The goal of most websites is to obtain some benefit through traffic, such as selling a product or service, making a particular brand known, making users frequent content readers, among others. This way, the following question arises: If users cannot find the website, does it even exist?
In this article we will explain what SEO is, what it is for and some of the practices that can be implemented.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. The purpose of SEO is to use certain “legal” optimisation practices applied to the website, so that there is an increased probability that users will find the optimised website more easily.
The use of the term “legal” in the preceding paragraph was not by chance. As in many other areas, SEO also has a “dark side”, known as black-hat SEO. This aspect of SEO uses practices that are not advisable to be applied, otherwise the website will suffer heavy penalties from the search engines. The mention of black-hat SEO was just to separate these two branches, making it very clear that this article only focuses on white-hat SEO.
It will vary from case to case. Ideally, any website that is created from scratch is accompanied by an SEO professional, so that they follow what are considered to be good practices from the beginning.
This does not mean that a website cannot be optimised a posteriori. The problem in this case is that it may not be possible to make certain changes at a programming level. It may be that it is a template and does not allow any changes. Another reason could be that the programmer who built the website might have to make a lot of changes, which might not only require huge changes to the code but will also require a lot of time and money to be invested in those changes.
The first step will always be to “design” the structure of the website. Here it doesn’t matter if it’s a new website or building a website for a company that just wants to update its existing one. It is necessary to determine the pages the website will have, so that on a structural level, it is as user-friendly as possible and easy to navigate.
Then it is necessary to create the content, such as the text. This content should also follow some SEO guidelines. Keyword research should be done within the area that the brand operates. A good idea is to analyse competitors’ websites to understand what they are doing, how they communicate, etc., and try to do better – as there is always room for improvement. The content created must be based on the keyword defined for that page and each page must be optimised for only one keyword.
In addition to the page content itself, the title tag and meta description must be optimised. The title tag is nothing more than the page title, which appears on the search engine results page in blue. The meta description is the text that appears just below the title tag.
These two fields are important. In the case of the title tag, it is not only considered a ranking factor (or positioning), but also helps both the user and the search engine to understand what the page is about. This text helps the search engine to be able to present the page to those looking for the service or product that the page offers. As for the meta description, although it is not considered a ranking factor, the correct text choice can help in terms of CTR (click through rate) – the more appealing it is, the greater the probability that the user will click on that result.
The website must be responsive, that is, it must be able to adapt correctly to any device where it is presented. Bearing in mind that most searches are done on mobile devices, having a responsive website is very important.
The speed of the website is also relevant. At a time when users are not willing to wait long for the website to load, having a fast website is paramount. This is a ranking factor. Google penalises sites that have pages that take longer than 3 seconds to load. Some of the optimisations that can be made include not having images that are too large (up to 100KB if possible), having a good server/hosting, or implementing, for example, lazy loading, among others.
Then there are other issues that are also important and that must be reviewed frequently – such as errors that the website presents, which must be corrected. There is some software on the market that allows this analysis.
Another important factor has to do with backlinks, that is, the links that other websites have to ‘my’ website. These links are seen as votes of confidence by search engines. In addition to passing some “strength” to the website to which they point, they give relevance to the website that receives the link. While there are some bad practices in obtaining backlinks, these should be obtained without resorting to “tricks” such as buying them. The idea is that these are obtained fairly. Also, the more relevant they are to the website, the better. If a backlink comes from a website that is somehow related to the business model for the website it points to, then it will have a higher value. For example, if a hotel website has a backlink to a car rental company, there is context between them. On the other hand, if a dentist’s website has a backlink to a shoe store’s website, the weight will not be that great, as these businesses are not related. In short, the weight of the backlink will be greater, the greater the relationship of complementarity between the business models.
A good idea for getting backlinks is to create quality content, such as blog articles. Blog articles not only help to index more keywords, but they can also serve as “gateways” for users who come across these articles. These should follow good SEO practices and should be based on keyword research. In addition, they must be shared on social media or via newsletter, to drive traffic to the website.
SEO results do not happen immediately, they can happen in the medium and long term. In addition, some results may not go as planned. This is because there are many uncontrollable factors that may influence these results, such as frequent updates made to search engines, competition or even user behaviour. Therefore, it is important that the SEO optimisations made to a website are frequently and closely monitored, to ensure that you can get the most out of this area.
For any brand/company that wants to be competitive in the digital environment, it is important that they implement good SEO practices on their website. Furthermore, any business, regardless of its size, will be able to benefit from SEO. Another noteworthy aspect is that SEO must work in an integrated Digital Marketing strategy, that is, it must be inserted together with other areas such as social media, email marketing or paid platforms – so that you can make the most of the digital environment.