The term Search Engine Optimization has been around for some time, and now more than ever Marketers are realizing the importance of SEO for their companies’ development. Search engines have evolved drastically over the last few years, which has caused SEO to advance as well. Competition has increased and search engines look for high-quality, trustworthy content. To stay ahead of the game, Marketers must keep up with these changes.

What is SEO?

SEO is a technique in which you can optimize your website’s pages in order to increase the chances that Google and other search engines will rank your site highly. Essentially, your site will be recommended as a resource in SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page) when a specific search matches your data; subsequently increasing the amount of visitors to your website. By optimizing your website’s pages, you can increase the possibility that search engines know where your site is and what type of information it contains.

What data is needed to optimize your website?

Below are some key tips to consider:

• Ensure that your website includes high quality, trustworthy and compelling content– write content that YOU would want to read.
• Answer a question. For the most part, people turn to search engines when they need a question answered. e.g. “What is SEO?”
• Use a descriptive Title Tag and Meta description tags within your header.
• SEO Keywords- Be sure that keywords and/or phrases in your web content make it possible for people to find your site through search engines. Effectively researching and selecting keywords helps to generate traffic to your site.
• Use Keywords in your URL.
• Blogging- A successful blog with keyword-based content can attract people to your website.
• Enhance your social presence by sharing information, articles, and blogs. Link these sites to your social media platforms and vice versa.

Panda and Penguin

Panda and Penguin are Google’s algorithms.
Panda determines the on-site quality of your website, while Penguin monitors how trustworthy your links are.

Panda looks at components such as:

• Thin Content-a page that adds little or no value to someone who is reading it.
• Duplicate Content- content that is copied from other sources on the web.
• Low-quality Content- information that no one is engaging with.

On the other hand, Penguin examines:

• Any link schemes -e.g., spamming, unnatural links etc.
• Keyword stuffing
• Hidden texts or links

In order to protect the user experience, search engines rely on trustworthy sites. So, if you feel your website may contain unnatural links or low-quality content; try to have your site cleaned up and updated as soon as possible in oder to avoid any penalties.

Organic vs Paid SEO?

The above tips can help your SEO organically, but if you feel that that’s not enough; you may want to consider setting aside a budget for professional services from an agency or utilizing an SEO tool.

Ultimately, SEO should be a key factor when building any website. Understanding SEO can be a little tricky, but with some knowledge of the strategies and techniques involved; you can reap the benefits of having your site ranked highly on any search engine.