How to do SEO in 15 easy steps

We know that Google takes into account 200 SEO factors  when positioning any website in organic search results.

Too many so that you can know them all in detail and start optimizing your website for each of them.

In this article we will give you  15 keys and fundamental principles of SEO , the essential rules that must be respected, some tricks to optimize your site and tips to avoid a catastrophe in the visibility of your website on the Internet.

What is SEO

SEO is the English term for search engine optimization.

The concept is simple: SEO is to position your website in first position in search engines, for all searches made by users and for which your company can respond with a product or service.

When we talk about SEO, we often talk about Google, for the simple reason that the market share of this search engine is much higher than the rest of its competitors.

This world is increasingly complex and involves different fields: web development, writing and content optimization, creation of links and popularity of the site from which they link, improvement of web performance, structuring of contents and pages, analysis of traffic, etc.

 

15 keys and fundamental principles of SEO

1) Understand Google

If we simplify to the maximum the concept of natural positioning, we can say that it is based on three pillars :

  • Source code
  • Contents
  • Links

To which we can add two other aspects that will indirectly affect SEO: the strategy and web usability .

Why does Google position a particular site first for a specific query?

To answer this question, you must understand what the search engine does:

  1. Browse the web (tracking)
  2. When it finds content, it analyzes it and adds it to its database of web pages (indexing);
  3. Then follow the links found in the new content to continue tracking
  4. At the same time, when the user does a search, it recovers all the content that could be useful in relation to the request, so it is classified by relevance and popularity.

Keep in mind that the search engine updates your results constantly based on your browsing history, whether or not you are connected to your Google account, your location, or if you access from a mobile or computer.

2) Allow the tracking of your website

Once we understand the general functioning of the Google search engine, we realize that we must help you scan our site . To achieve this, there are some basic rules:

  • Each content is unique and has a single URL . Therefore, it is necessary to avoid accessing the same contents through several different addresses:
  • Avoid blocking elements :
    • The Flash format
    • The NoIndex directive
    • 404 errors
    • Redirections
    • …
  • Each page must have unique and relevant content that meets a specific need.

3) Facilitate indexing

Next, we will facilitate the addition of our contents to the search engine database:

  • List our contents (sitemap file)
  • Indicate where you are at each moment within the site with:
    • Menu
    • Navigation path and its marking schema.org
    • Canonical URLs
  • We provide access to all our content with:
    • Manual links between our contents
    • Related Posts

4) Segment by a keyword

Of course, we should always try to satisfy the user’s need , that is, try to position ourselves by the search term that this user will use. For this you must be clear that:

  • Each content meets one or more specific needs
  • Each content has a purpose (sell a service or product, retrieve an email address, improve reputation …)
  • We must think about how the user will express their need

5) Write relevant content for SEO

Once you have in mind the specific keyword that you want to position, you should try to be relevant in Google’s eyes and think that you are addressing a robot that does not have the same comprehension capacity as a human being. Here again, SEO is based on fundamentals that have not changed over time:

  • Content must be long enough
  • Include the term or key phrase
  • Includes related terms or synonyms
  • Add videos and images
  • The content must be placed consistently in the structure of the website (which implies that the site is well designed)
  • The publication is, of course, optimized for SEO (H1, labels, meta descriptions …)

6) Constant updates

Another point to keep in mind is that Google, Bing, Yahoo and the rest of search engines love recent and updated content .

Therefore, you must make sure to publish regularly useful and relevant content and that your site is interactive (the content generated by the user is a good way to get updated content without effort: reviews, comments …)

7) Contents that work in web positioning

Keep in mind that some content works better than others in the sense that they attract users more easily and, therefore, facilitate the exchange and natural creation of links to your publications. Among them we find:

  • Lists
  • Striking titles
  • Infographics
  • videos
  • Tutorials and guides

8) Enriched content

This can be done by creating user generated content, but also by adding the corresponding markup from schema.org. It is advisable, according to your activity sector, to create contents of this type to facilitate the understanding of your different pages and improve visibility in the results:

  • News
  • Kitchen Recipes
  • Images
  • videos
  • Postal addresses
  • Customer reviews

9) Understanding popularity and PageRank

A technically well-designed site with good content is still not enough. We must add an essential element in SEO: popularity.

Basically, a search engine estimates that every URL within a website has a (small) popularity. When you link to another page, a part of that popularity is transferred to you. A) Yes:

  • The more links a page has, the more popular it is
  • The more links are made from popular pages, the more powerful the link will be
  • Each link also transmits a semantic notion. If the link is located in a part of the text that is spoken about, for example, web design, Google interprets that the site you are linking to has a relationship with that topic.

10) Create links

You must create links, but you must do it intelligently.

There is a risk that if you abuse links, the effect can be negative and lead to a penalty (since the last update of Google Penguin , Google is much less permissive with this type of techniques).

You must create links:

  • From multiple types of site (directories, forums, blogs, institutional websites, wikis …)
  • From sites of any size
  • From websites with a theme similar to yours
  • From popular pages
  • With alternation of natural links (click here) and optimized links (SEO Valencia agency)
  • Avoiding low quality pages (spam, bad language, link farms, negative themes …)

 

11) Be active in social networks

Another important element today: the impact of social networks. In many cases, you may think that the simple fact of having a company page on Facebook or a profile on Twitter can bring us benefits in SEO.

If you are not active and publish constant updates, it is as if you were not.

Create a social media marketing strategy that helps you attract new customers. With the management of social networks you can reach a broader target audience and boost the brand image of your business on the Internet.

12) Responsive Site

The consideration by the search engines of the mobile compatibility (and, therefore, of the responsive web design) in the ranking of results is one of the vital trends for any website in terms of SEO in recent years.

It is essential, given the amount of web traffic that currently enters from mobile devices, whether smartphones or tablets . It is important to improve the user experience and, therefore, to increase the conversion rate.

13) Charging time

Another aspect that positively or negatively impacts on web positioning is the loading time. It is imperative to implement this recommendation, for the simple reason that a slow page can desperate the user and make it go to the competition and never see it again on your site.

Also keep in mind that a better loading time makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index, which is always beneficial for your visibility.

14) Https

Google is a recognized HTTPS advocate, that is, secure URLs when your computer or mobile phone communicates with the server. When making the change from http to https, remember to correctly redirect all your links.

The implementation of HTTPS, if not done well, can become a real disaster for the positioning of a complete website, due to the loss of a large number of links that were already established. So pay close attention to this point.

15) The key to good SEO

To summarize this first approach to SEO positioning, it can be said that the key to success is based on simple pillars that do not usually vary with time:

  • Have a solid technical base
  • You constantly create varied and reputable links
  • Generate relevant and updated content
  • Think about the needs of the user
  • Have an effective web positioning strategy