What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is a term many online business owners fear because they heavily depend on website traffic for sales. While SEO does involve some technical jargon that can be intimidating, understanding the basics of SEO is simple and implementing effective strategy can have long lasting effects for your business.

According to Semrush, the tool I use for keyword research, search engine optimization refers to the set of processes involved in getting more unpaid traffic to your website through high-quality content and a seamless user experience.

SEO involves the use of marketing, copywriting, and technical strategies rank higher on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. When done correctly. Good SEO strategy can not only get you in front of more people, but it can make sure the right people are coming to your page. In other words, good SEO targets your ideal customer.

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What makes for good SEO?

There are different strategies and key places to incorporate good SEO strategy both on the front-end of your website (what the user sees and experiences) and on the back-end of your website (what Google sees).

This is typically broken down into 4 parts: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, technical SEO, and local SEO, which we will discuss in more detail below.

What is On-Page SEO?

The goal of on-page SEO strategies is to optimize each individual webpage for search engines, since your rank can vary for different pages. Key elements of good on-page SEO include use of keywords, heading structure, internal and external linking, meta titles and descriptions, and alt tags. Let’s break these down.

Keywords

Keywords help you reach your target audience by solving a specific problem. You should absolutely do research to determine what problems your ideal client is facing and create valuable content that answers their questions. Each page can target a unique set of keywords.

Heading Structure

Headings are important for SEO because they allow the reader to more easily skim your content to determine if it is a good fit for what they are looking for. Each page should have an H1 heading followed by sub headings that guide the reader to the section they need.

Typically, people spend less time browsing articles that have poor heading structure, because they can’t find what they are looking for. According to Pure SEO, this can negatively impact your sites authority because Google can see that people are not spending a significant amount of time on your page, and therefore your content will be pushed farther down the rankings.

Headings should also contain keywords that can be recognized by both search engines and your website visitor. Keep in mind that search engines recognize H1 headings as most important and H6 headings as least important. An outline could look like:

Headings should accurately reflect the content of that page and section. Headings that are misleading or incorrect can actually harm your ranking, so make sure your content answers the questions you say it will!

Internal Linking

Internal linking refers to links within your site. Essentially, you want to make it easy for a user to find different pages on your website. Think about taking them on a journey to get more information to reach the ultimate goal of buying from you. Having a free offer to guide people to is another great strategy to implement.

Meta Titles and Descriptions

Each page on your website should have a unique, keyword rich title and description. These are what show up on search results, as pictured below.

*Search results displaying page meta title and descriptions when searching for “hilltop help web design.”*

Having unique and accurate titles and descriptions for each allows people who are searching for your content to quickly establish if your website is a good fit for them. The descriptions for each page should be unique in order to target different search queries and keywords.

In Squarespace, you can edit these by clicking on the Settings or gear icon next to each page, then clicking SEO as shown below.

*The window to edit your page meta title and description is found under Page Settings > SEO.*

You can also choose to hide a page from search engines by toggling on the button at the bottom of that window that says “Hide Page From Search Results.” This means Google will not index that page of your website.

Alt Tags

An alt tag refers to the description you give to every image on your website. Since search engines cannot read images the same way it can read text, an alt tag allows you to tell Google what the image is about.

Alt tags should be literal descriptions of what is going on in the photo or graphic. You can include keywords in these descriptions, if it makes sense, but this is not an opportunity to cheat the system. Including false keywords in your images can hurt your ranking.

What is Off-Page SEO?

Off-page SEO refers to actions taken off your site that build your authority and expertise. You want high-quality websites to view you as a resource enough that they link to your content. The more you can get this to happen the more you establish yourself as a worthy site to visit.

When search engines see that other sites are linking your content, you are viewed as an expert in your field and someone people can go to for valuable information. This will allow you to rank higher.

You may be thinking, well how do I get other sites to link to my website? This is where you can get creative! Be a guest on podcasts or write a guest blog post on a friends website. Have your local newspaper do an interview about you. Attend events that can market your services.

If your content is high quality, people may start to use you as a resource in their blogs and articles. Don’t be shy about sharing your posts!

What is Technical SEO?

Technical SEO refers to technical solutions that improve the user experience on your website. Examples include page load times, adequate use of white space and architecture, mobile friendliness, readability, and accessibility.

If you go to a website and see a bunch of images and text overlapping each other, you’re unable to find the page you are looking for, or you’re waiting for a page to load for more than a few seconds, this site likely will not rank well on search engines.

In order to have a seamless experience on your website, the user should be able to navigate it easily and spend a substantial amount of time on each page. Some factors that effect technical SEO include:

Image file sizes: this can cause a significant increase in your page load times
Too many or too few navigation buttons to lead to other areas of your site: if a user can’t find what they are looking for efficiently, they will move on to the next website
Aesthetic: if there is too much white space or too much content on a page the user can quickly become underwhelmed or overwhelmed, therefore, leaving your site
Sitemap: If a user has to click 4 or more times to find a particular page, the architecture or your website likely needs to be adjusted. Pages should be easy to find and crawl by search engines.

What is Local SEO?

Local SEO involves strategies to increase visibility for your physical local area. For brick and mortar businesses, local SEO is essential. Good strategy involves submitting your company information to the Google Business Profile in order to be listed and ranked for people searching in your local area.

If you have a physical location for your business or you are only licensed to serve customers in a certain demographic area, be sure to include keywords related to your local area. If you are a therapist in Maryland for example, it would be appropriate to use terms such as “Maryland therapist”, “Therapy services in Rockville, MD” etc.

Conclusion

As you can see, search engine optimization, goes beyond finding keywords and phrases to stuff into your content. Rather you should be providing unique and valuable content that is relevant to your audience and your business’ offers.

Content should be structured in a way that is easy to navigate, with headings and subheadings, so that it can be indexed by search engines and to allow for a better user experience. When done right, good SEO can help you stand out and effectively reach the right audience.

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