4 Secrets for Mastering the Art of SEO Analysis
Amanda Taylor, PhD
Sr. Director of Global Communication and Marketing @ ABET | PhD in Media and Communication | Award-Winning Professional
It is no secret that search engine optimization (SEO) is vital to getting organic traffic. In an article by Search Engine Journal, they state that of the links search engine users click on, 70% are organic. Having a good SEO score means that you are getting attention, helping the end user find you, and reducing paid advertising expenditures. It’s a win-win…win!
The problem comes with the mysterious nature of knowing how to determine the essential features of SEO. With search engine analytics constantly changing, SEO analysis will certainly keep you on your toes! Frequent SEO analysis is, however, enormously important to increasing the amount of visitors to your website and raising virtual awareness of your brand.
What is SEO exactly?
The first step in SEO analysis is to have an understanding of what SEO is exactly. Search engines first made their appearance around 1993 and they have been evolving ever since. When website owners realized that they could get more traffic to their website by figuring out how to make their sites appear higher in a search engine search, SEO was born.
In essence, SEO is the same: it is the act of applying techniques to increase the ranking of a website by a search engine. The way to go about this has however, drastically changed. If you look back just a few years ago, SEO was singing a different tune. So how can we make sure that we are in harmony with the new features of SEO? Glad you asked…
What are the secrets of SEO analysis?
1. Constantly Assess Your Customer Persona
So, you might have developed a story of your target audience (or you have at least thought about it). But how long has it been since you have thought about it? People are constantly developing, and so is your business. Is it possible that your customer persona has changed as well as the things they are searching for?
This matters to SEO because analytic changes are trending to serve the end-user. Knowing what words or phrases your customer is searching for will help the search engine help you help the end-user. Got it :)
2. Do Keyword Research
It might be easy to slack on this, but after you have a good idea of what your customer is searching for, it is a good idea to do some research on what the specific word or phrase they are typing into the search engine is. It is a lot of work, but it is very important in your SEO analysis, as this is what the search engines will be looking for to match you with your audience.
While you do have to pay to go ‘pro’ on many of the keyword search tools out there, you might also find some that are free. Here are three that I have found work pretty well in the free stage:
2) Internetmarketingninjas.com
3) Majestic.com
3. Check Your Keyword Placement
Make sure they are in the following places:
- URL
- Page Title
- Meta Description
- Image Alt-tags
- On-Page Headings (e.g. in the first 200 characters of your blog post)
- Through the Page Content (don’t stuff your keywords into your content – instead let them come organically several time through the piece. Remember the condescending acronym KISS [Keep it simple stupid]).
4. Pay Attention to Social Media Optimization
Some have disputed whether SEO is dead altogether, and if social media optimization (SMO) is the future. The Google algorithm is back and forth about if they crawl Facebook and Twitter in search engine ranking. However, many experts encourage you to remember – social is a search engine as well! Most of the top social platforms (i.e. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google +) have search capabilities that allow the user to find your business if you have corresponding keywords that the user is searching for in your information.
Making sure your social media information is complete and up-to-date will show the end user that you are relevant and engaged.
Okay – so maybe these secrets aren’t as simple to execute, as they are to understand. This requires a lot of ongoing work, but if that is what it takes to be virtually visible to customers and potential customers, isn’t it worth it?