Introduction to SEO

1. What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to techniques that help your website rank
higher in organic (or “natural”) search results, thus making your website more
visible to people who are looking for your product or service by search engines.

SEO is part of the broader topic of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), a term used to
describe all marketing strategies for search. SEM entails both organic and paid
search. With paid search, you can pay to list your website on a search engine so
that your website shows up when someone types in a specific keyword or phrase.
Organic and paid listings both appear on the search engine, but they are displayed
in different locations on the page.

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2. How Search Engines Work

Search engines have one objective – to provide you with the most relevant results
possible in relation to your search query. If the search engine is successful in
providing you with information that meets your needs, then you are a happy
searcher. And happy searchers are more likely to come back to the same search
engine time and time again because they are getting the results they need.

In order for a search engine to be able to display results when a user types in a
query, they need to have an archive of available information to choose from. Every
search engine has proprietary methods for gathering and prioritizing website
content. Regardless of the specific tactics or methods used, this process is called
indexing. Search engines actually attempt to scan the entire online universe and
index all the information so they can show it to you when you enter a search query.

So, Howdo they do it? Every search engine has what are referred to as bots, or
crawlers, that constantly scan the web, indexing websites for content and following
links on each webpage to other webpages. If your website has not been indexed, it
is impossible for your website to appear in the search results. Unless you are
running a shady online business or trying to cheat your way to the top of the search
engine results page (SERP), chances are your website has already been indexed.
So, big search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are constantly indexing
hundreds of millions, if not billions, of webpages. How do they know what to show
on the SERP when you enter a search query? The search engines consider two
main areas when determining what your website is about and how to prioritize it.

1. Content on your website: When indexing pages, the search engine bots scan
each page of your website, looking for clues about what topics your website covers
and scanning your website‟s back-end code for certain tags, descriptions, and
instructions.

Example: When you’re website post many contents relate to coffee or coffee
services, then the bot will scan each page of your web page to find out that you
website service is about coffee.

2. Who’s linking to you: As the search engine bots scan webpages for indexing,
they also look for links from other websites. The more inbound links a website has,
the more influence or authority it has. Essentially, every inbound link counts as a
vote for that website‟s content. Also, each inbound link holds different weight. For
instance, a link from a highly authoritative website like The New York Times
(nytimes.com) will give a website a bigger boost than a link from a small blog site.
This boost is sometimes referred to as link juice.

When a search query is entered, the search engine looks in its index for the most
relevant information and displays the results on the SERP. The results are then
listed in order of most relevant and authoritative.

If you conduct the same search on different search engines, chances are you will
see different results on the SERP. This is because each search engine uses a
proprietary algorithm that considers multiple factors in order to determine what
results to show in the SERP when a search query is entered.

A few factors that a search engine algorithm may consider when deciding what
information to show in the SERP include:

· Geographic location of the searcher

· Historical performance of a listing (clicks, bounce rates, etc.)

· Link quality (reciprocal vs. one-way)

· Webpage content (keywords, tags, pictures)

· Back end code or HTML of webpage

· Link type (social media sharing, link from media outlet, blog, etc.)

With a 200B market cap, Google dominates the search engine market. Google
became the leader by fundamentally revolutionizing the way search engines work
and giving searchers better results with their advanced algorithm. With 64%
market share, according to Compete, Inc., Google is still viewed as the primary
innovator and master in the space.

Before the days of Google (circa 1997), search engines relied solely on indexing
web page content and considering factors like keyword density in order to
determine what results to put at the top of the SERP. This approach gave way to
what are referred to as black-hat SEO tactics, as website engineers began
intentionally stuffing their webpages with keywords so they would rank at the top
of the search engines, even if their webpages were completely irrelevant to the
search result.

3/What it Takes to Rank

It is not difficult to get your website to index and even rank on the search engines.
However, getting your website to rank for specific keywords can be tricky. There
are essentially 3 elements that a search engine considers when determining where
to list a website on the SERP: rank, authority, and relevance. (2lần bấm)

Rank

Rank is the position that your website physically falls in on the SERP when a
specific search query is entered. If you are the first website in the organic section
of the SERP, then your rank is 1. If your website is in the second position, your
rank is 2, and so on. As discussed previously in How Search Engines Work, your
rank is an indicator of how relevant and authoritative your website is in the eyes of
the search engine, as it relates to the search query entered.

Authority
As previously discussed in the How Search Engines Work section, search engines
determine how authoritative and credible a website‟s content is by calculating how
many inbound links (links from other websites) it has. However, the number of
inbound links does not necessarily correlate with higher rankings. The search
engines also look at how authoritative the websites that link to you are, what
anchor text is used to link to your website, and other factors such as the age of your
domain.

