Why is SEO good for a website?

What is a SEO Friendly Website and Why do you Need One

Many times you hear the term “SEO friendly” or “SEO friendly website” but what does this really mean and why do you need one? How can a SEO friendly website help your business grow?

These are the questions I will try to answer in this post always having in mind that beginners to SEO may be reading it so I will try to avoid technical terms or advanced SEO practices and theories.

What do we mean by a Search Engine Friendly Website?

A SEO friendly website has those configurations and features so it’s easy for search engines to crawl (read) and understand what the particular website is all about. The most important characteristics of a SEO friendly website are:

1. Unique titles and Descriptions for all pages:
   Learn the Secrets of SEO, Keyword Research & Link Building and Apply them to your Website.
   Each page of the website (including the home page) has a unique title and description. The titles are between 60-65 characters and the descriptions are aprx 150 characters. Titles and descriptions describe accurately what the page is about without being keyword stuffed. Example of a good title and description.
   
2. Well formatted URLs – URLs:
   Permanent links (that’s the url of a webpage) are descriptive, all lower case and separated by dashes. Example of a well formatted URL.
   
3. Fast loading web pages:
   Neither people nor search engines want websites that are slow to load. On the contrary fast loading websites are SEO friendly (meaning they have an advantage in ranking algorithms over websites that are slower) and generate more user interactions (sales, newsletter signups, contact forms submissions etc).
   
4. It has unique content:
   Content on the website is not found anywhere else on the web, all pages have unique and useful content. This means a website cannot be SEO friendly if it has content copied from other web sites.
   
5. Includes images that are optimized for search engines:
   Search engines prefer text that’s the truth, but you also need to have images to your pages because people like it, it makes your content more interesting, easier to read, shareable etc. When you do so, make sure that the images are optimized for size (tools like "smushit" can help you reduce image file size without losing quality) and also that you set a meaningful image filename and ALT text.
   
6. Pages have a meaningful structure:
   A web page usually has the following elements:
   
   • Header
   • Breadcrumbs Menu
   • Page Title (that’s the H1 tag – there is only one per page)
   • Well formatted text – text is separated into a number of short paragraphs with subheadings
   • Author information
   • Footer

There are of course many other characteristics that make a website SEO Friendly, you can read them in our previous post, the ultimate SEO checklist but the above 6 elements are currently among the most important.

Why do you need a SEO friendly website?

Something that most CEOs, small business owners or new webmasters don’t easily understand is why you need a SEO friendly website and why make the effort to make your website friendlier to search engines.

Well, the reasons are a lot but those you need to know are:

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1. It will get you more organic traffic (that is traffic from search engines)
   As expected, a SEO friendly website will get you more traffic from search engines as it is likely to run higher in the SERPS (search engine results pages). If you take into account that the majority of people who use the search box tend to select one of the first 5 results, you can understand the importance of SEO.
   
2. It will make your website user friendly
   SEO is not only for search engines but good SEO is for users as well. Applying the principles of SEO to your website, will make it easier to use and this will enhance the user experience.
   
3. It gives you brand credibility
   Users are more likely to trust websites (businesses) that are found in the first pages of Google, Bing or Yahoo. This is good for both brand awareness and brand credibility.
   
4. It is cost effective
   A SEO website will drive targeted traffic 24×7 without needed to spend money on PPC or other forms of online advertising. While there is a cost to reach that point, the long term benefits are bigger.
   
5. It helps you understand what your most important customers want
   SEO drives quality traffic and by analyzing the behavior of those users (how they enter your website, what they click, how they leave, what they like etc) is a great way to understand what your customers want and adjust your website or products to match their needs.
   
6. SEO is even more important on mobile
   A website that is mobile friendly and has good rankings on mobile search can get more customers and traffic that websites that are not mobile SEO friendly. More and more users are using their mobiles to search for information or products while on the go it is important to be on top of the search results otherwise you are losing customers to competition, especially those searching for local products or services.
   

