Indeed, the history of SEO since the turn of the 21st century is effectively the story of its practitioners’ responses to changes in the Google search engine algorithm. We also offer a variety of SEO courses in our Yoast SEO academy, where you can find 5 free courses to get started. For example, the SEO for beginners course, the WordPress for beginners course and a course on structured data. If you’re a Yoast SEO Premium user, you get access to all 16 courses on there.
This involves a combination of on-page tactics such as keyword placement, content optimization, and meta tags, as well as off-page strategies like backlinks and social signals. An SEO content strategy is a carefully crafted plan to create, optimize, and distribute high-quality content. This strategy encompasses various types of content, including written articles, images, and videos, all tailored to topics your target audience is actively searching for.
E-E-A-T applies to all topics, but it’s more impactful on YMYL topics (Your Money or Your Life) – topics that can potentially impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. The reason why this is happening is that Google interprets the motive behind the query and shows the results the user wants to see. Google holds a number of patents related to how their search works in order to prevent manipulating search results and copying the secret formula of their multibillion-dollar business. To illustrate, our blog generates an estimated 572K visits per month from Google.
In addition to publishing relevant, high-quality content, on-page SEO includes optimizing HTML code (e.g., title tags, meta tags), information architecture, website navigation, and URL structure. Adding a bunch of keywords here won’t help you rank – search engine algorithms have ignored this tag for ranking purposes for years due to abuse (in the form of keyword stuffing). You are busier than ever, thanks to leads flowing in from search engines. Partnering with a quality SEO firm gives you the expertise needed to generate more business from organic searches.
You can find a meta description by viewing the source code of a web page and looking for the tag within the section. You can also simply search for the page on Google — the snippet that appears right under the page title usually pulls from the meta description. A good meta description starts by answering the user’s actual intent. Think about what problem they’re trying to solve, and frame your snippet around that. Since landing pages are built to convert, their meta descriptions should do the same — by pulling in the right audience from the search results with a clear promise of value. When a search term matches part of your meta description, Google highlights it in bold, making your snippet stand out in the search results.
Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 offer a free solution for tracking rankings, traffic, conversions, and other valuable SEO metrics and are popular SEO analytics tools. Off-site optimizations include acquiring reputable backlinks, claiming and optimizing local listings, managing online reviews, and engaging in online communities. Optimize your content’s structure by referencing the top-ranking URLs for your targeted search term. You can determine which questions to answer first, second, third, and so on based on the search intent. Lack of compelling content is a common reason why a website doesn’t drive leads.
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. Alongside his training and course work, Cathal runs his own digital marketing agency and is considered an analytics and revenue-generating guru – at enterprise level. He has extensive local and international experience working with top B2B and B2C brands across multiple industries.
While SEO solutions aren’t always this straightforward, addressing technical SEO issues can sometimes yield immediate benefits. Whether it’s newspaper ads, direct mail, BHS Links or billboards, print marketing involves a direct cost and typically targets a limited geographic area. Moreover, print advertising is often perceived as intrusive, junk, or spam.
Optimizing your content is one of the best ways of improving your SEO. To get started, simply work step-by-step through our guide on WordPress site settings that are critical for SEO success. You can also use AIOSEO to check if your website is SEO-optimized. We list some other tools in our expert comparison of SEO checker and website analyzer tools. We will share the most important SEO best practices and give you some useful checklists to help you work through what needs to be done on your website. The MozBar SEO toolbar shows you relevant metrics right in your browser, as you surf the web.