Areas of SEO
First lets talk about a few different areas of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Onpage SEO
This is the part of SEO that you can control. Make changes to your website with the intent of bettering it for search engine crawling, indexing, and ranking. The term “on page” comes from this type of optimization being done primarily on your website alone.
Some elements of On-Page Optimization are:
- Heading Tags [H1 H2, etc] [see alt tags]
- Meta Descriptions
- Meta Keywords
- Contextual Linking (context links are links within your own content)
- Page Speed
- Site Architecture
- Technical SEO
- WordPress External Links (links to other websites within the WordPress system)
- WordPress Internal Links (links between posts on your website). These can also be referred to as “Navigation Links” or “Menu Items”.
- Keyword density is also important within on-page optimization. The number of times that a keyword or phrase is repeated within the content of the site should be limited. Having too much repetition will hurt SEO.
Off-Page SEO
This is the part of SEO that you cannot control. Your backlinks are the reason search engines crawl your website, index it properly, and rank it in their results. The term “off-page” comes from this type of optimization requiring activity outside of your website (generally in the form of link building).
Some elements of Off-Page Optimization are:
- Building Backlinks – A link is a hypertext reference on one page that points to another. Putting an inbound link is letting another website use one of the hypertext references talked about above, but this time it points toward your website or blog.
- Submitting your website/blog to directories – Search engines often rely on human beings to find web pages, so search engine placement can be greatly improved with submissions to directories. Directory submissions are a great way of getting inbound links from other websites and the backlinks are a great way to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
Other areas to consider
Content Marketing
Content Marketing is an integral part of any SEO strategy. You want good content on your website, not only to make it more user-friendly but also to drive traffic from search engines.
Social Media Marketing
The impact of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter has been profound. Sites like these have changed the way we present products and services to people and how they find them.
This is part of your marketing process and can be a great way to direct inbound links to your main website.
Mobile SEO
More people are using their mobile devices for search engine purposes than ever before. You must optimize your website for these searches by making sure certain elements such as meta descriptions and images are present in the markup and by making sure the message is clear throughout the site.
Guest Posting
Guest posts can be a great way to drive traffic from established websites to yours. If you can find relevant websites to contribute articles or blog posts, the link backs will help your SEO efforts. Guest posting should be done sparingly — not every time you publish a new post.
Information Architecture (IA)
This is about how information is organized, structured and categorized on your website. Make sure you use heading tags correctly, create links internally with the same level of importance as external links, and consider using breadcrumbs to help people navigate through your site.
Defining your goals
As we can see there are many different elements and considerations when it comes to search engine optimization. A good way to get started is to define your goals and work from there. Sometimes a client will have a specific goal in mind, while others want to build a website for branding purposes. Whatever the case may be it’s important to identify your ultimate objective so that you can develop an effective strategy that meets this goal.
In doing so, consider what you want out of your SEO strategy.
Perhaps you want more traffic from search engines, or maybe you just need to have your business rank higher up on SERPs. Your mission might be to drive more leads and sales for your product/service, improve conversions so you can sell more through your website, or simply encourage a better online experience for your customer. Whatever the case may be, having a clear goal will help you make effective decisions along the way.
Link: Aligning content with your business goals
A few different strategies
- Building content
- Keyword optimization
- Page speed optimization
- Conversion rate optimization
- Link building
- Guest posting
How do we approach SEO at Adept Creative?
We like to start by looking at the big picture and taking an audit of your current situation. We then establish a plan that focuses on four key areas:
- Ranking for relevant keywords in organic search
- Building targeted content
- Analysis search data
- Make marketing adjustment
At Adept Creative We like to apply agile marketing principles. Test and scale.
For more information and to request a free quote, please visit adeptcreative.com/services and select the SEO option.
