What is SEO and how does it work?
SEO can be defined as a set of activities aimed at increasing the visibility of a website in the search engine for specific keywords. It is a multi-stage process that requires time and experience. SEO cannot be considered a one-time action as it will not bring any specific results. For more significant changes resulting from effective positioning, you have to wait on average several months, and sometimes even a whole year. You may start to wonder why it takes so long. To understand this, you need to delve into the activities that positioning involves. The process of implementing SEO solutions always begins with a meticulous audit of the website in this respect. It consists in a thorough analysis of the functioning of the website, the detection of specific errors and their causes, the selection of keywords and the preparation of a positioning strategy. Such analysis should be performed by a professional as it requires practical knowledge and the use of several tools. Such an audit is necessary for the further development of SEO activities, and its duration depends on the level of development of the website. After the analysis, the specialist is able to prepare an appropriate strategy and change plan. Only then can you move to the 3 main SEO segments, i.e. optimization, content marketing and link building.
The main task of positioning is to raise the position of the site in the search engine for the appropriate key phrases. However, such actions also greatly affect traffic and conversion. SEO is extremely useful for businesses as it is targeted at people interested in a specific offer, not everyone.
Optimization – what is it?
Simply put, optimization is taking action to fix any errors that prevent you from getting a higher search engine result. It consists in a comprehensive improvement of the website operation, reduction of loading time and analysis of the store structure. User Experience (UX) is an important element of optimization, as Google evaluates websites better suited to the needs of visitors. The duration of optimization depends on the level of development of the website and the number of changes it needs.
SEO elements on the page
The implementation of the SEO strategy starts with specific actions on the website itself. Below we have presented a list of the most important issues that will help your website stand out in the search engine.
Code optimization
This element focuses on adjusting the page code to be readable by Google bots that scan your site from time to time. These bots pay attention to several things, namely:
Title tag – this is the name of your website, which is displayed in the search engine.
Meta Description – This is the description under the title tag. Although it does not play any important role in positioning, it can be used to convey important information.
H1-H4 headings – these are the headers that every subpage and article should have. They tell the bots what the page is about and can be used as a means of inserting keywords.
Internal linking
Internal linking consists in placing links on a subpage referring to another subpage. Often, such treatments are used in blog entries, product descriptions or categories in the form of linked text in the content. The purpose of such activities is to keep visitors on the website longer and to help bots understand the content on your website.
ALT attributes
It is difficult to imagine an e-shop or any website without various types of photos and graphics. They are a fundamental part of online content. Of course, bots are not able to see what the graphics represent, so they need ALT attributes. They are intended to describe the content of the image, for example, if you insert a picture of a bouquet of flowers, names such as “mother’s day bouquet” or “women’s day flowers” may be its ALT attribute.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals is a new concept that defines a set of indicators that have been used by the Google search engine when evaluating websites since 2021. These are :
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – simply speaking, this is the loading time of the website. If it does not exceed 2.5 seconds is considered good, the results below need improvement.
FID (First Input Delay) – this is the time after which the recipient can interact with the website for the first time, e.g. by pressing a field or a subpage. For the website to be well assessed by FID bots, it cannot exceed 100 milliseconds.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) – this factor determines the stability of the page. It determines how often various elements on the site are moved. Scores above 0.1 need improvement.
Mobile version
Since 2019, Google has been indexing mobile, not desktop versions of the website. This means that websites created only for computers, without a responsive design, have no chance of high search results. Your website must have a mobile version at least as good and polished as the desktop version.
Rich snippets
Rich snippets, also known as schema markup or structured data, are extended data for your website that is displayed on Google. They contain a lot of information, e.g. they can inform about a search result or direct to many subpages at the same time. Do you want such tags to appear on your website? Use this guide from Google.
SEO and content marketing
Content marketing is a very important stage of positioning, because valuable content with the appropriate number of matching keywords is caught by bots and influences a higher position in the search engine.
Content marketing activities should start with a thorough analysis of key phrases for which your website is to appear in the search engine. Here, tools such as Google Keyword Planner will come in handy to help you find phrases and indicate their popularity level.
Ever heard of long tail phrases? If not, then we already explain everything. They are simply more specific phrases that are supposed to promote the website into more specific terms. Positioning for such words results not only in greater chances of breakout, but also in a more valuable move. People entering specific passwords are usually determined to buy and there is a greater probability that they will become your customers when they hit your store.
The final point about SEO is valuable content. They should, above all, be original, cannot literally duplicate content from other websites, and extensive, so that they best respond to users’ inquiries. For this reason, it is worth setting up and regularly running a blog or other type of tab, where you will post various types of articles and entries. An important element is also the presence of graphics, photos, other animations or links that enrich and make this section more attractive. Of course, when creating content, you must not forget about the appropriate keywords. However, make sure that they are intertwined into the text in a natural way to avoid the so-called. spam that Google’s algorithm does not like.
What is link building?
Link building does not mean anything else than acquiring external links. They are simply links on other pages that lead to your website or its individual pages. Such activities are of particular importance for SEO, as Google treats such links as commands. However, they must be thematically related to the site and come from sites with a high DR. Therefore, first of all, look for websites that are reliable, have a fairly high position in the search engine and are thematically related to your store. Avoid various spammy websites, as this will adversely affect your position on Google.
When is it worth investing in SEO?
At the beginning, it is worth answering the question whether positioning is for everyone. Although it is a tool that works perfectly in most cases, there are also businesses that do not need this type of action. We mean companies that are based on recommendations, e.g. construction companies. For some, advertising through word of mouth is perfectly fine. News about the high quality of their services is passed on from mouth to mouth and often these types of businesses do not even invest in their own website.
However, if you run dynamic activities on the Internet or plan to open an e-business, positioning is definitely what you need. It is true that the sooner you introduce SEO into your strategy, the sooner you will get satisfactory results. Therefore, it is worth thinking about it before opening the store, because it is easier to build a website adapted to this type of activity from the beginning than to make many detailed changes in its functioning.
SEO offers great development opportunities and has become a very popular tool used by more and more websites and stores. However, effective positioning is very time-consuming and requires experience and knowledge. Often, positioning requires the support of other marketing departments to bring the best results. If you are considering implementing SEO activities on your website, it is best to ask professionals. The Go2ecommerce agency offers the services of the best specialists on the market who will conduct a detailed website audit and prepare and implement a strategy best suited to your business.