Conclusion

A SEO friendly website has certain features and characteristics that helps search engines understand what the website is all about and this increases the chances of achieving better rankings in the SERPS.
The most important advantage of having a SEO friendly website is that you will get more targeted organic traffic from search engines.
Source: Quora

Major Google SEO Updates & Algorithm Changes from 2009 to 2017

Google has a long history of famous algorithm updates, search index changes and refreshes.

2017 Updates

• Snippet Length Increase — November 30, 2017
• Featured Snippet Drop — October 27, 2017
• Chrome HTTPS Warnings — October 17, 2017
• Google Tops 50% HTTPS — April 16, 2017
• "Fred" (Unconfirmed) — March 8, 2017
• Intrusive Interstitial Penalty — January 10, 2017

2016 Updates

• Penguin 4.0, Phase 2 — October 6, 2016
• Penguin 4.0, Phase 1 — September 27, 2016
• Penguin 4.0 Announcement — September 23, 2016
• Image/Universal Drop — September 13, 2016
• "Possum" — September 1, 2016
• Mobile-friendly 2 — May 12, 2016
• AdWords Shake-up — February 23, 2016

2015 Updates

• RankBrain* — October 26, 2015
• Panda 4.2 (#28) — July 17, 2015
• The Quality Update — May 3, 2015
• Mobile Update AKA "Mobilegeddon" — April 22, 2015

2014 Updates

• Pigeon Expands (UK, CA, AU) — December 22, 2014
• Penguin Everflux — December 10, 2014
• Pirate 2.0 — October 21, 2014
• Penguin 3.0 — October 17, 2014
• "In The News" Box — October 1, 2014
• Panda 4.1 (#27) — September 23, 2014
• Authorship Removed — August 28, 2014
• HTTPS/SSL Update — August 6, 2014
• Pigeon — July 24, 2014
• Authorship Photo Drop — June 28, 2014
• Payday Loan 3.0 — June 12, 2014
• Panda 4.0 (#26) — May 19, 2014
• Payday Loan 2.0 — May 16, 2014
• Page Layout #3 — February 6, 2014

2013 Updates

• Authorship Shake-up  —  December 19, 2013
• Penguin 2.1 (#5)  —  October 4, 2013
• Hummingbird  —  August 20, 2013
• In-depth Articles  —  August 6, 2013
• Knowledge Graph Expansion  —  July 19, 2013
• Panda Recovery  —  July 18, 2013
• "Payday Loan" Update  —  June 11, 2013
• Panda Dance  —  June 11, 2013
• Penguin 2.0 (#4)  —  May 22, 2013
• Domain Crowding  —  May 21, 2013
• "Phantom"  —  May 9, 2013
• Panda #25  —  March 14, 2013
• Panda #24  —  January 22, 2013

2012 Updates

• Panda #23  —  December 21, 2012
• Knowledge Graph Expansion  —  December 4, 2012
• Panda #22  —  November 21, 2012
• Panda #21  —  November 5, 2012
• Page Layout #2  —  October 9, 2012
• Penguin #3  —  October 5, 2012
• Panda #20  —  September 27, 2012
• Exact-Match Domain (EMD) Update  —  September 27, 2012
• Panda 3.9.2 (#19)  —  September 18, 2012
• Panda 3.9.1 (#18)  —  August 20, 2012
• 7-Result SERPs  —  August 14, 2012
• DMCA Penalty ("Pirate")  —  August 10, 2012
• Panda 3.9 (#17)  —  July 24, 2012
• Link Warnings  —  July 19, 2012
• Panda 3.8 (#16)  —  June 25, 2012
• Panda 3.7 (#15)  —  June 8, 2012
• Penguin 1.1 (#2)  —  May 25, 2012
• Knowledge Graph  —  May 16, 2012
• Panda 3.6 (#14)  —  April 27, 2012
• Penguin  —  April 24, 2012
• Panda 3.5 (#13)  —  April 19, 2012
• Panda 3.4 (#12)  —  March 23, 2012
• Search Quality Video  —  March 12, 2012
• Panda 3.3 (#11)  —  February 27, 2012
• Venice  —  February 27, 2012
• Ads Above The Fold  —  January 19, 2012
• Panda 3.2 (#10)  —  January 18, 2012

