SEO/Search Engine Optimization
We often hear about SEO/Search engine Optimization but what is it really?
What does it do for a website? Do i really need it for my business?
If you are interested in reaching your website’s full potential and rank higher on search engines, keep reading this article!
What is SEO/Search Engine Optimization ?
Definition and Meaning
SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization(Search engines such as Google or Bing). The three words that make all the difference when it comes to a website’s success.
SEO means optimizing your website for search engines
This optimization aims at the websites’ highest quality function and the direct and targeted response to the users’ searches.
Why is this happening? Because every search made by internet users in search engines, is essentially a question. Google’s goal is to give the best and most qualitative response, among all possible results.
Through SEO, a website acquires the credibility and power it needs so that it is considered by the public and, most importantly, by the search engines as qualitative and able to rank high and give the ideal “answer” to the users’ google search.
How is this going to happen? Key to the whole process is the creation of qualitative, organised content, completely relevant to the public’s searches and keywords related to the subject of each site.
As a result, any text, image, or video that constitutes the content of a web page, will be perceived and understood by the search engines, which based on this, will assess whether the web page deserves to rank on the first page.
In Simple Words.
SEO is about helping Search engines like Google, find your Website, understand your content and rank your Website above your competition based on Relevance and Quality.
Sharpen your Saw
Imagine taking a walk in a forest when you suddenly see in front of you a distressed man trying to cut down a tree.
-“What are you doing;” you ask him.
– “I’m trying to cut this tree for about 5 hours now!” he answers, obviously exhausted.
– “Why don’t you sharpen your saw then?”
– ”But I want to cut this tree now! I do not have time for such things! ”
This is how people view SEO. They spend no time on it. They spend huge sums on continuous advertising campaigns trying to boost their pages, without being ready to welcome the quality audience of advertising, doing half the work or even worse losing the most qualitative, potential customers due to the bad impression their site makes without SEO.
In this article, we will discuss everything about SEO better than anything else you have read so far.
After all, we are SEO experts.
SEO Advantages
As we mentioned before, SEO includes the ways in which a website will be considered worthy and qualitative so that it appears in the first page of search engine results.
But which are the benefits of a website through SEO?
Increased traffic
One of the major SEO benefits for websites is the increase in their organic traffic. When a user makes a targeted google search, they are more likely to visit the web pages that are in the top search engine results.
Thus, enhanced SEO and consequently the ranking of a website in the highest positions of the results, obviously contribute to more traffic, since it stands to reason that the higher a website appears, the more users click on it.
Status
Equally important is the fact that when a website manages to rise high in the search engine results positions through SEO, it automatically enhances its prestige and power, as well as the status of the company it represents online.
SEO reinforces the idea that the website is a qualitative one, with reliable products and services, thus increasing the company’s prestige and importance and as a result strengthens the trust that inspires customers.
Advertising campaign support
Along with SEO, the most basic practice that a website can implement is advertising. This ad is a very important step to enhance SEO as it is specific and targeted so as to attract potential customers (quality traffic).
But without SEO, even the best advertising campaign can not bring the maximum positive results. If a user, seeing the ad, visits a web page that does not meet any SEO requirements, they are more likely to immediately leave.
More specifically, if the website is not optimised, users who visit the website through the ad, will not be satisfied and will eventually leave, resulting in reduced power and effectiveness of the whole advertising campaign.
In another case, when a website has enhanced SEO and uses ads at the same time, these promotions will further enhance the SEO of the website. As a result, when the advertising campaign ends, the already increased SEO will work dynamically for the benefit of the website, which will have systematically increased traffic and also more chances to rank high in the search engine results.
Better CPC / Cost Per Click service
Pay per click service is one of the most popular methods for online advertising. The term “cost per click” basically means the price a company pays for each click on its advertising campaign that appears in search engine results (Search Engine Result Page).
When the advertised website already has increased SEO, authority and quality content, then the cpc is significantly lower compared to that of other advertised websites that do not have equally qualitative content.
Thus, if a website has developed SEO and therefore rank high in search engine results, the cost of advertising is lower, greatly benefiting the advertised website and company.
In addition, through the Landing Page Experience service, Google calculates the quality of a user’s browsing experience on a web page when choosing its ad.
When a website’s landing page experience is qualitative and the keywords of the ad are related to its content, then the cpc is greatly reduced.
