So first, what is SEO? It stands forSearch Engine Optimization, and it is basically a way of making your website easy to find by the search engines and the people who use them. And since so many people use Google and other search engines every day when they’re trying to find websites just like yours, that is why it’s so important to optimize your site so they can easily find you. Search engines have been tailored to predict the intent of customers, which explains why some searches have features such as local 3-packs, featured images or videos and Quick Answers. Understanding the intent behind searches allows marketers to create content messages and formats that will most likely appeal to customers. Speed is a ranking factor for desktop and a very important usability factor for mobile. Google is very serious about page loading times on mobile and that’s why they have introduced and pushing for the implementation of accelerated mobile pages. To a larger degree, your backlink profile is made up of backlinks from external sites (also known as referring domains) that contribute to the overall strength, relevance and diversity of your domain’s backlink profile.

We're searching in different ways already

If a URL is too long then it misses out on the benefit of having any keywords within it bolded, which will likely draw more attention to the user. An effective link building strategy that simply makes a lot of sense is fixing broken links on your site and on sites that you’d like a link from. Your first step is to look for broken links on pages that interest you. After finding the links that go to pages that no longer exist, you reach out to the website owner and point out the link and suggest a new page that could provide value to their audience. If your content fails to provide your users with any added value or to engross them, it will not help to acquire leads and/or customers. It is impossible to predict how people will search for content and which keywords they will use to do so. So, it is advisable to create content that can fully satisfy the users’ needs. It is not just about the quantity (huge amounts of text); it’s more about the relevance of the content to potential searches. Modern SEO is about so much more than keywords and meta tags.

So how do you come up with a list of keywords you can use?

A good trick is to dig into your Google Analytics to see the top visited pages on your site. SEO is the process that brings traffic to a website, but if you can’t convert that traffic into a sale, email subscriber, etc., there is no point in having it in the first place. Any time Google opens up the vault and gives a peek inside the mountains of data it has at its disposal, marketers would do well to pay attention. Spend some time looking at other websites within your niche, sites that perhaps are not performing well enough to claim the top spots in Google, and ask yourself - what are they missing? Why are these sites not ranking in search engines?

Build local relationships with businesses

You can stop improving certain pages, but the site as a whole can always be improved. Somebody already wrote something about you. They mentioned your brand or product, but they have not linked to your website. In situations like these, it is usually enough to contact the webmaster and ask him to convert that mention into a backlink. Google knows that if a page takes too long to load, visitors are likely to click away or go back. Now, Google tends to place other factors above site speed, but while it’s not the number one factor, if your site loads slowly it’s definitely something you will want to address. Gaz Hall, from SEO Hull, had the following to say: "There’s not a one-size-fits-all, or quick-and-easy way to rank fast in Google. SEO secrets boil down to creating great content that will naturally earn authority and that is optimized for both users and search engines, and wrapping that content in an experience and quality website design that fosters engagement."

Gather Referring Domains for your website

Getting your business included in local resource lists is an indicator to Google about your authority. All you have to do is locate authoritative websites within your industry/community that also host a couple of local resources. If you have already worked to establish your business as an effective local authority, all you need to do is reach out. The backlinks you want pointing to your site are natural, authentic, industry-related and authoritative. When you link out to related domains, it not only helps the search engines to understand your niche, but also helps to increase the trust and quality of your site which plays a vital role in your blog’s SEO. Every website has its own issues, but all websites benefit from optimizing the conversion rate. It really doesn’t matter if your goal is more sales, more Facebook likes or more newsletter subscribers.