What is SEO and why do I need?

What is SEO and why do I need?

Where the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization) arise?

The first search engines emerged in the early 90's and until Google appeared in 1996 many, including Yahoo were created; that's when he started the boom of web pages and people realized you could really make money with them, it was then obvious way they concluded that they needed to attract traffic and what was the best method to drive traffic ? indeed the search engines. Just then the owners of the sites began to think how they could reach the top positions ... SEO was born!

SEO focuses on organic search results, ie, which they are not paid:

But hey, let's go to what matters and why (I think) you are reading this chapter:

What is SEO?

According to Wikipedia, SEO is:

Search engine optimization or search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website in the organic results of different search engines. It is also common to name it by its English title, SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

SEO is one of the "discipline" that has changed in recent years, we have only to look at the large number of updates that have been Penguin and Panda, and how they have taken a 180-degree turn to what is by SEO he understood until recently. Now with the SEO it pursues what Matt Cutts himself calls "Search Experience Optimization" or what is the same, all for the user.

Although there are many factors that a search engine is based to position a page or another might say that there are two basic factors: the authority and relevance

·         The Authority is basically the popularity of a website, the more popular a page or a web is valuable information it contains. This factor is what a search engine takes more account since it is based on the experience of the user, the more a content is that more users have found it helpful to share them.

·         Relevance is the relationship you have a page in front of a given search, this is not simply a page containing a lot of times the search term (in the beginning it was so) if a search engine is based on hundreds of factors on-site to determine this.

In turn, the SEO can be divided into two groups: the SEO on-site and off-site SEO.

 /On-site : The on-site SEO is concerned with relevance, ensuring that the website is optimized for search engines understand the main thing, which is the content of it.Within the on-site SEO optimization we would include keywords, charging time, user experience, code optimization and format of URLs.

·         Off-site : off-site SEO is the part of SEO work it focuses on the external website we work factors. The most important factors in SEO off-site are the number and quality of links, social media presence, mentions in local media authority of the brand and performance in search results, ie, CTR having our results in a search engine. You're probably thinking that this is all very well and that is very interesting but you are here because you need to learn SEO on your website and you will benefit if you integrate your online strategy.

SEO can make a difference in whether or not to follow the "recommendations" of the search engine: SEO Black Hat or White Hat SEO

·         Black Hat SEO : Black Hat is called to attempt to improve search engine rankings of a website through unethical or that contradict the guidelines of the search engine techniques. Examples of Black Hat SEO are the Cloaking, Spinning, SPAM in forums and blog comments, or Keyword Stuffing. The black hat can provide benefits in the short term, but is usually a risky strategy, without continuity in the long term and it does not add value.

·         White Hat SEO : It consists of all those ethically correct actions that meet the guidelines of search engines to position a web page and search results. Since search engines give more importance to pages that best respond to a user's search, comprising the White Hat techniques that seek to make a page more relevant to search engines by providing value to its users.

2. Why is SEO important?

The most important reason that SEO is necessary is that makes your website more useful for both users and search engines because, although the latter are more sophisticated every day still can not see a Web page as you do a human, SEO is needed to help search engines understand what it is about each page and whether it is useful to users.

Now let an example to see things clearer:

We have an e-commerce dedicated to the sale of children's books, well, for the term "coloring" there are 673,000 monthly searches, if we have that 22% of visits for that term leads the first position, which would be around 148,000 visits per month.

But how much are these 148,000 visits? Well, if that term average spending per click is 0,20 € we are talking about more than 29,000 € per month. This just in Spain, if we have a business-oriented several countries, hourly 1.4 billion searches are performed in the world, of those searches, 70% of clicks are on the organic results and 75% of users They do not reach the second page; if we consider all this many clicks per month for the first result.

SEO is the best way for your users find you in searches in which your site is relevant, these users are looking for what you offer them and the best way to reach all those users through a search engine.

3. How search engines work?

The operation of a search engine can be summarized in two steps: crawling and indexing .

Tracking

A search engine runs the web tracking with what are called bots These bots roam all pages through links (hence the importance of a good link structure) just as you would any user to navigate the content Web, moving from one link to another and collect data on these web pages provide their servers. The tracking process begins with a list of web addresses and sitemaps previous scans provided by other websites. Once access these web bots seek links to other pages to visit them. The bots are particularly attracted by the new sites and changes in existing web.