More customers
A natural consequence of increasing a website’s traffic, is its expanded clientele, provided that it follows SEO methods.
Specifically, if a website is credible, has enhanced SEO and qualitative and targeted content based on the keywords that appear most often in google searches, then the chances are the majority of visitors will become customers by making a purchase of services or products.
SEO in detail
In order to be able to analyze SEO more thoroughly, we must first define some basic terms that are an integral part of the operation of any website that aims to enhance its Search Engine Optimization.
What does page authority mean, what does domain authority mean and what is the difference between them?
Initially, imagine that your website is a book with a title /domain and each page of it, is a web page on your site.
For example, in our book / website the domain is the site’s name devseg.com. Correspondingly, a page of our book is any extension to this link, such as devseg.com/portfolio.
Page Authority
Page authority is the score that helps us determine how high a page will rank in the search engines results. This ranking is based on data and analysis from Moz company and the higher the ranking of a page, the better position it occupies in search engine results. This score is on a scale of 100 points and each page is evaluated according to this logarithmic point scale.
How does Page authority work?
Page authority is suggested as the best estimate of individual pages following specific algorithms. Based on MozTrust, MozRank and many other factors, it examines and analyzes exactly how Google judges your site pages and ranks them in its results.
Domain Authority
As Domain authority, on the other hand, is the score gathered by an entire website based on which the chances that it has to be ranked high in the search engine results are calculated. As said before, Domain authority (DA) is also calculated on a point scale from 0 to 100.
How does Domain authority work?
Using inverse logarithmic engineering from Google, Moz, through Domain authority, calculates the quantity and quality of backlinks that lead to a website and judges or predicts how likely that site will appear in Google’s first results.
What is the difference between a Page Authority and a Domain Authority?
While both calculate chances of ranking in search engine results on a logarithmic scale based on dozens of factors, Page authority is about judging and evaluating a particular single page, as opposed to Domain authority which is the rating of an entire website’s power.
You can now realise how important page authority and domain authority are for a website, since based on them it is possible to enhance its SEO. Respectively, when SEO is enhanced in the entire domain of your website and on each page separately, then the authority can be high.
So when your goal is to promote a single page based on specific keywords, you need to focus on strengthening your Page authority. On the other hand, if you want to enhance your entire website and brand, then Domain authority has to be your target and goal.
How do search engines work?
Every time you make a search in a search engine, an algorithm works in real time to find and determine what are the best quality results for your search.
Specifically, Google scans the internet for keywords to find the best answer for your search.
For this reason, web pages are evaluated by how well they can respond to internet users’ searches.
More thoroughly, when a page is published , a web crawler, spider, or spiderbot, crawls and saves it for the search engines, so that it can appear on the SERPs(Search Engine Resault Pages).
You need Quality to get Quantity of Organic Traffic!
Let’s analyze this sentence.
Traffic Quality.
You can attract all users on the internet, but if they’re visiting your website because Google brings you up on machine oil results when in reality you’re a farmer selling olive oil, that is not quality traffic. Instead you want your users to find content relevant to their interests.
Traffic Quantity.
After your website gets users that are genuinely interested in your content, the more traffic the better.
Organic Results.
A big portion of search results are Ads (paid for). Organic traffic is any traffic that you earn for free.
In other words, with Quality Content your website ranks up higher in the search result ladder and you get more Free Traffic!
After all, according to Bill Gates, “Content is King” and we couldn’t agree more.
How does a website rank in Google results?
In the process of saving a recently published web page to the web, Google examines the webpage based on specific data.
In the first stage, extremely important data for a website are the keywords and their quantity in an organic way within the content of the website, to determine how relevant its content is to the keywords of each search. In addition, Google rankings count on the amount of content on the website, how well it is built, but also how user-friendly it is based on the speed it loads and how it displays its content.
At the same time, at this point it is necessary to avoid practices that are characterized as malicious, such as keyword stuffing or duplicate content, which as a result can harm the SEO of a website.
When all of these have been examined, and the page is based on the relevancy to it’s topic, the page appears in the ranking of the search engine results, in the position it was deemed worthy of, according to the above data and also compared to the data of other competing websites.
The process of ranking a website does not end there.
From the moment the website appears in the search results, the ones who mainly determine its position in the search engine results are the visitors. At this point, the quality of the content, its correct placement, as well as the percentage of users who find what they are looking for in each website, are about to be evaluated.
