Anyone who has had more than a couple of conversations about online marketing has likely heard about the importance of search engine optimization. SEO is the process of tailoring a website to ensure that it and its content will rank well whenever people search for target keywords. The general idea makes sense, but you might wonder what's going on under the hood. Here is a look at the lower levels of the optimization process.
Content Quality
Foremost, good SEO processes should focus on quality content. If you're producing content on a website, you want to signal the work's quality by doing the little things well. You want to avoid obvious typos and poor grammar, for example. Likewise, you should limit run-on sentences to spots where they're necessary. You will also want to keep paragraphs tight and readable.
Yes, most search engines can detect content quality, but these search engines go far beyond checking your spelling. They also can determine if the content is scattered, hard to read, or otherwise linguistically flawed.
Relevance
Good SEO content should also be relevant content. You want to target specific concepts. If you run a local car dealership, for example, your relevant targets will be vehicle sales, the specific brands on offer, and your local area.
The search engines want to know why anyone would find relevant content on each page. Also, they want to know who would find it relevant. Consequently, you should deploy content based on your target audience. If you're trying to attract car buyers, make sure the content speaks to their needs.
Latent Semantic Meaning
In the old days of SEO, people stuffed their websites with keywords. A vehicle dealership would cram every conceivable version of the words car, truck, SUV, automobile, and so on into a page.
Search engines caught up with this, and the modern solution is to assess the latent semantic meaning of the content. Rather than caring specifically about the word, the engines want to see content that's broadly about cars. A car dealer's site can benefit from discussing new models, recalls, service issues, and the buying process. There is no need to stuff keywords as long as the semantics on the page generally reflect the topic.
Display Quality
Technical issues also matter in SEO. If the page doesn't display well on a wide range of devices, search engines will punish it. Also, it should load quickly and at all times. Ironing these issues out at the code and server levels can ensure that top-quality content will have a chance to thrive in search results.
For more information, reach out to SEO services near you.
