Each word that we write in a blog post plays a vital role in building content. We can produce high-quality content by practicing some SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) methods.
The effect of search engine optimization can be seen after a long time. It is a kind of content promotion strategy.
We should use it smartly and carefully in content writing to prepare high-quality, optimized content. What's the first step in the search engine optimisation process for your website?
SEO is very important for any website; search engines have some parameters and get a good rank after satisfying them.
This post is very useful for you if you want to know how to use seo in content writing.
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First step in the search engine optimisation process for your website.
Search engine optimization is a process to ensure the better future of your blog or website by applying many changes in the website's structure, content, and design.
It involves countless efforts, planning, and dedication to making its potential source of information on the web.
What is the first step in the search engine optimisation process?
A long journey starts with a small step. In the same way, the process of online promotion starts with SEO.
It is a combination of three components-
- On-page SEO
- Off-page SEO
- Technical SEO
Overall performance and success of a blog or website are hidden in these three parts.
How should we initiate the process of search engine optimization? It can be confusing but not hard to understand.
In which phase you are right now, you can start accordingly. The most commonly known phase can be-
i). Starting with a new website or blog
ii). Working on an existing website or blog
ii). Working on an existing website or blog
Starting with a new website or blog
Best Of Luck - Keep It Up
If you are starting a new website or blog, follow these steps-
- Content Writing According To SEO
- Apply on-page SEO
- Do some off-page SEO
- Focus on technical SEO
- Audit website/blog
- Repeat these steps
You can do an audit of a website by using any SEO tool. There are some tools available that provide services free of cost.
- Ahref Site Audit
- Ubersuggest
You can audit your website using these tools. Don't worry. If you don't want to use these tools or your website is too lengthy, you can follow some checkpoints of on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.
Working on an existing website or blog
The steps to start SEO on an existing website can be slightly different from the new blog or website.
- Audit website/blog
- Content writing or updation according to SEO
- Apply on-page SEO
- Do some off-page SEO
- Focus on technical SEO
- Repeat these steps
The promotion of an existing website is more important than a new one. Right search engine optimization can establish you among famous brands, and you can start earning too.
After all, money is important for your website's health. So don't miss it and start exploring more parts of SEO given below.
On-page SEO - Useful components for a website.
On-site SEO is also known as on-page SEO. It includes a process in which optimization of website front-end and back-end is done.
The main motive of this optimization process is to grab the rank on search engines for your website and bring more visitors.
There are some on-page SEO components you must follow to get a ranking on search engines.
- Use High-Quality Content
- Web Page Headlines
- Paragraph Headers
- SEO Meta Title
- SEO Meta Descriptions
- Image Alt tag
- Image title
- Schema - Structured Markup
- Web Page URLs
- Internal Linking
- Mobile Usability
- Site Speed
Use High-Quality Content
We cannot ignore the phrase "Content is king." The content works like rocket fuel to boost your website's rank on search engines.
It is a medium to tell the motive of your website for both search engines and visitors. How audible your content (including keywords) is for others shows the quality of your content.
It would be best if you initiated keyword research to create high-quality content. The keywords help both the writer and reader connect them to fulfill each other's needs.
Keyword Research
There are many ways of keyword research, and you can do it with Google by entering your keywords and see the top 10 results.
These may be your competitors, but it will guide you to know the popularity and difficulty of keywords.
Some free and paid tools are available for keyword and topic research:
- Google Trend (FREE)
- Ubersuggest (FREE with limit)
- Ahref (PAID)
I hope you are familiar with keywords now; let's go for writing some content, hopefully high-quality content.
Here is a checklist to write down high-quality content-
- Carefully keyword stuffing
- Use of short-tail keywords
- Naturally use of long-tail or related keywords
- Write content in an interactive tone
- Make content engaging by using images & videos
- Keep the audience in mind on the time of writing
- Try to writing problem-solving content
- Add something that people like to share with other
Content on your page is your words through which you communicate with your visitors and search engines.
It must be solution-oriented, interactive, and talkative. Keep the audience in mind while preparing content.
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Web Page Headlines
A headline is the first word or line that a visitor sees. It is an entry door for your content.
Your blog may have dozens of posts, but your blog post headline should be good enough to tell the purpose of the post.
We can see from the headlines in the above image. A headline must be appealing and able to tell the purpose of the content behind it.
SEO Meta Title
A web page title is an essential part of SEO. It is known as the "title tag."
Reader and search engine both recognize the page by title tag. The title shows the purpose of web page content.
You can often see the text in web page headline and title tag are the same, but it may differ.
The title tag is the most visible text in any search engine's search result. It must be managed to grab the attention of visitors to get rank on the web.