2011 Updates

• Panda 3.1 (#9)  —  November 18, 2011
• Query Encryption  —  October 18, 2011
• Panda "Flux" (#8)  —  October 5, 2011
• Panda 2.5 (#7)  —  September 28, 2011
• Pagination Elements  —  September 15, 2011
• Expanded Sitelinks  —  August 16, 2011
• Panda 2.4 (#6)  —  August 12, 2011
• Panda 2.3 (#5)  —  July 23, 2011
• Google+  —  June 28, 2011
• Panda 2.2 (#4)  —  June 21, 2011
• Schema.org  —  June 2, 2011
• Panda 2.1 (#3)  —  May 9, 2011
• Panda 2.0 (#2)  —  April 11, 2011
• The +1 Button  —  March 30, 2011
• Panda/Farmer  —  February 23, 2011
• Attribution Update  —  January 28, 2011

2010 Updates

• Negative Reviews  —  December 1, 2010
• Social Signals  —  December 1, 2010
• Instant Previews  —  November 1, 2010
• Google Instant  —  September 1, 2010
• Brand Update  —  August 1, 2010
• Caffeine (Rollout)  —  June 1, 2010
• Google Places  —  April 1, 2010

2009 Updates

• Real-time Search  —  December 1, 2009
• Caffeine (Preview)  —  August 1, 2009
• Vince  —  February 1, 2009
• Rel-canonical Tag  —  February 1, 2009

3 Main Factors in On-Page SEO.

On-Page SEO Checklist

Here is a checklist you can use to make sure you are doing everything possible to rank higher in search engines.

1. Keyword placement:
• Keyword in the title.
• Keyword in the permalink.
• Keyword in the first paragraph.
• Keyword in the image alt tag.
• Use LSI keywords in the body (use SEOPressor plugin to find related keywords).
Use LSI keyword in H2 or H3.
• Shoot for around a 1.5% keyword density.
2. Other things:
• Remove all stop words from permalink.
• Add multimedia (video, slides, infographics).
• Minimum 500 words.
• Optimize images before uploading (compress and resize).
• Optimize page load speed.
• Create a meta title - should be less than 65 characters.
• Create a meta description in between 120 - 150 characters approx.
• Internal links to related articles.
• Outbound links to relevant high-quality sites.
3. Other things not mentioned here:
• Make sure to add an image for Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Make sure to have social sharing buttons either at the end or floating on the site of your post.
• Have related posts after each post to lower down bounce rate.

On Page SEO Techniques

"Basic On-Page SEO Techniques"

There are two main factors in search engine optimization. On-page optimization and off-page optimization. Both factors are connected with each others for website search engine ranking. It is very important to optimize both techniques for better website ranking in search engine. On-page optimization help us to create website search SEO and search engine friendly, off page assist us to create quality back links for great ranking.

Some on page SEO techniques and their outputs:

Meta Title Tag:- Meta title tag describe the about web page content. It is most important part of on page SEO. Title tag with the appearance of keyword make easy to keywords ranking. We can find title in three places external website, search engine result pages and browsers.

Character Limit: - Google prefer character limit less than 70 character including space. With this character limit Google displays in search results.

Title Structure: - Primary Keyword | Secondary Keyword | Brand Name

Meta Description Tag:- Meta description is the HTML text which explain about web page content. It increases the possibility of user’s clicks. Means to say it increase the click through-rates of web pages. Most favorable character limit for meta description tag is 155-160 characters including space.

Meta Keywords:- Meta keywords is the part which also important in on-page SEO. This part help to boost keyword ranking in other famous search engines like Yahoo, Bing, MSN and Ask etc. So we can say appearance of meta keyword can increase the possibility of better ranking in other search engines.