The data that are considered particularly critical and get analyzed, is the average time that the public browses the website as well as its dropout rates. At the same time, it is equally important for the ranking of a website if the user finds what he is looking for in its content. If the visitor leaves a foreign website that is in a better position and ends up on your website finding what they want, Google re-sorts them and your site may appear even in the top positions of search engines!
A key role in the evaluation of a website also play the do-follow backlinks to your website from others of equal or even more quality, related to the subject of your website. When websites with high authority, reputable, qualitative and user friendly suggest, through backlinks, another website, it automatically means for Google that this website is also a qualitative one, with authority that deserves to appear high in its results. In short, their high authority can help determine your own high authority.
Even though Google does not share her algorithms, SEO experts like ours here at DevSeg, based on years of statistical analysis, researches and Google statements, optimize every detail of your website to rank it as the number one search result for your ideal audience.
SEO is more than Just Ranking.
Making your company visible in search engine results above your competition is a long-term strategy that you can approach in many possible methods.
SEO Good Practices
Since the early 1990s, SEO has been one of the biggest goals of those who build, manage and generally get involved with the technical functions of websites. Over the years, many practices have been tried, with some achieving their purpose and others not. Nowadays, the methods that are considered the most effective and efficient for SEO have been consolidated and applied worldwide by all successful websites. Let’s take a look at them.
Social Media
One of the methods that effectively contribute to a website’s success, is social media. However, their case is unusual. Although they are not a direct SEO source for a website, their functionality is definitely necessary.
When you post through your social media account a link that leads to your website, then this hyperlink is a no-follow link, so it does not channel link juice and it does not directly affect the SEO and ranking of your website.
However, we have good news.
Although social media links are no-follow backlinks, they are a huge advertising campaign. Creating professional profiles for the promotion of your website is important and necessary, since through social media you can attract a targeted quality audience, who will be interested in your content and will prove to be very loyal by contributing to increasing your website’s traffic rates, to increasing your site’s Average session duration, but also to reducing its dropout rates.
How does social media affect SEO?
Social media, even though it doesn’t give a do-follow link, it affects the SEO of your website in more ways than you think.
- It easily promotes your content to a directly interested audience. This audience, as it is targeted, is quality traffic for your site. Thus, it can significantly reduce the bounce rate of the website and increase the average stay on it. When these rates are positive, they are particularly important for a site’s SEO.
- It increases your website’s traffic.
- It enhances Local SEO, your website’s promotion processes in order to attract an audience based on local specifications.
- Social media also increases the recognition of your brand.
SEO Content
When we talk about SEO, we can not omit the part of a website’s content and especially the texts that it contains.
SEO Copywriting
By writing texts that interest your audience, you can aim to increase the traffic to your website. At the same time, if you apply SEO methods in the process of writing your articles, such as keywords and writing detailed and targeted texts, you can expect the SEO enhancement of your entire website so that it appears in the first search engine results.
Below we will separately analyze the methods that are worth following in the content of your website for the highest quality SEO copywriting in order for your site to be the best answer to every google search.
SEO Headlines
Creating untitled content can seriously damage the SEO of your website. With titles, you get the opportunity to explain to both the public and the search engines the topic that you are analyzing in your article.
This practice offers you a great priviledge. If you apply it in parallel with the correct and prudent use of keywords, search engines can immediately and easily locate your content and rank it in their results.
SEO Keywords
Keywords are terms that are used within the text of a page and based on them the topic and content of each article is explained to the search engines, so that it is ranked in the right place based on the users’ searches.
For example, when you make a google search typing the acronym SEO, higher on the first page of the results will appear web pages that contain the word SEO as the keyword of their content and then those that contain anything similar, such as Search Engine Optimization, as their keyword.
By using the keywords in which you aim to rank, in order for your website to appear in the first Google results, the traffic of your entire site increases.
What you need to pay great attention to, is the extent of use in your text. Keyword stuffing, the practice that many websites incorrectly follow, in which they fill their content with keywords recklessly and without meaning, can bring the opposite results from what you want, generally harming the SEO of your site.
According to backlinko, finding the right keywords and making proper use of them, without stuffing, is the number 1 step in any SEO enhancement process.
Content SEO renewal / Start Posting More
Pages with more, higher quality, and enriched content have proven to rank higher in the search engine results. Google itself has emphasized the great importance it gives to the constant renewal and optimization of websites.
