Search Engine Optimisation Basics

Search engine optimisation is a set of measures used by webmasters with the purpose of obtaining search engine top rankings for the keywords that are relevant for their websites.

This article covers search engine optimisation basics. It is a starting point for website owners who want to understand and apply SEO principles.

There are two types of search engine optimisation, on-page and off-page. We are going to see what they are and why both of them are important in pushing a web page to the top of SERPs.

On-page SEO refers to elements that belong to the website itself. These elements can be controlled by the webmaster. The most important element on a page is the page title. Ideally, it should start with the main keyword you want that page to rank for. If you look at the code of a page, the title is the text between <title> and </title> tags. If you visualize that page in your internet browser, the title will appear at the top of the page, on the respective tab. If you can’t read it completely, hover over it and it will become visible.

Another important element is <h1>, which defines the most important headline on a page. It should also contain your main keyword.

For a good on-page optimisation, the main keyword should also be present in the body copy, once in the first paragraph and once in the last one. Depending on how much text you have, it might be good to have it appear a few times more. Search engine optimisation basics teach us that keyword density shouldn’t exceed 1%. This means that if you have a 500 word text, you shouldn’t use your keyword more than 5 times.

Off-page search engine optimisation basics refer to obtaining links from other websites to yours. Some of these links should bear as anchor text your main keyword. Beware that Google will penalise your page if all your anchors look the same. Anchor text variation is very important for the safety of your website. When naturally occurring, linking can be done on words like “click here”, or “read more” or even the URL of your page.

The main rule of SEO is to not overdo it. It’s better to write awesome copy that makes people naturally want to link to you and share your articles, than to write mediocre things and pay others to link to you.

If you have an Internet business, you likely understood the need to optimize your business to be found in the search engines. This type of search engine optimization (SEO) is something that you need to consider carefully because it can send you qualified traffic that will make a difference in your success. Of course, understanding the best SEO practices is important in order to succeed in this way. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

One of the most important things to consider with SEO is the need to stay within the boundaries that are set by the search engines. If you try to game the search engines, you may see a temporary benefit but it is going to eventually damage your rankings and you will lose traffic as a result. As long as you follow the best SEO practices, you will be able to do so in the same amount of time and with benefits that will last for the long term.

The content that you put on your webpage should be of the highest quality. That will help to improve your rankings in numerous ways. In the content of your webpage, include the keywords that you are targeting naturally without overdoing it. You should also optimize your page titles and meta-descriptions for those keywords as well.

One other thing to consider is your link building strategy. You should look for ways to naturally create external links to your website. You should also consider the fact that social media links are also now included among the best SEO practices for a properly optimized website. It will help to have an impact on your ranking and will have the added benefit of sending a warm audience to your webpage, if you use social media properly.