Heading tag:- This tag represent the different section of web page content. Head tag help search engine spider relevancy between heading tag and web page content. Including that it also give the idea to user about web page content.

XML Sitemap:- Many webmasters think that XML sitemap is useless in SEO. It is the important part of website which help website in indexing and made website accessible to users and search engine crawler.

Robots.txt File: A robots.txt file restricts access to your site by search engine robots that crawl the web. These bots are automated, and before they access pages of a site, they check to see if a robots.txt file exists that prevents them from accessing certain pages.

URL Canonicalization: Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls:

• www.example.com
• example.com
• www.example.com/index.html
• example.com/home.asp
  

But technically all of these urls are different. A web server could return completely different content for all the urls above. When Google “canonicalizes” a URL, we try to pick the URL that seems like the best representative from that set.

Image ALT tag:- With the all on page parts image alt tag is also play very important role in website ranking. Search engine crawler cannot read image without this tag. So we can say image alt help crawler to read about image. It is also helpful to boost keyword ranking with images.

Google Launches Mobile Friendly Test Tool

Google's new mobile-friendly testing tool tells you if your site passes or fails the mobile test.

Wondering if your site will qualify for Google’s new mobile-friendly labels or be ready for a potential mobile-friendly ranking boost? Google has a new tool to help.
The new tool is at Mobile-Friendly Test and it basically gives you a pass or fail grade. Either it tells you that you are mobile friendly or you are not mobile friendly. The messages I was able to generate include:

• Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly.
• Not mobile-friendly
  

In each output, the yes, you are mobile friendly or no you are not, Google may or may not give more or less advice depending on the site.
For example, for this site, we got an “Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly,” but it did add that “this page uses 9 resources which are blocked by robots.txt. The results and screenshot may be incorrect.” It then listed out those resources it had issues with, so you as the webmaster can decide if it is something that needs addressing.

Here is a screen shot:

6 Changes Your 2015 SEO Strategy Must Focus On

SEO is constantly changing. New updates are released, new trends are discussed and new strategies are developed. It is something that will constantly evolve.

In 2014 alone, there have already been 13 updates to Google’s algorithm, according to Moz’s change history. These are just the notable and more public ones -- there are refreshes and changes almost daily behind the scenes.

The biggest changes that SEO efforts are going to need to adjust to as we enter 2015. Let’s look at six of them right now:

1. Create and optimize for mobile traffic

Back in 2012 ComScore predicted that mobile traffic would exceed desktop traffic in 2014, and they were correct. Google has always said that it feels responsive websites provide the best user experience, and recently starting including a “mobile-friendly” notation next to websites in mobile search results that are indeed mobile friendly.

You can see if your website passes Google’s mobile-friendly test by clicking here. Bing has also stated it prefers a single responsive URL.

2. Optimizing for Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo

Could 2015 be the year that some other search engines begin to take more market share? It seems like this is the million-dollar question every year, but some recent developments suggest that it could be possible.
Firefox kicked Google to the curb and Yahoo will now be the default search engine for the browser.
Google’s deal is also up with Safari in 2015, and reports have both Bing and Yahoo trying to secure that spot. The option to switch default browsers in iOS 8 and OS X from Google to DuckDuckGo also exists.
With options other than Google becoming more popular and accepted it will make it important to have visibility across these search engines in addition to just Google.

3. Switch your focus from keyword rankings to ROI metrics

If you or your SEO company is still putting an emphasis on keyword rankings and determining the success of the campaign based on keyword positions, then it is time for a major wake up call. Ranking reports can be made to look pretty and some SEO companies will even target useless keywords just to say, “Hey look -- you are ranking number one!”
If you are a business owner spending money every month on SEO, what would you rather hear from your SEO agency?

• “Congratulations, you are ranking number one for ‘buy blue widgets online’ but we aren’t sure what that translates into dollar wise.”
• “The infographic that we published last month resulted in earning 67 links and it was also responsible for 45 conversions and $22,480 in revenue.”