Take our company as an example. In 2019 we posted this article explaining what SEO is in just 600 words. Since then, we are constantly updating and enriching it, as it now has exceeded 3000 words and is the best guide for SEO, including every detail that you will find useful.
After all, it is no coincidence that we guarantee to successfully undertake for you the renewal and improvement of your content on every page of your site and to apply the most dynamic methods for SEO copywriting.
SEO images
A particularly important part of SEO copywriting is enriching your website’s content with images related to your articles. They create a digital environment that is enjoyable and relaxing for the reader, creating the best conditions for gaining a loyal and systematic clientele.
At the same time, a very important SEO method is to create descriptions under each image, explaining the content of the photo, creating the so-called Alt Text.
With Alt text, you are essentially explaining to search engines what the photo you included in your content exactly refers to. At this point you need to be careful not to get into keyword stuffing, as this will definitely not work positively for your website and its SEO.
SEO Videos
Along with images, video posting is another effective SEO practice.
When posting new content on your website, it is very effective to create a presentation video of the products you provide to the public and include it in your website’s content.
A significant percentage of those who make online purchases, often choose products that are presented via video, as this way they can easily get to know more of the product and its details.
Thus, you can attract new customers by increasing the traffic of your product pages that include video. At the same time, when visitors watch a video presentation of products and services, each user’s average session duration on a website increases significantly.
Meta-tags
Meta-tags are a large and very remarkable category of methods that enhance the SEO of a website.
It is basically how we can explain to search engines the data of a website in order for them to analyze it and rank it in their results. In other words, they are found on every website and relate to the title (meta-title), the description of a website’s content in the search engine results (meta-description), the way the website appears based on the responsive web design (meta-viewport) etc.
Search engines take heed of the information they obtain through meta-tags and in combination with the analysis they make on the content of a web page, they can rank it according to their results.
Meta-tags, if implemented properly, can prove to be extremely useful for a website’s SEO, as they present the content of a website to Google, which could not analyze it in any other way.
Advertising
One of the most important practices that you can follow to enhance the SEO of your website, is advertising. In the internet, the most competitive place for a business in 2021, a well-structured advertising campaign can bring tremendous results.
What is interesting about advertising and SEO, is that they move in parallel. The stronger the SEO of a website, the greater the advertising results. The important thing is that the more enhanced the SEO of a site, the lower the cost that a strong advertising campaign requires.
As we can all understand, advertising a site is neither a simple nor a straightforward process and it certainly does not achieve maximum success on its own. If you follow our tips and take advantage of all the right and reliable SEO practices, then the advertising campaign you will choose so as to launch your company will immediately bring the results you desire.
Blogging makes great SEO!
One excellent method is to write and post articles (blog post) based on the most popular keywords in your industry. This is a great way to publish suitable and relevant content.
If done correctly, this will get you on the top end of the search engine results and skyrocket your organic traffic.
Practically, with a blog you can publish constantly, even daily, new images, videos and texts without overloading with such data the main presentation website of your company.
These blog posts are essentially the ones that contribute directly and actively to the optimization of a website, thus its SEO.
Our company is a great example here.
There is a major problem in our market right now. Most consumers and business owners are not yet familiar with the internet terms. In Greece, the largest percentage of the population that has been engaged in business for many years, has limited knowledge of both the English language and the internet use terms, since they did not grow up in an era full of technology and digital media.
Imagine how difficult it is for an entrepreneur who is used to physical stores, to realize the power of the internet and to open an online store (eShop).
That’s why we wrote an article explaining what eCommerce and eShops are so thoroughly that it got ranked first on the ideal google search results for our target market.
And that was only the tip of the iceberg.
Even when we were a new company trying to compete with the big sharks of the Web Development and SEO-Search engine Optimization game, our website managed to get in the first place of the results related to the keywords of our article, in less than 6 months of online presence.
With an article strategically written and perfectly optimized by our SEO experts and specialists, following all the methods and practices that we choose to share with you today (and those that we will not reveal yet), we started our course in this field, consolidating our position.
It is now clear that you should not underestimate the power of new, up-to-date, and frequent updated blogging on your page, as an integral part of your business’ SEO campaign.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging refers to the process by which you create and publish articles on which you are an expert, on a foreign website. This practise can enhance your sites SEO as it may provide you with a backlink that leads the other website’s visitors back to your own. According to a study conducted by SEMrush, 53% of digital marketing agencies say that guest blogging is the most effective way to develop a major backlink profile.
