of the pages in your website. The Meta-Title is the text that Google will display as the page title for each search result. So yeah, you’re going to need to optimize for that too. Your title should mention the main keyword you’re targeting. For example, “2020 Digital Marketing Trends Thailand – Enabler Space”.
This tells the user what to expect when they click on the link and it describes the content that will be on that page. As with your long form content, don’t stuff your keyword into the title too many times. Once is enough, and keep it at 55 characters so that Google doesn’t cut it.
Clear and Concise Description
The description, or meta description to be more specific, is that little bit of information that appears just below your meta title and URL on the Google results page. Though it doesn’t have an effect on rank, a clear and concise meta description can affect your page’s click through rate or CTR (I told you there were a lot of acronyms). In the age of short attention spans, people want to know what they’re getting into before they click on something. Your job is to give them a reason to click.
If you’ve set up with WordPress, you can easily add meta descriptions using the plugins provided. Each page on your site should have its own description and should include your keyword.
Google Analytics and Google Search Console
Website built? Check. Got good content? Check. Each page has a unique meta title and description? Check and check. The last, but not final, step. Google Analytics is a tracking software that allows you to monitor how people interact with your website and also how they come to find it. Oh, and it’s free! Our main goal is giving you an SEO Kickstarter and this is one of the best tools out there. Google Analytics gives you data that allows you to optimize specific keywords for your website.
The next step is to add your website to Google’s Search Console. This isn’t some sort of home video game device. This is Google’s platform for webmasters. You get to see data that tells you how your website is performing. It allows you to evaluate its performance based on organic searches, keyword rankings, CTRs for each keyword, keyword impressions, and so much more.
What comes after this SEO Kickstarter?
What’s next? That’s a good question to keep asking yourself. If you’ve set up and followed all the tips above, you’ve taken the right steps towards successful SEO implementation. Remember to keep up to date, technology in the digital age is changing faster than a speeding bullet (little nod to Superman). And finally, if you need more information or a little assistance, we’re just a click away.