Relevance

Relevance is a one of the most critical factors of SEO. The search engines are not
only looking to see that you are using certain keywords, but they are also looking
for clues to determine how relevant your content is to a specific search query.
Besides actual text on your webpages, the search engines will review your
website‟s structure, use of keywords in your URLs, page formatting (such as
bolded text), and what keywords are in the headline of the webpage versus those in
the body text.

While there is no way to track how relevant your website is, there are some SEO
basics you can practice to cover your bases and make sure you are giving the
search engines every possible opportunity to consider your website.

Search engines are extremely complex. Bottom line: the search engines are trying
to think like human beings. It is very easy to get caught up in modifying your
website‟s content just so you rank on the search engines. When in doubt, always
err on the side of providing relevant and coherent content that your website‟s
audience (your prospects) can digest. If you find yourself doing something solely
for the search engines, you should take a moment to ask yourself why.

Instruction to SEO

1. On-page SEO

a. Website content

you want to write content that your audience will find valuable and engaging.
Aside from the topical nature of the content, the way you format your webpages
can have an impact on how the search engine bots digest your content. Every
webpage you create should have a thought-provoking headline to grab the reader‟s
attention, and should also include the keyword or phrase that the webpage covers.
Other body formatting, such as bolding certain keywords or phrases, can help
stress the importance of phrases you are optimizing for.

b. Pictures

There is nothing worse than landing on a webpage and being faced with mountains
of text. Not only are pictures a great way to break up sections of text, but they also
serve as an opportunity to communicate with the search engines. Because search
engines cannot tell what a picture is by scanning it, they look for clues in two
places.

Every picture you upload to your website will have a file name. When the picture
is inserted on your website, the picture‟s file name actually lives in your website‟s
sources code, or HTML. Since the search engines scan your website‟s code, you
should use file names that describe the picture. For example, „red-tennis-
shoesvelcro.jpg‟ is much more useful than „pic12345.jpg‟.

c. Title Tags & Meta Tags

Besides an actual text headline on your page, every webpage you create has a title
tag. This is the text snippet that appears in the upper left corner or on the tabs of
your web browser. Also, the title tag is the blue link that the search engines show
when they list your webpage on the SERP. Title tags max out at 75 characters, so
choose your words wisely.

Meta tags are snippets of code you can include within your webpage‟s HTML. The
meta tags are usually located near the title tag code in the head of your HTML.
There are two meta tags – meta description and meta keywords.

The meta description is a text snippet that describes what your specific webpage is
about. Meta descriptions are usually the first place a search engine will look to find
text to put under your blue link when they list your website on the SERP. If you do
not have a meta description, the search engines will usually select a random piece
of content from the page they are linking to. The meta description is limited to 150
characters.

Meta keywords consists of an additional text snippet in the HTML that allows you
to list a few different keywords that relate to your webpage.
d. Internal Linking

Up until this point we have only referenced inbound links, or those links coming to
you website from other websites. When creating content for your website on your
blog or on specific webpages, you may want to reference other pages on your
website. You can reference these other pages by inserting a link to another
webpage within a specific webpage‟s content. The use of anchor text is
recommended when linking to another webpage or even another website. When
anchor text is used, it implies that the page you are linking to is about the keyword
or phrase you use as your anchor. This is yet another way you can help out the
search engines.

e. Headline Tags

f. URL Structure

2. Off-page SEO

Compared to on-page SEO, off-page SEO can certainly be more difficult to

execute. Off-page SEO entails building relationships with other websites through
the creation of attractive content, or reaching out to the people who run the
websites. This process of building relationships is called link building. Who is
linking to you, how they are linking to you, and how your content is shared in
social networks and across the web are all factors that can have a significant
impact on your ability to rank on the SERP.

a. Using Social Media to Spread Content

Use of social networks like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn has
exploded over the last few years. In fact, the latest figures from ComScore suggest
that 16% of all time spent online is spent on a social network. With hundreds of
millions of users across these social networks sharing content they find online with
their friends and followers, search engines have begun to take notice.

In order to capitalize on the boost to your SERP rankings from social media, you
need to make your content easy to share. Implementing social network buttons
across your website is the easiest way to accomplish this. Installing the buttons is
easy if you use a service like AddThis.
b. Using Email to Spread Content

Just like you need to make the content on your website easy to share in social
media, you need to do the same for email. Aside from having clear call-to-action in
your emails to nurture your list, drive leads, and convert them to customers, you
should also make it easy for your email readers to share the content with friends
and post it to social networks. This will increase the reach of your website content
and make it easier for you to get inbound links for SEO.