One of the main advantages of guest blogging is the acquaintance and communication with new, quality and useful audience, as well as the acquisition of backlink from a website of your choice. Writing and promoting your own content and getting a hyperlink from a website of the same or similar subject to yours will undoubtedly help increase your website traffic and give you new momentum.
To be able to make profitable and effective guest blogging you can apply the good practices mentioned above that lead to the SEO of a website.
What you need to pay attention to, is that the website where you get a backlink from should be qualitative and useful for your audience, with high authority, in order to get the maximum benefits through it.
Bad SEO
Even in 2021, many websites in vain try to enhance their SEO by following practices that bring the opposite from what they are looking for results. These methods might be presented as effective for a short time, but in the long run they seriously damage the SEO of any website that applies them.
Below we will briefly mention the practices that you should leave behind in 2021, if you want to increase the overall SEO of your website efficiently.
Keyword stuffing / keyword deficiency
Whenever we discuss the importance of the correct and smart use of keywords, we also have to point out the consequences of excessive use or, conversely, lack of keywords.
In particular, in the first case, search engines perceive this practice of keyword stuffing as an attempt to enhance SEO in misleading ways, and of course Google punishes every website that applies it.
On the other hand, the absence of keywords or the use of a single keyword equally harms every website and its SEO, since with reduced use of keywords the chances of ranking high in search engine results for relevant keywords get rapidly reduced.
Pop up ads
Noone can deny the fact that when a website is full of ads and pop-ups, it becomes terribly annoying and tedious for all its users and visitors.
When an internet user visits a website and is forced to leave due to excessive advertising, the chances are they won’t visit that website again. Therefore, since the browsing experience in it can not be described as qualitative and friendly to the public, it is certain and logical that its traffic rates will soon fall sharply.
Plagiarism / limited content
Interesting content is definitely one of the most important elements that a remarkable website must obtain in order to increase its SEO.
However, special importance must be given to this, since in order to characterize the content of a web page as qualitative, certain parameters must be followed.
Specifically, if the texts or images of a website are copied from another website, the search engines realize that the content of the site is not genuine and they will definitely won’t rank it high in their results.
Similarly, when a website has original but small, limited and non-updated content, it does not meet the criteria and conditions required to surpass its competitors and dynamically enhance its SEO.
Bad backlinks
Great regard must be given to the websites that link to yours. Specifically, as we have mentioned before, the hyperlinks that link one website to another, connect their value and authority.
Thus, if you are interested in improving the quality of your website in order to get what you need for enhanced SEO, you need to check again and examine thoroughly which websites are related to yours, through backlinks, guest posting, etc., even if they are obtained in a good way.
Cloaking
Another erroneous method that is often used by unsuspecting websites so as to maximize their SEO but end up with the opposite results, is known as “cloaking”.
This term refers to the process by which various links are placed in an off-site web environment, in order to “confuse” the search engines and gain more rankings.Undeniably, this practise is a huge mistake and is often punished according to google penalties, since search engines have the ability to check if the content of a site is directly related to what visitors see and want or if it serves cloaking conditions with misleading purposes.
More about SEO
If you want to learn more about SEO, we recomend the following Videos:
Our article doesn’t end here
As we have already pointed out, a particularly important method for every website and online store of your business, is the constant and systematic updating of its content, even if it has not yet reached the size you want. The important thing is to often post new material and then you can enrich it with new data and relevant information.
This is exactly what we do! We update the content of our site very often and it is not unlikely that when you visit our website again you will find new information and data in all of our articles – as in this one!
In order to see every new content we offer to our readers and to learn about the best articles in the field of marketing, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and we will make sure to inform you as soon as we publish something new!
Are you interested in reaching your website’s full potential with DevSeg?
DevSeg means Development Segment and what we are most interested in is to apply our creativity and experience, in order to fulfill the vision and wishes of each of our customers individually.
We pride ourselves in the work we’ve done, and our innovative point of view is what sets us apart.
We are looking forward to helping more people achieve their business goals.
We’ve made it our mission, to make our customer’s wants and dreams a reality.
The passion and skill that we put into it helps us achieve it and makes our work special.
So If you are interested in reaching your website’s full potential and rank higher on search engines, contact us and we’ll make it happen for you.
Don’t be a stranger.
If you found this article informative leave a comment and share on your social.