Every time a user searches for an answer or look for a product, the search engines will display thousands of results to that specific keyword used, and your website may not be on the top pages. This is where the competition all began. Businesses will do whatever they can to be in the top position on search engines. Websites that are in the first pages can easily attract potential customers and generate more web traffic. In order to advance in the competition, you should first know the basic SEO concepts and gain more understanding of how it works. Alternatively, you can always engage a reliable SEO agency in Singapore for a no-obligation consultation.
On-Page SEO
On-Page SEO is the practice of optimizing your content and HTML source code in your webpages that can determine your rank in search engines. It includes the following:
- Keywords
Keywords are the foundation of SEO. It ranges from single to complex words that the users use to search for something coming from the content of your site. Keywords are made to target your audience and lead them to the most relevant information. Short-tail keywords are keywords that consist of only 1 – 3 words. Long-tail keywords are more specific keywords and it’s beyond more than three words.
- H1 Tag
H1 Tags came from the family of ‘H’ tags and is used for stylistic purposes and to give more emphasis on the content that the user is looking for. It is used for the title of the page or post and formatted differently to stand out from the other tags. 3 of the main H tags are
- H1 tag is for the main title of the document or content
- H2 tag is for the main points
- H3 tag is for the sub-points
One of its best practices is including keywords in your heading. This way, the search engines can easily crawl your website and indicate the purpose of the content to provide the most relevant information to the users. It makes the search fast and easy to navigate throughout the webpages.
- Title Tag (Meta Title)
Titles are different from H1 tags. Title tag composed of 10 – 70 characters including other special characters. It is used as the main heading in the snippet of search results and is always shown on the SERP. It is a strong signal for search engine to crawl on specific content, and it is also shown in the browser title. For example, this is the title of Outrankco’s homepage ‘Digital & Online Marketing Agency Singapore | Internet Marketing Services’. It includes the keyword ‘Digital & Online Marketing Agency’ in the title with the intention to rank for this keyword.
- Meta Description
A meta description is a long description that is found right below the title. It can also contain the target keywords, and it’s usually between 160 – 300 words and followed with an ellipse if it’s too long. Users are not readers of meta descriptions, but search engines are. It is their way of crawling your webpages to see if the content is relevant.
Don’t be confused between site links and meta description. A site link is a link to subpages and appears as subheadings after the search result. This is to help users navigate, and only Google can add site links to which pages might be helpful for the users as an addition to the main page. However, if you want to create a site link, you need to create a PPC campaign for it.
- Image Alt Tags
It is also known as alt attributes or alt descriptions that describe the appearance and function of an image on a webpage. It provides a better context and description to search engine crawlers that enables them to index the image properly. Make sure to include a keyword on the description of the image and don’t overuse it because it can negatively affect your ranking.
- Quality Content
If there’s one thing that can improve your ranking on search engines and generate more website traffic, it’s the content of your website and to be specific, quality content.
One of the best definitions of quality content was from an actionable marketer, Heidi Cohen, and he said, ‘High quality, useful information that conveys a story presented in a contextually relevant manner with the goal of soliciting an emotion or engagement. Delivered live or asynchronously, content can be expressed using a variety of formats including text, images, video, audio, and/or presentations.’
The statement was made clear that quality content has ‘the goal of soliciting an emotion or engagement.’ If you plan to have a business website, you should know that it is highly significant to publish quality content related to the queries and as a new source of information for the readers. It plays an important role in your ranking on search engines. Google will crawl your website to index posts that are well-written, so they can continue to offer quality content to the users. These pieces of information on every website are ranked based on its relevance and usefulness to the users. If the content isn’t informative and engaging enough, it nullifies its purpose as beneficial to the users.
There are two ways that search engines are using to determine the quality of your content. First is the bounce rate. It is the percentage of the users who visited your site but immediately exit after a short period. The other one is dwell time; it measures how long the users spend their time on your website. Longer the dwell time means that they find your content engaging and informative.
Put a keyword in every page and remember that quality works better than quantity. No matter how many contents you publish on your website, make sure that it’s relevant and informative for the readers. Avoid keyword stuffing because it can negatively affect your ranking on search engines.