Are the bots themselves decide which pages to visit, how often and how long will track the web, so it is important to have an 
optimal load time and updated content.

It is very common in a web page you need to restrict crawling certain pages or content to prevent these appear in search results. For this you can tell the bots of search engines do not crawl certain pages through the file "robots.txt".

Indexing

Once a bot has tracked a website and has collected the necessary information, you pages are included in an index where they are sorted according to their content, their authority and relevance ; so when we make a query to the search engine it will be much easier to show results that are more related to our inquiry.

At first search engines they were based on the number of times a word is repeated on a page to do a search in its index tracked those terms to find pages they had them in their texts better positioning which was repeated more times what . From that point the search engines become more sophisticated and base their rates on hundreds of different aspects such as the date of publication, if they contain photos and videos, etc; because surely if you are looking for the word "house" you want not see a page with the word "home" thousands of times.

Once the pages are crawled and indexed the time comes serving the search engine algorithm: the formulas and computer algorithms are processes that convert answers questions, such algorithm in the index seek the answers that best suit the question we have made, this is done based on hundreds of signs as the terms of websites, content today, our region or PageRank.

ONPAGE SEO BASICS

The goal of SEO On Page is "make life easy for Google", so you can index your pages as quickly as possible ... and classify them according to interests you.

To this will be useful the analysis of key phrases that I've made.

I know they're eager to start "to do SEO" but trust me and do not run: first you have to understand what it is and why it is necessary.

BONUS: Free download a basic checklist for your SEO on Page.

WHAT IS THAT OF "SEO ON PAGE"?

For it is an English term used to refer to the optimizations you can do on your page (On Page = On page)

That is everything that depends directly on you since you are the one who controls your website.

And what is it that you optimize? For everything optimizable, of course! :-)

Other occurrences, what interests you about everything is to get the content of your web result as "nice" as possible for search engines.

To understand, we could say that by SEO "On Page", you will try to "explain politely" to Google which is the purpose of your page.

And please look at that say "politely" if you spend Google will no longer be your friend as you shun that neighbor on the stairs because you are heavy.

BUT IT IS THAT GOOGLE WILL NOT KNOW BY HIMSELF "WHAT THIS IS" MY PAGE?

The truth is that Google will rank your pages, like it or not, we need to make searches work properly.

And although not always going to convince him to accept your "explanations", if you do omit or incorrectly, may choose to qualify (ie, position yourself) some searches that are not what you want in.

In short: we must help Google to find and convince you that you are who you say you are (or who you want to be ;-)) And that is achieved by SEO on Page.

HOW GOOGLE INDEXES YOUR PAGES?

Googlebot

Getting your page comes out on the results, the Google robots must find and classify.

These "robots" (or "bots") are automated programs that read, extract and archive the content of the pages.

Your mission is to go online tracking all the links they can find, with the objective of locating new and re-visit pages that are already indexed by if they have new content.

For mathematicians: robot = page not found page does not appear in Google. So you have to do everything possible so that the bots find and analyze your page easily and quickly as possible.

When a bot gets to your page "read" (indexes) all content (text, images, links, code ...) and stores it in a giant database.

Later that information will be analyzed to determine the niche that belongs to your page, and its relevance within it.

Because the robots (still) cannot easily read the content created with Flash, Java and AJAX is not recommended to use these technologies if you want your content to be indexed.

Keywords for SEO on Page

KEYWORDS (KEYWORDS) IN THE SEO ON-PAGE

Yes, I know you're impatient, but still legend or need to understand these principles to save time and frustration in the long term.

You will notice that I mention much the Keywords, and do it because they are very important.

But be careful not to spend and use them sparingly.

Your keywords should appear in the content, that's clear, to help Google to understand the theme of your pages.

But they should appear in the most natural way possible.

You've probably read an article that seems written by Tarzan, where the keywords have been shoehorned into every corner. Do not do this.

It is perfectly possible to position a page "abusing" keywords, but not a long-term strategy, and your visitors will find it enjoyable.

TIPS FOR USING YOUR KEYWORDS IN SEO ON-PAGE

 Never over-optimizes a page with your keywords. Google will realize sooner or later. And lately he realizes soon enough ...

 Learn to use synonyms and terms related to your keywords, so avoid repeating this so often, and you posicionarás more secondary keywords.

 Contrary to what others say, I am convinced that it is more convenient to have little content of much mediocre quality. You can position yourself well without publishing hundreds of articles, provided they are useful and quality.

