We now know that the presence on the Web of a brand, an SME or even an individual, whether for his career or his social relations, is crucial. All companies want to be at the top of search engine results. But for that, it’s important to carry out your SEO work on a daily basis and in the long term, with a clear vision and precise objectives. Here is a recap that can serve as a guide for a good SEO.
Structure your tree
The algorithms analyze up to the structure of your site. The more pages you have, the less search engines will appreciate, and your positioning will suffer. You need pages “mothers and daughters”. Your daughters pages will always have to redirect to your mother pages. Internal links facilitate navigation between pages. Make sure the redirects are up and running smoothly (“404 errors” should be avoided to avoid negatively impacting your SEO).
Your tree must be cleverly constructed. Some experts Google SEO can help you in this process. Optimize your URLs, tags, meta descriptions, image tags, H1 and H2, etc.
HTTPS: the future standard
The “HTTPS” certificate at the beginning of the URL of your pages indicates that the data on your site is protected. Since May, search engines have favored sites with this certificate. If your site collects payment data (online payment), it is an indispensable certificate. If you collect sensitive data (health, family status, address …) same thing. This certificate could become the norm in the coming months. In addition, unsecured sites will soon be identified and will be subject to a warning for users who open them.
A fast and mobile site
Google Analytics, Google’s statistical tool, estimates (and is optimistic) that 53% of users leave the page if its loading time exceeds 3 seconds! A limited patience, which will be more and more. If the loading time of your page is too long, the visitor will look for his info or his product to another site faster. The algorithms penalize more and more slow sites.
Your site must display a responsive design : it must be read on both computer and mobile. Google is currently working on a mobile index first .
To improve SEO , Microsoft offers free Google SEO tools to test the speed of loading your site, such as Test My Site and Page Speed Insights . Take a mobile optimization test to see the elements of your site that slow it down (video size, plug-ins, JavaScript, hosting server, etc.).
Unique content
A good job SEO is above all a quality content , rich, regularly updated, well organized and responding to questions and research of users. If you succeed all of this, you will improve the natural SEO of your site.
Write simple, concise text, use relevant keywords, and pay close attention to the structure and HTML markup of your text. Address users, respecting the keys and codes of search engines, and avoiding by any means plagiarism (heavily penalized by Google). Duplication, literal translation and anything that makes your content non-unique are interpreted by search engines as a copy / pasted and come back to a penalizing operation in terms of SEO.
Rich content: new and quality content
There is nothing more boring than going to a site and seeing that there is nothing new, new, no promotion, no article, no “news” since the last visit. The attention of the user is thus made: it gets tired quickly.
Integrating a “news” or blog page into a site is part of the content enrichment strategy . Google values the freshness of your site, such as the enrichment of semantic content. Adopt an explanatory and non-commercial tone. Quality matters as much as quantity (algorithms can make the difference).
The more editorial and semantic content you have, the more media rich content you have (enhanced with visuals, graphics, and videos), the more Google will reward you. Publish more text, more often! Between 700 and 1000 words, you will have an optimal text. Be careful, however, that it remains relevant.
Local SEO
On the Web, it is much easier to exist locally than globally! Especially when you have neither the means nor the budget of Nike, Columbia, or Huawei. 50% of internet users searches for information about a local business and 80% of Internet users search for a business address before going there. Its figures alone justify a local SEO effort dedicated to SMEs, even (and above all!) For a small company.
The local SEO varies substantially over the points that articulate efforts:
- Optimize your site with a relevant tree and landing page .
- Include your precise coordinates on each page. With a clickable phone number and email address
- Include a Google Map
- Enrich your site with media
- Create a blog
- Get referenced on the directories
- Create a Google My Business listing
- Create your pages on the most relevant social networks for you
- Distinguish yourself
- Keywords for SEO: to use sparingly
Work on your SEO thinking about the volume of research, the intent, and the potential for conversion of keywords. If you choose these carefully and integrate them sparingly (Google penalizes the keyword stuffing ) in informative texts, it will count for a lot in your positioning.
In SEO, you have to insert the keywords regularly and strategically, not every two lines! You can put them in bold or italic to highlight them, cover them with lexical fields and establish links between your different web pages (internal links). The blog is a great way to boost your SEO for free . For example, create a page by main keyword and its lexicon: if you sell sports shoes, you will have a “running” page, a “fitness” page, etc.
Link building: make yourself a reference
The creation of external links (linkbuilding ) is another way to be ranked well by Google. The search engine algorithm takes into account the number and quality of links to your site. Quality links make you credible and are recommendations from users who will give you the status of expert and reliable source for users. Spy Glass and Linkody are interesting tools to refine the quality of links to your site.
If other authoritative sites post links to your site, Google considers you to be reliable. Similarly, when you integrate into your site reliable links (government, associations, etc.). Be careful not to practice too much exchange links: bilateral links are less well received. The same goes for a sudden explosion of links to your site, which would be penalized by Google: if, via a reciprocal link exchange campaign, a multitude of links to your site appears in a short period of time and for no reason Naturally, search engines will judge this artificial backlinking and will roll back your site in their rankings.
Complete your SEO with paid referencing
Search Engine Marketing
Especially if you get started, e-advertising can give you a serious boost. Google Adwords and Facebook Ads , provided that your advertising strategy is up to date and that you have mastered:
- your campaign and your SEO goal
- your budget according to Google’s SEO cost
- your target
- your Google Adwords keywords
- your banner ad
- your way to measure and analyze your results for your next campaign
Paid ads are very effective for a one-off event (product launch, promotion, news …) Follow the rules of Google: the penalties are long and difficult to lift. Many experts are now broken. For any serious SEO company, it is recommended to join the services of SEO specialists online .
SEO: a matter of specialists
Before starting an SEO job , you should understand the multitude of underlying strategic issues. Using keywords is not enough! You have to understand the search engines, the HTML language, the planning, the management of social media, be able to evaluate the results and react according to … There is no fully automated SEO software .
Without an SEO strategy that holds up, you can develop all the efforts you want on your website, you will not be able to grow in visibility. You may invest thousands of dollars, if your SEO is badly “thought”, it will not succeed.
An expert will advise you to guide you on a multichannel approach.