The 5 important concepts of SEO - LinkedIn

5 Must-Know SEO Concepts You Must Follow in 2024

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing a website to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). There are many different concepts and techniques involved in SEO.

SEO is the foundation of a successful website. Considering that an estimated 51% of site traffic originates from organic search, it is clear that where a website appears on the SERP will greatly impact the site’s overall traffic success. Properly done, SEO can drive engagement, conversions, and revenue.

What Is SEO And Why Do I Need It?

Let’s quickly cover this point. SEO stands for search engine optimization and is supposed to ensure that your website and content have the best chances to rank high on the search engine result page (SERP). Simply said, it means that you want to optimize your website and content in a way so that search engines such as Google can understand what your website and content is about so that it can rank them high for specific keywords.

Why you need this? Well, do you ever go further than the second or third page on Google’s result page? No? That’s your answer right there.

The higher your website and content ranks on Google, the more people will click on it. Accordingly, the more sales or conversions you will likely get. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Through the remainder of 2024, it is essential to understand these five critical SEO concepts as we gear up for success.

Want to get the most from your SEO?

SEO Basics 1: Who do I create content for?

You can begin to build your target personas by examining and your current and past customers. You want to understand what they wanted to see from a business and what brought them to you.

SEO Basics 2: What kind of content do people want to read?

By doing keyword research you can examine factors, such as the traffic and level of competition for a particular keyword. This can help you pinpoint concepts that your targeted personas are likely to be searching for, improving your chances of attracting a strong audience.

SEO Basics 3: How do I write content that is easy to digest?

As you develop your material, the customer should be the center focus. Make sure the content adds something of value for your readers.

SEO Basics 4: How can I help people find my content?

People do not magically find quality content, you need to engage in a few best practices to improve the visibility of your material. To begin, make sure you have included your keyword 5-10 times throughout the content, depending on length.

SEO Basics 5: How to I create a pleasant user experience?

Unique images, particularly those that directly involve your company, such as personnel or your products and services, tend to be great.

SEO Basics 6: How do I make my site easy to navigate?

If they want to learn more about your company itself, for example, then it should be obvious where they can find an About Us link.

Your sitemap should also be uploaded to Google to help the search engine understand your site as it crawls the domain.

SEO Basics 7: How do I get people to engage with my site?

One important means is through internal links. These links will provide access to resources for those who want to learn more about these related subjects. You should have all links in your piece open into a new window.

SEO Basics 8: How do I track metrics and analytics?

Keywords:

Make sure that you are aware of what your target market is searching to find your site or services you offer. These “terms” or keywords, push you forward in SEO by connecting the consumer’s thoughts to your product or service.

One of the most important concepts in SEO is the use of keywords. These are the terms and phrases that users enter into search engines when looking for specific information. In order to optimize your website for search engines, you will need to identify the keywords that are relevant to your business or industry and include them in your website's content and meta tags.

On-page optimization:

On-page optimization refers to the optimization of individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page optimization includes optimizing the content, images, meta tags, title tags, and URL structure.

Off-page optimization:

Off-page optimization refers to the actions you take outside of your website to improve your search engine rankings. Off-page optimization includes link building, social media promotion, and other tactics to increase the popularity, trustworthiness, and authority of your website.

Content:

Content is king in the world of SEO. Search engines are looking for high-quality, unique and informative content. It's important to keep creating new and valuable content to improve your search rankings, attract more visitors and engage them with your site.

User Experience:

Be sure that content on your website is information heavy but clear of “fluff” (the extra?words used to make a piece of content seem longer, but that have little-to-no value).?Your platform should be clear and easy to navigate.

Search engines are placing more and more emphasis on user experience when it comes to determining rankings. Websites that provide a positive user experience will rank higher in search results than those that don't. User experience includes aspects like site speed, mobile-friendliness, navigation, page structure and content organization.

There are many other factors that go into SEO, but these five concepts are considered to be the most important. Remember that SEO is a continuous process and requires constant monitoring, testing and adapting to changes in search engines algorithms.

Social Media:

Last but certainly not least, utilizing social media is major for optimizing your website. Your social media strategy should constantly link back to your website. This is important because it generates leads and boosts credibility through Google. More importantly, social media platforms act as search engines as well, so it is not uncommon for a company’s social media page to rank higher than its website.

Overall, SEO is an intricate process. Even a basic understanding of the concepts listed above will push your business forward in Google rankings.

As you begin to do SEO on your website, you also need to track metrics. It is not optimal to run an SEO campaign based upon intuition or feelings. When you are just getting started in SEO, there are a few key areas that you want to focus on your:

• Traffic rates by channel
• Bounce rate
• Conversion rates
• Cost per conversion

These numbers will help you see how well your SEO efforts are helping to bring more people to your website and how interesting they find your material. As you mature in your SEO process, you will also want to start looking at more in-depth metrics, such as how your performance is changing month-over-month and year-over-year. You will want to explore how your performance is impacted by different campaigns as well. Fortunately, a platform like BrightEdge allows you to customize your analytics so you can easily get the information you need at each stage of your campaign. SEO is an important part of any marketing campaign. Following each of these SEO basics will help you succeed.