How to properly promote a website and why you need search engine optimization

SEO (from the English Search Engine Optimization) promotion is the process of improving the quality and quantity of traffic from search engines to a site or a specific page of it, through a set of works, as well as its subsequent monetization by generating profit in the form of potential customers or sales.

SEO is a free type of traffic from search engines, unlike contextual advertising, for which advertisers need to pay. You should also distinguish between “Direct traffic” (these are user visits to a site by “entering” the site address into the browser’s address bar) and transitions to it from bookmarks.

The processes that make up search engine optimization:

• eliminating technical errors on the resource;
• analysis of indexing of required pages;
• creation of a relevant semantic core, correct distribution of keys by which the site will be promoted;
• implementation of analytics systems and monitoring of results.

What, where and how do users search on the Internet?

When a user needs to find certain information on the Internet, he types the query he is interested in into the address bar. As a result, he receives relevant answers from the search engine in the form of a list of sites divided into 10-15 on each page – this is search results. Usually, few people look for answers on the second and subsequent pages. Therefore, it is very important to find the site in the TOP 10 search results and higher. The higher it is for a search query, the greater the chance that the user will go to it and find the answer to the query he is interested in. For example, the user is interested in what “search engine promotion” is. At the same time, his request may have completely different variations: “SEO is”, “what is SEO”, “SEO promotion“. At the same time, in most cases, the search engine will return different sites for each request; this will depend on how each specific site will be ranked for each search query.

Search engine results blocks

Let’s look at the main blocks of search results using the example of the world-famous Google search network. After entering a query and clicking the “Find” button, the user can see the following blocks:

Search results. Experts call this page SERM (Search Engine Results Page).

Search results pages consist of the following basic elements:

• Direct search results are links to websites. This is called organic (natural) search results. Here sites compete for the highest positions. By default, the page consists of 10 results (TOP 10), but in some cases there may be more such results. Transitions to a website based on such results are usually called organic traffic, or as Google likes to call it, free traffic.
• Advertising blocks. These are usually the results at the top and bottom of the organic results. To get there you need to pay for advertising on Google. This direction is called “Contextual advertising”.
• Small fields before search results. These could be errors, quick answers to a user’s question, a calculator, exchange rates, etc. The most understandable examples: enter “hryvnia dollar exchange rate” into a search engine:

SEO specialists, or site optimizers as they are also called, do not really like such blocks, as this reduces the number of clicks on their sites, because the user immediately receives an answer to the question.

• Images
• Block “Related queries”. Google will automatically select similar phrases, related phrases and related topics related to your search query.

• If the request contains certain words, such as “steps”, “how to do”, “recipe”, “methods”, an information block with a bulleted list can be shown at position zero.

High-quality SEO optimization will make it possible to appear in these blocks at the “zero” position.

Important: a site does not have to have the highest position in organic results to get such a block at the very top; it can even be formed for a site in the 10th position.

And another interesting fact: Until recently, Google displayed in organic results both such a block with a link to the page and a regular snippet (the result of the search), that is, there were 2 links to the site on one page, which clearly had an advantage over others. But now the search engine has removed this option and for the page in the “Quick Answers” ​​block the snippet is not displayed in the search results.

How does a search engine work?

When a user searches for something on the World Wide Web, many pages on the web may be relevant to his search query. Therefore, the search engine, based on ranking, selects the best options and provides them in the form of search results. To do this, the search engine algorithms need to perform 2 more large processes – crawling and indexing all pages of the site, taking into account the quality of the content, as well as personalization. Often, unknowing people confuse indexing and site crawling and mistakenly think that changes to the site are immediately displayed in the search engine – this is not the case. A search engine can see changes on a page quite quickly, but it also needs to collect information on other sites in a given topic (niche) and, based on its algorithms, compile a page rating, that is, generate search results. On average it takes 3-7 days. But there are exceptions – these are news-related sites and similar ones, because for such sites it is important that the news immediately gets into the search, and it is also important for the search engine itself that relevant information appears in it as quickly as possible. Therefore, search engine bots visit news websites almost every hour.

Special scanners scan all pages on the Internet Google bots, they are constantly searching for new pages, as well as checking previously indexed ones. The basis for scanning is the XML sitemap, which must be correctly compiled on the site for its correct indexing. Crawlers, also known as Google bots, find new pages on the Internet, scan them and transmit information to Google servers; they also follow all links.

The first level pages are processed first, and then all the lower ones, since bots consider the main pages to be more important. Based on the settings specified in robots.txt, they index pages except those to whose content they are denied access. But, in practice, closed pages can still be indexed because robots.txt is a set of rules, a set of recommendations for the search engine, so if the search engine considers the page useful for the user, it will add it to indexing, even if the opposite is stated in robots.txt. To ensure that the page is not 100% indexed, you need to add the noindex meta tag to the site code, remove the page from the site, make a 301 redirect from it to another page, or put the HTTP response header X-Robots-Tag: noindex.

