How to Optimize Your Site for Search Engines?

SERP or Search engine result pages are the Google page with a list of websites as a result to the query asked by the users by pressing the search button. Search engine optimization is the process that ensures that a WordPress or any other platform-based website ranks on the SERP with on-page and off-page optimization of the website.

From improving the page speed to ensuring relevant content and various other aspects, SEO experts work with various aspects to ensure that there is a good website rank along with high page and domain authority. Building "authority" is regarded as a slow process that happens overtime.

However, brands with an online presence through their official website focus on ensuring ranking high on the SERP via SEO tactics that are a white hat in nature.

Understanding the HATS

Digital marketing and its branch of Search Engine Optimization is a form of marketing that is directed towards business ensuring that a brand's official website to rank on number #1 position on the SERP(Search Engine Result Page).

However, the practices in this marketing are divided further into three types, first White-hat, second Black hat, and third Grey Hat. These three types of marketing practices have been pursued by different sections of digital marketers, while the white hat practices are the practices that are approved by Google and listed in Google's Webmaster Guidelines, the other practices can get teh website penalized:

• There is no good or bad in SEO, the SEO experts have however mentioned that practicing certain "White-hat" tactics to not only protect the website from being penalized by Google but also provide the website with the security so that once the update hits the platform, there are fewer chances that the website will suffer.

• While the black hat activities are those which are not acceptable by Google and holds chances of the website getting banned or penalized by Google.

• Grey hat is the ones that are acceptable by Google although they might not comply completely with the Webmasters.

Steps one can follow to optimize their site and rank on the SERP in 2019 include:

• Know Your Queries Report: The query reports provide phrases that website is ranking high for. Visiting the Google Analytics> acquisition>search console>queries will help the marketers know how well they are ranking on certain phrases, the number of impressions on the phrases, the clicks on these phrases from the Google SERPs and how high website rank for the phrase or the average position of the file.
• Choose the keywords you want to rank high on: Filtering through the results one should dig through the list, find phrases with the highest rankings and understand how the phrase is used on your website to ensure an improved page and indicate the relevance for the phrase. One should focus on the keywords that derive high traffic to the website and has high search volumes. One can use various platforms to find the Keyword difficulty that should be preferably low which makes them easier to rank on.

• Competitors Analysis: It is essential to know why one is being outranked by the competitor websites online and understand the reasons. It can be the number of significant ranking factors including the referring domains, page authority and website authority.
• Content Optimization: The key to ranking on top on SERP is via understanding the searchers intent and what he is focusing on while searching for a particular query. Why? Because Google focuses on that while displaying websites on SERP to establish relevancy. It is hence essential to align with the searchers intent to ensure a high ranking on the SERP. The content marketing strategy is one of the most essential parts of digital marketing as it focuses on creating relevant content with a content angle that hooks the user with the content (blog posts and landing pages online).

Extra Tip:

Backlinks Authority: Page authority is the rank of the website online and backlinks are a crucial part of it. Any link from web to a certain website is a backlinks for that website which ultimately builds the "authority" to the website. So it may not be exactly on-page optimization of your website but one can use the keywords from the research in the content used for building links online to ensure a good SERP ranking.

There are various ranking factors but the page authority is one of the most influential when it comes to affecting the ability to rank. Besides mastering the on-page optimization of the website by increasing the page load speed, proving a better user experience with a better interface and internal links, this on-page, and off-page SEO tactics can be used to ensure a high SEO ranking. Again, while hat SEO tactics are preferred because they are important, it is essential to focus on them to ensure long term sustenance and ranking.

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