Organize your keyword as simply as feasible, and it should be appealing to you.
We should take care of these points at the time of web page title creation-
- The perfect length of a title tag is 55 characters. You can write up to 60 characters. If you write more than this limit, the extra length will be replaced by an ellipse (...), and your title can lose purpose.
- Do keyword stuffing naturally in the title, don't add irrelevant keywords in the title; search engines are smart enough to catch your trick and penalize it.
- Try to use fewer capital letters to show more characters, don't use all caps.
- Make your title relevant for your web page.
- Follow this format:
[ Primary Keyword ] - [ secondary Keyword ] - [ Brand Name ]
Or
[ Primary Keyword ] - [ Brand Name ]
Or
[ Primary Keyword ] - [ secondary Keyword ]
Or
[ Phrase with keyword ]
Use the formats given above and develop a title that looks natural. For example,
SEO Meta Descriptions
The meta description of a web page is the short content that looks below the title in search results.
It is an indirect ranking factor for search engines, and it increases the probability of clicking your web page link in search results.
So you must write it carefully to get more traffic on your web page. It is an important aspect of on-page SEO.
Why is meta description important?
You find several reasons that show the importance of meta description. Some of them are:
- It is the second visible content after your page meta title that tells the reader about the content.
- When you share your web page URL on any social media platform, this meta description content is fetched by social media.
- It increases the chance of clicking your page URL.
Some guidelines can make your meta description more valuable for search results and visitors-
- Add meta description within 160 characters long. You can add more characters, but this length is ideal for getting visibility in search results.
- Make your meta description concise and meaningful.
- Try to add maximum keywords and phrases.
- Evade alphanumeric letters ( +, -, &). These can be interpreted wrong by some tools or search engines.
Paragraph Headers
Headers are tags that are used in text formatting and have importance in on-page SEO too.
These are elements of HTML also known as html body tags. You can use it like given below.
These header tags are valuable for search engines and readers. It shows the importance of content to them.
Use headers to organize your content for readers as well as search engines.
Adding keywords in headers can be beneficial. We should use primary keywords in < h1 > and < h2 > tags.
It's good to include essential keywords in header tags to get a better rank in search results.
Image Alt tag
Search engines are machines, and they can't see your image and its purpose. Search engines interpret your page and know the purpose of your image by its alt tag.
Image with alt tag has its importance for SEO. We can see in Google images search results, like text search terms.
These images can be searched because of the alt-text of the images. So it is possible that your readers or clients can search your website by using images.
You can improve the visibility of your content easily by adding alt-text.
Some precautions can be added in practice on the time of adding image alt-text:
- Add meaningful and relevant content
- Add essential keywords
- Avoid unnecessary keyword stuffing.
- Try to make it compact, don't add too large.
Image title
Image title is less important than image alt-text, but it's important for the reader's content experience.
It's like the caption of an image. When a reader mouse over an image, it tells them what the image is about.
An image title participates in making your website interactive.
Take some necessary measures while adding a title in an image-
- Make it short and meaningful
- It should be relevant to the content
- Add keywords and your brand name
- You can make it even more attractive with some jquery effects like customizing tooltip or popover.
Schema Markup
Schema or schema.org is a sort of tags or microdata grammatical dictionary that you can attach to your HTML.
It clears the way search engines view and describes your web page in SERPs.
You can add schema in two ways:
- Structured data as JSON-LD Markup
- HTML Source with Microdata Markup
I prefer JSON-LD Markup because it is easy to generate and add.
There some free online tools available for generating schema markup-
- Google Schema Markup
- Technicalseo.Com (It is a simple and useful tool.)
Sample Code
What are schema and its uses?
Schema.org or schema is a collaboration result between Google, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo.
The motto behind it is to provide you the information the search engines require to understand your web page content.
It helps search engines to display the best search results.
Schema improves the way your web page displays in SERPs by enhancing the rich snippets displayed beneath the page title.
Web Page URLs
Page URL is a part of SEO, and it should be relevant, short, and simple; readers and search engines can easily understand.
We can see the breadcrumb in pages to show the hierarchy of the page and its parent pages.
Even there are breadcrumb schemas available to tell more to search engines and readers.
For example,
It would be best if you took care of some points on the time of generating URLs:
- Don't use a very long URL
- Use keyword but not more than two
- I prefer to use https in the URL
Internal Linking
Your blog or website may have much valuable content that readers wish to read by readers and these contents are helpful for readers.
Internal linking gives the hyperlink to related pages of your websites for the reader's ease.
It is an integral part of on-page SEO and keeps your readers engaged in reading the valuable and related information.
The extended engagement of readers sends a positive message to Google and tells how functional your website is.