To understand the difference between a robots file and a meta tag

Settings in the file prevent the robot from accessing the contents of certain pages or files. The meta tag shows the page and tells the robot that it does not need to be indexed. If you add meta tags to an indexed unnecessary page and close it in the robots file, then it will not fall out of the index. Why? Due to the fact that access to it will be closed in the file, the search bot will not be able to access it and read the meta tag that prohibits indexing.

The frequency with which pages are crawled is determined by the search engine itself, but on average it can take up to several weeks. Next, the crawled content is indexed by key queries and by freshness. Afterwards, all pages that are not blocked from indexing are included in the index.

Why do you need to promote your website?

All Internet resources need targeted traffic, both to ensure sales and maintain the number of readers, no matter a commercial project or a news portal. Website promotion is especially important in highly competitive niches. If the site presents some uninteresting, useless information that is only available on it, then the site, subject to indexing, will fall into the TOP. Therefore, all sites that are in search results must be promoted!

A website may have a simply stunning design, great pricing offers, the latest news, but without traffic it turns into “empty space.” Promotion in search engines leads to users visiting the site for free, who can subsequently become your clients or readers.

The main reasons for site promotion can be identified:

1. Increasing targeted traffic
2. Increasing potential interested audience
3. Increase in sales, and therefore income and profit
4. Improving recognition and branding
5. Increased trust and loyalty
6. Improving traffic quality

Why do you need SEO promotion if you are already in the top?

If the site already occupies top positions in search results, this does not mean that you need to stop working on it. Search algorithms can change several times a year, and your site can either gain a stronger foothold at the top of the search results or fall off it altogether. Likewise, competitors sleep and see themselves in your place, they work on the site constantly and are ready to take advantage of your mistakes immediately.

Promotion methods

Conventionally, search engine SEO promotion can be divided into 2 huge components:

1. Internal optimization
2. External optimization

Internal optimization

All work on internal SEO optimization starts from niche and competitor analysis in order to analyze the situation in the niche, its leaders, as well as the specifics of promotion. Next, you need to draw up a promotion strategy, since it will be completely different and depends on the goals and purpose of the site.

After this, the semantic core is assembled. This is one of the most important stages of promotion, since it will determine:

• Site structure – the presence of certain categories and subcategories (sections and subsections);
• Meta tag optimization – adding certain data to the page so that users and crawlers understand what kind of content is on the page;
• Preparation of quality texts;
• Improving website usability;
• In-page weight distribution;
• Regular content of the information blog.

It is also necessary to carry out analysis and technical optimization of the site. You need to check:

• Genesis links and duplicate pages;
• Duplicate and missing meta tags;
• Correct operation of forms, buttons, website pages;
• Page loading speed, as well as mobile site adaptation.

Therefore, timely detection of errors and their elimination will protect the site from problems with ranking.

External optimization

External optimization includes:

1. Work on the site’s link profile – analysis of competitors’ donor domains, selection of high-quality platforms for purchasing article links, as well as high-quality crowd marketing.
2. Work on mentions and reviews about the company on the Internet.

Advantages and disadvantages of SEO promotion

Based on the fact that there are a huge number of opinions about SEO, we will highlight the main pros and cons.

Benefits of using SEO promotion:

1. Increasing coverage in a niche and targeted traffic to the site in most cases leads to an increase in sales and, accordingly, profits.
2. The effect of SEO promotion after bringing a site to the top can last for a long time, until the next update of the search results is released, or the condition of the site deteriorates.
3. There is a category of users who are not particularly trusting of advertising results and go exclusively through the top search results.
4. Improving the performance of contextual advertising by improving the relevance of landing pages and their loading speed. By improving pages as part of SEO work, we improve the site’s conversion rate when navigating to these pages from advertising.

At the same time, there are some disadvantages of SEO promotion:

1. SEO promotion is not a quick process, so you won’t get fabulous results in the first month, like from advertising, for example.
2. Weak predictability. SEO promotion depends directly on search networks; after each update, the conditions for getting into the top results can change dramatically and affect the site, both positively and negatively. The success of promotion, as well as the timing of getting to the top, highly depend on the competition in the niche.
3. Properly optimizing and improving your site may require many technical changes to your site at once, a process that can put a big dent in your budget.

Let’s sum it up

Website optimization for search engines is a set of actions that helps a website increase traffic, awareness, trust, sales, and, accordingly, profit. You can promote any website that sells goods, services, or simply provides useful and relevant information to users. But remember, in order to do everything correctly, any action must take place according to a pre-formed plan and only after a thorough analysis of the site, as well as competitors.

Serhii Ivanchenko

CEO

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