- Design and Usability
The design and overall structure of your website can contribute to your SEO. It refers to the elements and UI/UX of your website. Is the website user friendly? Is it mobile-friendly? This is to provide a smooth navigation performance for the users to easily find what they are looking for.
Off-Page SEO
Off-Page SEO is an integral part of the SEO strategy that only focuses on the outside activities of your website. It includes the following:
- Blogging
Blogging is another way of writing quality content and connecting to your readers. It’s a significant factor for your ranking on search engines. It creates more pages for search engines to index it. It’s about understanding who your readers are and responding to their queries.
- Backlinking
Backlinking is important in off-page SEO as it will build credibility and trustworthiness on your website whenever someone clicks on the link from another website going to your website. It’s like a vote on your website and an indication that you create quality content and reliable information. It can be done by partnering with other business sites and promoting each other’s brand to generate more website traffic and lead conversion.
- Internal linking
Internal linking is the practice of linking your subpages to main pages that contain related posts or content. It easily allows the user to navigate the site from pages to pages and acquire different new information. Search engines will index your link to know what the most relevant content for the users is.
Local SEO
Local SEO refers to the practice of optimizing your website to attract more customers in a local area. It also requires time investment just like other types of SEO. To improve your local SEO in Singapore and rank higher on search engines and land on the top three results, you should:
- Get good reviews
Customers nowadays rely on the reviews of your business and recommendation from peers and family. It’s one of the things they consider when planning to purchase something online. To get good reviews is to provide quality products or services and being responsive 24/7 by answering queries and offering solutions. If you have a good review, more potential customers will be interested to buy your product or avail your service.
- Create a Google My Business (GMB) account
Creating a GMB account can help you establish brand awareness and recognition. It consists of the name of your business, operating hours, address, reviews, and contact information that is vital to improve your ranking on local search engines.
- Get listed
Get listed anywhere on the internet is one way to increase your online visibility and build brand awareness. This could help you increase more market sales and improve your ranking on search engines.
Mobile SEO
Mobile SEO is becoming an essential type of SEO, especially most of the users nowadays have turned it into mobile use. SEO should work exactly the same on mobile phones as it is on desktop or laptops. Optimizing your website to be mobile-friendly is a great advantage in the competition and potentially to increase your website traffic. It is not an easy process, and it also requires a professional to do all the necessary works. Implementing these tactics can be greatly beneficial for your website.
- Avoid popup ads
Since mobile phones have smaller screens, popup ads are hard to eliminate, and it can hinder users from experiencing better use and navigation.
- Restructured webpages
Manage and restructure your webpages so that the user can easily navigate around the website. In other words, make your website user-friendly and mobile responsive
- Page speed
It tells the speed of your website to load the content, video, images, and other elements before the users can navigate. Do a speed test of your mobile SEO to minimize the number of bounce rate and eventually increase your sales.
White Hat SEO
White Hat SEO refers to any practice that can improve your ranking on the Search Engine Results Page by following the guidelines of the search engine. White Hat SEO practices include:
- Quality content
Writing content that targets your readers and answers their queries. It’s the best practice to effectively rank on search engines and generate more website traffic.
- Rich meta tags
Creating the best meta tag for your website will help search engines and users to discover your content.
- User-friendly
Make sure that the users can easily navigate from pages to pages, and it’s also accessible when using mobile phones.
Black Hat SEO
Black Hat SEO is the opposite of White Hat SEO. It refers to a set of unethical practices that purposely violate the terms of service of search engines. Black Hat SEO practices include:
- Keyword stuffing
Putting too many keywords on your content can jeopardize your ranking on search engines, and any black hat SEO related practice will be penalized by Google.
- Hidden links
Hidden links are keywords that are placed anywhere on the webpage even if it’s not totally related to the queries.
- Duplicate content
Copying content from other websites and publishing it as an original work. Google will penalize whenever a website is caught doing this.
- Fake clickbait
Links that are totally useless and are made to trick potential customers.
