What Is SEO? Search Engine Optimization Best Practices

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your website to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), ultimately driving more traffic to your site. Search engine results pages (SERPs) display both organic and paid results. Organic results are the non-paid listings that appear based on the search engine’s algorithm, while paid results are sponsored listings that appear at the top and bottom of the page. Organic results are determined by factors like content quality, keyword relevance, and user experience, whereas paid results are influenced by the advertiser’s bid and ad relevance. SEO focuses on improving organic search rankings, while search engine marketing (SEM) encompasses both organic and paid search strategies. By leveraging both, businesses can maximize their visibility and reach on search engines.

Some of the free tools we offer include a keyword planner tool, SEO checker, domain authority checker, backlink checker and more. Ahrefs is described as the “all-in-one SEO toolset” to take your digital marketing to the next level. They also provide plenty of learning materials and an online community of support. You include high-performing keywords on web pages, blogs, and any other content you produce. If you decide to partner with another website on guest blogs or link building, you’ll want to ensure that the other site has a higher DA than you. The easier it is to index all of your pages, the more likely you’ll receive a higher ranking.

• Don’t forget you’ll want to optimize your content by adding high-performing keywords and making sure it’s high-quality.
• Link building is an essential off-page SEO technique that aims to increase the number of high-quality inbound links to your website.
• Search engine optimization (SEO) has come a long way since the days of keyword stuffing and clickbait copy.
• It considers all the digital platforms where users search for content, including Google, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and AI-powered chat tools.

Repair Broken URLs

This helps search engines to understand which version of a page is the most appropriate for their users, based on the user’s browser language settings. You will also notice the “x-default” hreflang attribute, which shows which version should be used if you don’t have a translated version available in the user’s language. Some are happy to read through long blog posts, while others prefer to watch video content. If you offer your users both options, as we do on our blog and Kinsta’s YouTube channel, you can target a wider audience. You may have seen thumbnails on Facebook or Twitter when sharing a blog post from your site.

This increased visibility can drive more organic traffic to your site, as users are more likely to click on links that are accompanied by an AI Overview. As SEO has evolved, so have the ideas and practices (and at times, misconceptions) related to it. What was considered best practice or top priority in the past may no longer be relevant or effective due to the way search engines (and the internet) have developed over time. Link text (also known as anchor text) is the text part of a link that you can see. This text tells users and Google something about the page you’re linking to.

Using social media profiles can be an instant win for your brand and require minimal effort. Another significant advantage of this strategy is that social media profile pages can often rank in SERPs. This can be huge for branding, as it allows you to have more control over the first search results that your visitors will see.

SEO statistics on voice search and other emerging technologies

Then, if you decide to specialize on a specific area within SEO, you can then go through all the resources listed within that area and related/connected topics. Instead of choosing one broad facet of SEO (e.g., keyword research or link building), she decided to specialize in the niche area of Google penalty recovery. As a result, there’s probably no SEO on the planet that knows more about this topic than Marie. Learn more about how marketers use search engine optimization to rank higher and increase traffic. While SEO is just one single digital marketing tactic in the grand scheme of things, it’s still so important to include it in your overall digital marketing strategy.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the practice of increasing organic traffic on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). If you want to rank number one for all the keywords, you need to apply SEO to increase your rank. Devote some time each month to updating old blog posts with new and up-to-date information to continue ranking in SERPs.

A study by Rebrandly showed that engagement increases by 39% with shortened URLs. Therefore, keeping your URLs as short as possible can be an enormous competitive advantage. It’s worth noting that it can take some time for the results of your updates to show up in your Core Web Vitals report, so don’t panic if you don’t see results straight away. You can use Google developer tools, such as Lighthouse and Google PageSpeed Insights, SEO Anomaly to dig into the reasons behind the low-scoring URLs.

The tool lets you monitor your overall organic visibility, where 100% means a top ranking for all keywords and 0% means you rank outside the top 100 for all keywords. Use Semrush’s Link Building Tool to start building quality backlinks. A content audit in SEO involves a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of all the content on a website. The purpose of a content audit is to assess the quality, relevance, and performance of existing content to identify opportunities for improvement. It is a strategic process that helps website owners and marketers make informed decisions about content creation, optimization, and overall content strategy.

Answers to search queries pulled from a top-ranking page that show up near the top of the SERP. If you’ve read anything about SEO before, you’ll know there’s lots of industry jargon. But to keep things simple for now, here are a few key terms and concepts you should know. You can start building your reputation with Semrush’s Link Building Tool. For example, people who search “best PRODUCT TYPE” are typically looking for product recommendations, reviews, and comparisons to help them decide which specific product to purchase.