Do you want a fancy PDF ranking report or do you want to know what your return on investment was?

4. More focused social-media approach

Social media was once just a platform to share content, so businesses would sign up for every social platform under the sun and blast their content everywhere. Social media is now a marketing channel as well as a customer-service channel. Your social audience expects your brand to engage with them on a more personal level.
It is more effective to focus on two or three social-media platforms and be very active and accommodating. This not only helps you generate more leads, sales and revenue, but it also helps to build a very loyal following that will share your content. This can introduce new people to your brand and even present opportunities to earn links.

5. Earning links rather than building links

Through all of the updates and algorithm changes over the years one thing remains the same: inbound links are the most influential signal of trust and authority. This isn’t going to change -- not in 2015 or anytime soon.
The days of building links on irrelevant blogs and chasing large quantities of links to game the search results are over. Earning a single link on a high-quality relevant website is valuable for multiple reasons including SEO, attracting referral traffic, leads, sales and branding exposure. Look for traditional PR and SEO to work closer together in 2015.

6. Targeting more precise keywords and search phrases

The days of targeting broad keywords are coming to an end. While they tend to have a huge search volume, they don’t attract highly targeted traffic and they are expensive to rank. Targeting long-tail search queries not only attracts qualified “buyer” traffic, but these terms will typically have much less competition. Keyword research along with understanding the shopping and purchase patterns of the target consumer can help to identify search terms and phrases to go after.

Businesses will always crave organic search traffic, and search-engine optimization is the vehicle to drive that highly coveted traffic. What are some SEO changes that you foresee in 2015?

Best Techniques For Online Reputation Management (ORM)

Online Reputation Management (ORM) is a very important part of the image management on the internet today. With the increase in number of more and more companies spending huge investments on creating online presence, it is also mandatory to monitor what is being said about you by the majority of the audience.

The techniques that could be used to track the same are as follows:

Follow a defense & attack strategy:

Step 1: Research & Resource Identification

• Track existing assets.
• Track Reviews and Comments.
• Review Mentions.

Step 2: Content Segregation & Optimization

• Tailor made content for platforms.
• Define Target Audience.

Step 3: Content Submission

• Content Marketing Planning.

Step 4: Internet and Social Promotion

• Pick suitable platforms to share the content.

Step 5: Creating search engine dominance

• Share reviews, Invite recommendations.

Step 6: Brand Monitoring

• Setup brand mention alerts.

Internet is the fastest way word of mouth travels today and that is why it is very important to manage the type of negative unsavory efforts to pull down your business.

Mobile SEO and ASO (App Store Optimization)

Google’s mobile-friendly update didn’t just bring a boost in rankings for websites labeled as mobile-friendly. With this update apps will also start to appear as organic links in SERPs, being upgraded in rankings if they are relevant to the user’s query, whether or not the user has installed them on their device. Another interesting piece of information is that these “organic” app listings also come with an install button, so users can choose to install them directly from the SERP. Moreover, thanks to deep linking capabilities, the user will be sent straight to the page that interests them within the app, instead of the homepage as the case used to be (so far, only available for Android apps). Not only that, but using goo.gl short links for your Android app, iOS app, or website will send users directly to the content (page) they searched for - if they have already installed your app. With Google confirming that more searches occur now on mobile than they do on desktop, at least in countries like America, Japan or Canada, and the use of phablets on the rise, it’s becoming increasingly important to be visible and attractive in mobile searches. Mobile app marketing should definitely become a priority if you have an app. App store optimization is also a part of this, so you need to have several things in mind. Below I’ve listed some of the more relevant things you need to know and do about mobile app SEO in order to make your app stand out in search results.

Mobile SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Create an app to gain more exposure in mobile searches
Mobile app search (bookmark this article by Justin Briggs, as it also lists some keyword app research tools) is gaining ground on desktop browser search, and a lot of people go directly to their apps when they want to access a certain feature or piece of content. Think Facebook, Twitter and others alike.