As you saw in the optimization basics "On Page", you must perform a series of activities, all important but some more necessary than others.

And not surprisingly there are many discussions about the importance of one or another factor, and whether Google has so much in mind.

So let me explain my personal opinion and my preferences.

INTRODUCTION TO THE TAGS AND META TAGS

If you know what a "Tag" or "Meta Tag" label can skip this theory and begin to improve your SEO On Page below.

Surely at some point you learned that the pages you see in your browser, including this one, actually code it would make sense if it were not interpreted by browsers.

Something similar to what happens with the television signals or telephone.

You can check this by clicking the right button on this page and select "view source" in the menu or the equivalent option in your browser (Chrome Windows CTRL + U)

You will see something like this:

SEO-on-page-source-code

The source code of a page written in HTML

Gibberish without much sense, right?

Luckily browsers can "translate" the code by certain attributes or "tags" ("tags") that indicate how to present information in the way you're used to.

For example, the browser can interpret the same sentence in different ways if we assign the label of title ("title") or paragraph ("p")

Or even not display text in the browser (but be taken into account by Google) if you identify as a Meta Tag.

If you are curious to learn more about the HTML code you can visit the Web Weavers.

HTML TAGS FOR SEO ONPAGE

Now you know that browsers interpret certain special code fragments ("tags") to "mark" and structure information.

But more interesting it is that Google and other search engines use some of these labels to determine the thematic relevance of the pages and try to place them in the appropriate place in searches.

And once you know this you have the possibility of trying to influence the positioning of your pages, optimizing these "tags".

And that's what I'll teach you, then step ;-)

TAGS VISIBLE IN SEARCH RESULTS

Let's first examine the labels shown directly in the results: Title, URL, and Meta description.

When you do search pages Google is always shown these tags:

SEO-on-page-tags-seems

When I say "always" I mean that is normal, depending on the type of search or "experiments" Google does occasionally this may vary.

The reason we will first examine these labels is twofold:

 First, because much influence on the positioning: among them is two of the best considered by Google.

 And secondly because they are the "showcase" of your page, and if the sufficiently attractive user picks before your result in another of the same page.

Why are they important?

As they say, you can "kill two birds" with one stone's you optimize correctly.

NINJA TIP: Never forget that search engines purchase or subscribe to your lists, users always think when you optimize your SEO On Page

PAGE TITLE ("TITLE TAG" OR TAG TITLE)

SEO-on-page-title-tag

The title is probably the most important to optimize your SEO On Page element.

Why?

Most of those who practice SEO agree that Google considers the title as one of the most significant "know" the theme of your pages factors.

The title is only displayed in the (or tabs) of your browser window, and as you know in the search results.

You can see it in the HTML code of any page, enclosed between the tags "title"

SEO-on-page-title-tag-HTML

TIPS TO OPTIMIZE FOR SEO TITLE TAG ON PAGE

 Besides being optimized for Google, the title should be attractive since it also depends on a visitor decides to enter in your web rather than others that appear above or below on the same results page.

 The title should contain a maximum of 65 characters or 487 pixels, to make sure it is displayed in its entirety in the Google search results page. If greater will see that the text is truncated and appears at the end (...) Studies show that fewer visits generally occur in the results whose title is clipped against the show's full title.

 You must build your titles naturally, always containing the main key phrase you have chosen for each particular page, and if possible to limit the number of words that do not provide relevant information such as "de" "a", etc.

 The title should be unique for each page, do not double up.

URL ADDRESS

SEO-on-page-urn

The address (URL) of your pages plays an important role in your SEO on Page, especially in the face of Google.

But more and more users are also set in URLs to make decisions.

If an address appears "suspicious" or does not adequately describe what is mentioned in the title, you have a good chance of losing clicks.

This tag is not inserted into the HTML code of your pages are created taking into account the location of each page within your domain.

HTML

If you work directly with HTML, the place where you keep your pages will determine its direction.

If you save the "prueba.html" file in the root directory of your address will be "tudominio.com/prueba.html "

WORDPRESS

If you work with Word Press URL when you save the page is generated.

But be careful because Word Press automatically generates the address given the title you put, and that's not always what you want.

For example, if the title of your page is "The best SEO and seem 2015 article" Word Press will create the URL "the-best-article-seo-and-sem-in-2015".