3. Identifying keywords bấm review chương

a. How to Identify Long-Tail Keywords

Relevance is the key factor to consider when choosing the right keywords for SEO.
Remember, the more specific you are, the better. For instance, if you own a
company that installed swimming pools, which keyword do you think is more
likely to attract qualified prospects for your business?

“swimming pools” vs. “fiberglass in-ground pool installation”

Obviously if someone is searching for “fiberglass in-ground pool installation,” his

brain is in research mode. They are looking for information on installation or
someone to perform the installation - that could be you! Optimizing for
“swimming pools” has its place, but there is no doubt that this keyword will attract
a much more generic audience that may not be looking for what you have to offer.

Figuring out where to start when it comes to keywords can seem challenging.
Guessing is not a recommended practice for obvious reasons. Instead, there are
many ways to research and find long-tail keywords that are right for your business.
We‟ll cover these in the next few sections.

b. Check Your Web Analytics

Web analytics tools like Google Analytics will allow you to see what organic
search keywords are already driving traffic to your website. These keywords will
provide a good baseline of core keywords, and provide you with a list of keywords
and performance which you can benchmark your future SEO efforts against.

c. Keyword Research Tools

Google has a few tools that make it easy to conduct keyword research. The Google
Adwords Keyword Tool is a great place to start. You can insert one keyword,
multiple keywords, or even your website address, and Google will then return a list
of related keywords along with simple metrics to gauge how fierce the competition
is around each one and how many searches it gets on both a global and local search
level.

Another tool worth checking out is Google Insights for Search. This tool allows
you to enter multiple keywords and filter by location, search history, and category.
You are then given results that show how much web interest there is around a
particular keyword, what caused the interest (press coverage), where the traffic is
coming from, and similar keywords.

4. Measuring success

SEO can take a lot of time and effort. What good is spending all this time and
effort if you can‟t see the fruits of your labor? There are many metrics you can
track on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to keep your SEO plan on track and
measure your success.

- Traffic

- Leads/ROI

-Indexed Pages

- Inbound Links

- Keywords

- Rankings

5. Get into practice

By this point you should have a firm understanding of what SEO is, and why every
online business needs to recognize how critical it is. Developing and executing an
SEO strategy can be a daunting task. However, this process is completely
manageable if you dedicate adequate time and resources to it. There are several
things to consider when getting started with SEO.
a. Make a List of Keywords

Do some keyword research and make a list of all the keywords for which you
would like to rank on the search engines. Rank this list in order of priority or
relevance to your business. This should be a living and breathing document that
you review and update at least on a monthly basis. This will ensure you continue
conducting keyword research and allow you to make note of the keywords for
which you are already ranking.

b. Build Keyword-Focused Pages

After conducting keyword research, you will have a good idea of how many
specific webpages you want to create. Each webpage will need content and
pictures. Also, you need to decide where these webpages will live on your website
and what other pages or offers they should link to. Make a list of the assets that
need to be created or gathered and devise a plan to get it done.

As discussed previously, blogging can be an incredible way to rank for keywords

and engage your website‟s users. If your business does not already have a blog, set
one up and make a point to blog at least one a week. Remember, you are blogging
for your audience, not the search engines. Write about things your audience and/or
prospects are interested in, and they will naturally find you via the search engines.
Remember that every blog post is a new webpage (a lottery ticket) for getting
found on the search engines.

c. Create a Link-Building Plan

Link building is the primary objective of off-page SEO. Dedicate some time to
brainstorm the many different ways you can go about attracting inbound links to
your website. Start small – maybe share your links with other local businesses in
exchange for links to their sites. Write a few blog posts and share them on Twitter,
Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. Another great way to attract inbound links is to
use your blog to post articles related to current events or news. That way you
increase the chances of attracting links from news outlets or industry influencers.

d. Stay Current on SEO News & Practices

Like the overall marketing landscape, search engines are ever-evolving. Staying on
top of current trends and best practices is a hard task. The best way is to read.
There are multiple online resources that make it easy for you to stay on top of SEO
news and changes that may impact your website. Here are a few resources to check
out and get you started:

1. www.SEOMoz.com

2. www.SEOBook.com

3. www.SERoundTable.com

4. www.SearchEngineLand.com

5. blog.hubspot.com

6. inboundmarketing.com

You should now have all of the tools and understand all of the concepts you need
to get started on SEO basics. Now, take your time to figure the strategy that is right
for you and start optimizing.