We hope that Search will now help you acquire new users, as well as re-engage your existing ones. - Lawrence Chang from Google

What you need to consider in order to create the best mobile apps:

An app of your product or services should sustain the company’s business goals and help attract more customers.

An app has to bring added value in the user’s life. It should offer something above the desktop and mobile sites.

An app will require separate maintenance and separate SEO considerations.

Name your app
The name you give your app might be the same your product or service already has. This is important for being found in Google search and in app store searches as well.

This would be a branded keyword you already rank for, but if too lengthy, consider a shorter, yet still descriptive version that fits better on phone screens.

Choose two more keywords that describe your app and add them next to the name. This would be the equivalent of adding keywords in the title of a page or article. The keywords have to be different and relevant. IMDb’s app is a perfect example: it includes the brand name and two different, highly targeted keywords that best describe its use.

Keyword research
Choose appropriate keywords for mobile search that both describe your app and match your users’ needs.

This app store listing guide includes the most important factors you need to consider for best app store optimization practices, and gives thorough advice on keyword research. Finding the right keywords to describe your app should also come in handy when searching for content ideas, or other optimization aspects.

You can also use Google’s Keyword Planner to get mobile search volume information for your targeted keywords.

Avoid app interstitial that ruin mobile UX
It is not good UX to prompt users of your mobile site to download and install your app through interstitial. They interrupt the user’s actions, hide the content they were viewing, and force them to complete more actions than they had intended. The user might actually be in the process of converting or signing up for something, and the interstitial only provokes them to go back to their search query and click on another link. Instead, you should install an HTML banner at the top of the page. Now users [know they have the option to] install the app without interrupting what they were doing. Nevertheless, keep in mind that certain app creators still prefer using interstitial. You may want to do some A/B testing and see which variant works best for your particular app.

App Indexing can give a ranking boost and more SERP real estate
App indexing helps you make sure Google has indexed your app and it will be visible in searches. More than that, Google actually confirmed that app indexing will start counting as a ranking signal for Android users. Another benefit of App Indexing is that it will enhance your app’s listing in search results with an install button which will increase odds that viewers are going to start using it. An important point to note here, that Paolo Zanzottera, CEO of ShinyStat and mobile SEO expert, was kind enough to clear up for me, is that app indexing only applies to Android apps for now, and not iOS apps. However, Google is working to implement app indexing for iOS on a worldwide scale as well, so you can start preparing your iOS apps for App Indexing. Creating an app can be a good way to increase your visibility in SERPs, improve CTR and get you more customers down the road. But at the same time creating an app requires a lot of business decisions and takes up company resources.

Source: Advanced Web Ranking

Google Introducing Rich Cards For Mobile SERP

Rich cards are a new Search result format building on the success of rich snippets. Just like rich snippets, rich cards use schema.org structured markup to display content in an even more engaging and visual format, with a focus on providing a better mobile user experience.

For site owners, this is a new opportunity to stand out in Search results and attract more targeted users to your page. For example, if you have a recipe site, you can build a richer preview of your content with a prominent image for each dish. This visual format helps users find what they want right away, so you're getting users who specifically want that especially delicious cookie recipe you have.
We’re starting to show rich cards for two content categories: recipes and movies. They will appear initially on mobile search results in English for google.com. We’re actively experimenting with more opportunities to provide more publishers with a rich preview of their content.
We’ve built a comprehensive set of tools and completely updated our developer documentation to take site owners and developers from initial exploration through implementation to performance monitoring. Explore rich card types and identify where your content fits Browse the new gallery with screenshots and code samples of each markup type. Test and tweak your markup We strongly recommend using JSON-LD in your implementation.

Find out which fields are essential to mark up in order for a rich card to appear. We’ve also listed additional fields that can enhance your rich cards.

See a preview in the revamped Structured Data Testing Tool of how the rich card might appear in Search (currently available for recipes and movies).

Use the the Structured Data Testing Tool to see errors as you tweak your markup in real time.

Source : Google Webmaster Central Blog