Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial aspect of any online business. Whether you’re running an e-commerce site, offering services, or just want to make money through your website, SEO should be a top priority. The goal of SEO is to make your site easily findable, searchable, and digestible for Google. In the first few months, your focus should be on getting your website found, indexed, and ranked by Google, rather than worrying about user experience.
How Google Finds Your Site
Google uses a system to decide the quality of a website by looking at its structure. Websites with good structures, like those using content management systems such as WordPress or Shopify, have a higher chance of ranking. Google decides which websites to scan, how to scan them, and which pages to put on its index through crawling, indexing, and ranking.
Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking
Crawling is the process where Google sends ‘spiders’ to find one page and then look for other pages linked from that page, crawling through the entire website. Indexing is when Google decides whether a page should be on Google or not. This decision is based on the quality of content and user experience. Ranking is the final step, where Google determines the position of your page in search results. This can improve over time if you have good quality content and give good signals to Google.
Encouraging Crawling and Indexing
To encourage Google to crawl and index your website, you need to have better content than your competitor. However, the most important thing is to have Google Search Console and a verified sitemap. This talks directly to the Google crawlers, increasing your chance of getting crawled. To improve your ranking, you can optimize the content on the page, make the title better, go for different keywords, add or remove keywords.
The Importance of Varied Content
It’s important to have a varied strategy with different types of content. You can’t rely on one strategy or type of content. If Google changes what works, you won’t be negatively impacted if you have a variety of content. For example, you could have collection pages, blog posts, and product pages. This gives you a much higher chance of ranking in the long term.
Giving Users What They Want
The most important thing is to give users what they want instantly. If a user is searching for black jeans, don’t show them blue jeans. If you consistently show Google that the page you’re getting people to click on doesn’t have the content they want, Google won’t rank you. If you have a recipe website, don’t make users scroll through your life story before getting to the recipe. Answer the user’s question immediately.
Keeping Users on Your Page
While it’s important to get people to stay on your page, the way you do it is key. Use table of contents so people can easily find the information they’re looking for. Use lots of images, graphs, infographics, and interesting imagery to keep people on the page. Demonstrate E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) to show Google that you’re a legitimate website.
The Benefits of SEO
SEO is cost-effective, compounding, and beats other marketing strategies. It’s better value for money than paid ads, and its effects can last for years if done well. Organic searchers have a higher conversion rate, and the quality of traffic is better, making SEO a preferred choice over paid ads. SEO also has permanence and longevity, unlike ads which stop immediately when you stop paying.
Conclusion
SEO is a vital part of any online business. By understanding how Google finds, indexes, and ranks your site, you can optimize your content to improve your ranking. Remember to give users what they want instantly, keep them on your page, and demonstrate your expertise and trustworthiness. With a varied content strategy and a focus on quality, you can reap the benefits of SEO for years to come.