But it would be much better to change "article-seo-sem-best-2015" by

Fortunately, you can edit the address of your pages easily:

word press-edit-urn

Although not everyone agrees, I am convinced that even today (2015) SEO benefits you get when you chained terms in your URL

I'm talking about, for example, include terms that help rank your page using categories, directories, etc. Something like " tudominio.com/salad/adelgazar/piernas ","tudominio.com/salad/adelgazar/muslos ", etc.,

TIPS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR URL FOR SEO ON-PAGE

 Unless it is essential I avoid using dates or numbers in the URL Why?Avoid your items seem obsolete.

 Try your URL are short and "summarizing" the contents of the page. Long URL or characters or parameters as " ninjaseo.es/p=113?& var "may seem suspicious and get fewer clicks.

 Keywords do not flood your URL. Do not do something like this: "ninjaseo.es/major-SEO-para-sets "

DESCRIPTION META (META DESCRIPTION)

SEO-on-page-meta-description

Target users view a summary description of your page, so you should strive to make it attractive for both.

Like the Title Tag does not appear in the "visible" in the browser, but in search results beneath the title content.

You can see this tag looking "meta name =" in the HTML code:

SEO-on-page-meta-description-HTML

Although there is some controversy on this issue I think that this tag is not necessary to position a page that Google does not have much regard, and considering it only as a suggestion.

Why?

Because Google sometimes ignores your Meta description and shown in the results of the text that is in your page, if you think you may be better suited for visitors ;-)

So you know, write your Meta Description thinking particularly of your potential visitors, like an announcement that should get your attention and bring them to your page.

TIPS TO OPTIMIZE THE META DESCRIPTION

 Write realistic descriptions that summarize what actually find when a visitor comes to your page.

 If Google decides not to show your change it Based on the description that Google has chosen and force indexing.

 If your description is sufficiently striking (no spam please) you can get the click before other results better positioned, but with less attractive descriptions.

 You can include your keywords, but naturally, to reinforce your message.

 The maximum length is about 153 characters or 933 pixels but better not spend 141 because Google can display the date of the next item description and shortening the length allowed.

 If you exceed the number of characters allowed Google show "(...)" as happens with Title and this can hurt.

 Do not duplicate your Meta descriptions, uses a different for each of your pages.

TAGS VISIBLE IN THE CONTENT OF THE PAGE

Search engines crawl the content of your pages, paying particular attention to some tags that I comment below.

HEADERS (HEADER TAGS)

Although most browsers recognize up to 6 levels of Header Tags, as normal is to use the first three or four: H1, H2, H3, and H4 sometimes.

Headers are one of the ways in which you report to Google and your visitors, content, and theme of your pages.

It is also an excellent tool to organize and structure information in sections.

So different levels of headings are displayed in your HTML code:

SEO-on-page-headers

MAIN HEADLINE H1

The Header h1 is the most important to Google, and should be unique for each page.

Needless H1 header will be the first thing on the page is loaded, because it seems that Google will of equal importance is found below. This tag is a good place to include a secondary semantic Keyword or some variation of your main keywords.

If you work with HTML5 know that allows multiple Header H1 per page, but until proven otherwise am of the opinion that it should work with one H1 per page because I'm afraid to have several can confuse search engines or dilute the weight of the Keywords that are included.

TIPS TO OPTIMIZE FOR SEO H1 TAG ON PAGE

 Use one H1 Heading per page.

 If your main Keyword does not include them again in the H1 and appears in the Title and URL.

 Whenever you include Keywords reminded to occur naturally and never forced, do you remember of your visitors?

SECONDARY HEADERS (H2 TO H6)

The secondary Header Tags, those going from the second to the sixth level, provide little value positioning.

In my experience, I have not been able to influence substantially.

So in my opinion you should use these tags, especially to structure your content into sections and readability to your visitors.

And while helping search engines to better understand the theme of your pages.

TIPS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR SIDE HEADER TAG

 Respect the order of importance of the tags, so that should appear in your content.

 You can use as many secondary headers as necessary to properly structure your articles.

 Use these tags to your content to split into sections.

 Do not force keywords in these tags unless it is logical that they are there.

 Remember not to put Headers "because", its main function is semantically structured your content into sections and sub-sections.