Visitors become your readers when they find what they need at a single place.
No need to say; it encourages the search engines' crawler to index your page frequently and give it some high rank on search results.
Mobile Usability or Responsiveness
Mobile responsive websites have been in the limelight for a long decade.
We are living in the era of smartphones, and it's not certain that each reader has a laptop or desktop.
Suppose if you are a blogger and your niche is health or tech, you cannot expect that every visitor will open your blog on a laptop or desktop.
Mobile responsiveness is a feature that gives a better reading experience to your readers and visitors.
A large amount of traffic comes from mobile phones, therefore maintaining mobile usability can multiply your traffic.
You can test your website on Google's mobile usability testing tool available online at free of cost-
We can assume, mobile responsiveness has a bright future. It is a way to get more visitors.
Site Speed
Website speed refers to the page load time of your website. It is an important factor of on-page SEO.
You may have more visitors on desktop or mobile, but site speed is important for both.
A web page loads quickly, always preferred by readers and search engines.
Google considers user experience in the first place, and you will not like to spend more time on a site that loads slowly.
On-page SEO - Important checkpoints for a website.
On-page SEO is the art of promotion by implementing some changes in content and web pages. If you do on-page SEO carefully, you half win the game.
Some checkpoints must be kept in mind while applying on-page SEO. There are some checkpoints given below.
- Open your website to crawl.
- Manage an SEO audit and determine your site structure.
- Create/Update web page URLs, meta titles, and meta descriptions.
- Add your keyword to your URL.
- Use important keywords on your page.
- Choose different keywords and topics for pages.
- Avoid keyword stuffing.
- Set a goal for each page.
- Choose your audience.
- Generate attractive and appealing page titles.
- Write meaningful meta descriptions.
- Evaluate and update web page content if required.
- Include image content.
- Take care of image optimization.
- Use your website's content as internal links.
- Manage helpful external links for readers.
- Keep optimizing content for conversions.
These checkpoints are very important for a website’s health. Don’t forget to apply them on your website.
Importance of Off-Page SEO for a blog.
Whatever we do outside of our blog to get a better rank on a search engine, considered off-page SEO.
We make off-page SEO on different social media platforms and others to ensure our blog identity.
It includes link building, but it is more than that.
Why is Off-page SEO important?
Are you making countless efforts to rank your blog post, but it's not working? Maybe it is because of low or wrong off-page SEO.
Ranking Factor
Search engines consider many factors before allotting a rank to a web page of your blog. We can observe it in Google search results.
Links are one of among ranking factors and help in improving the domain authority (DA) of your blog.
Content is the most important factor for ranking a web page, but we cannot ignore the links' importance.
Vote For Your Blog
Each little effort that you make in off-page SEO is remarkably worthy for your blog. It helps search engines to recognize that your blog is significant to others on the web.
Each external link that you earn from various off-page efforts is like a vote for your blog to tell the usefulness of your blog.
Off-page SEO is like a blessing for your blog or website, but its worthiness is hidden in the art of using it.
What is Technical SEO?
Technical SEO is a method of improving the technical aspects of a blog or website to get the desired rank for blog posts or pages in the search result.
What is the meaning of technical aspects?
Improving the speed of a website, making it easy to crawl, and increasing the visibility for search engines are considered central parts of technical SEO.
Relation Between Technical SEO & On-page SEO
There is a close relationship between "Technical SEO" & "On-page SEO"; technical SEO is part of on-page SEO.
The center point of this part is to make your website's health better by improving elements on your web pages to get a better rank on search engines.
Why should you optimize your site technically?
The web is full of helpful information for readers, and you can find many articles from different websites on a particular topic.
A reader likes to stay on a website if they find the website in a good state. A slow-loading web page is a pain for both visitors and search engines.
The search engine also wants to show websites with fast loading speeds for the reader's comfort.
User’s Page Experience
Website speed, content visibility, headings, 404 page, and others are expected by search engines and visitors.
These factors are combined to give an excellent experience to the user and called user's page experience.
Technical SEO is the cure for smooth crawling and high ranking of a website to increase higher rank on search engines.
It can be a milestone for a website, and you can get amazing results after knowing - How to increase organic traffic after applying Technical SEO and some common issues.
Reading Suggestion:
Final Scene
While answering, what is the first step in the search engine optimization process for your website? We explored many precious things.
We started our odyssey to learn search engine optimization (SEO), and we found its important parts - on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and Technical SEO.
Many hidden treasures are revealed, and we learn something new together.
Now we know the importance of search engine optimization and are ready to dig its parts a little deeper to learn more.
Hope you like this post and share it with others. Would you mind writing down your feedback in the comment box?
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