SEO-on-page-images

IMAGES

It is good practice to "break" the flow of reading with some illustrative image that helps ease eye strain, or act as a wake-up call ... as I have done to the image above ;-)

Especially in blogs using Word Press usually see an image at the beginning of each page, thanks to its function "outstanding image" and this idea usually works very well to capture the attention of visitors ... if you correctly choose the image.

A case apart is the pages where the images should be almost absolute protagonists, such as the web of a photographer.

Then it would be the text that would be used to supplement.

All images, like the text, are analyzed by Google, and therefore also have the time to optimize your site.

If you visualize the HTML code of any image you may find something like this:

SEO-on-page-images-name-description

Tag this we have interested mainly two things: the file name and description.

For each file, you should choose a descriptive and appropriate name that belongs to the article.

NINJA TRICK: the name of the file is not in the browser, but Google itself can read it, and use it together with the description (alt = "") to sense what kind of pictures contains the article and how they relate to the content.

TIPS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGES FOR SEO ON-PAGE

 Include your keywords or phrases in the file name, but only if the article really about those keywords.

 In the same way, you use your keywords or phrases on the label.

 Optimizes size to prevent slow load your pages, because a slow website can negatively affect your SEO and your visitors experience.

INTERNAL LINKS

SEO-on-page-internal-links

Internal links, those pointing to pages within your own site, you can also help to the position.

And the control you, so you can change them at any time and do experiments with them all you want.

How can you support your position?

They help to transfer authority between pages and strengthening its thematic relevance.

Would enhance user interaction and make it easier to browse your website.

NINJA TRICK: If one of your sites have a page that has gained great authority on the basis of links and mentions use it to link to other internal pages and help them position themselves.

And last but not least the internal links are a great help in getting that both your visitors and the search engines discover new pages within your web related.

When Google comes to one of your pages, in addition to reading the content and index it begins to follow the internal links pointing to other pages.

Therefore, it is important to link them together so that they can all be visited and indexed.

TIPS FOR OPTIMIZING YOUR INTERNAL LINKS FOR SEO ON-PAGE

 Links to your internal pages using Keywords in the anchor text (like I just did)

 Only links to other pages that have your item which is your article.

 You can link to a page that interests you boost at the end of each article, the sidebar, etc.

 The menus make up the visible structure of your website: the main menu should give access to your categories or sections.

 Every page should include your main menu.

BOLD AND ITALICS

SEO-on-page-bold-italic

I include this point only to complete and avoid questions about this topic because Google does not pay attention to these tags.

I still see occasionally tips on using text formatting, such as bold or italics, to highlight your Keywords, hoping that by doing Google pay more attention.

This myth has for years, and so far there is no serious study to prove it.

The general consensus is that Google has never paid much attention to the phrases that appear in bold or italics, so I advise you to use them only to highlight or reinforce concepts.

That is, to help visitors better understand your content and improve your experience on your page.

If you notice what I'm doing throughout the article ;-)

META KEYWORDS

SEO-on-page-meta-keywords

This is another tag that included just to inform you that you need not waste your time with it, because although it still recommends using it, I have not managed to serve me for nothing.

According to Google, the Meta Keywords ceased to be useful for some time and most recognized SEO professionals do not use them.

SEO-on-page-content

PAGE CONTENT

Lately everyone is talking about the contents ...'ll read things like "... the content is king", "...how to do content marketing", etc. ...

And now it comes when I say something that may seem incredible, quality content is not necessary to position. You can do this by copying content from another site and even with meaningless phrases.

I've done it and others too. Although, after updates "Panda" is more complicated in 2015 ... but you can.

So why waste time creating good content?

Because quality content that is useful to your visitors, with which they interact and they love to share, it is necessary for a long-term positioning.

Quality content is essential for SEO On Page

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Search engines analyze your content and use it to get an idea of how relevant your page is compared with others that deal with the same issues.

With the help of a good analysis of key phrases, you can create optimized content or improve what you already have.

Because one of the good things about On Page optimization is that it can be done at any time before or after the publication of content,

When writing your content do it considering what interests you get

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Within the constraints of time and logical resources always try to create quality content and unique.

Do not just copy what you see on other sites because sooner or later Google will notice

And if you do not mind your visitors they will, and will not get them back.

Think that attract visitors is only part of the puzzle, once in your web must convince them to stay, and more importantly, to return in search of more.

Ideally you should create quality content and unique, thinking not only attract a maximum number of visitors, "whatever they may be," but those who can really benefit from what you offer.