The SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process or technique used by SEO experts to increase the visibility of a web page in search engine result pages such as Google, Yahoo or Bing, etc., following the Google guidelines,

When the web pages match with the guideline of Google algorithms like the quality design and content, then Google helps in indexing the web pages.

If it does not match and gets the hints that someone is trying to rank the web pages using black hat SEO techniques, then it penalizes it.

Traffic which we get naturally in search engines is also termed as an organic or non-paid optimization technique.

Note: If you are looking for

Is Search Engine Optimization Important To Rank A Website?

Yes, SEO is a vital part of internet marketing as we know that Google is the most popular search engine in the world, and then it is followed by Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex. People use Search engines to solve their specific problems.

For example, suppose you want to travel to the United States of America, but you do not have any idea where to go? So at that moment, what would you do? First of all, you would try to contact your friends or family member who has been to the USA. Am I right?

What would you do if you find that nobody close to you has been to America? Would you stop here?

No way. You would try to find alternatives.

Here, Search Engines play a vital role to solve all of your questions? For example, your query is to know the “Best places to visit in the USA.”

To find you would type your query within Google or any search engine. After typing, you would get the top ten results in this way:

Paid Search & Organic Search

Here in the above picture, based on your query, you have got the desired results. If you look cautiously on the searches, you would see that two types of results are shown to you. These are the paid and organic search.

Now you may be wondering how search engines are filtering millions of website and showing you only 10 webpages? It is due to search engine optimization, in short SEO. The 10 organic hyperlinks which you see here is properly SEO optimized.

Based on your queries search engine crawlers’ searches millions of website and according to the relevancy display desired results on the first page of search engine.

So, if you want your website to be visible in all parts of the world, then start optimizing your webpages for Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) using proper search engine optimization techniques.

Before diving into SEO or search engine optimization techniques, let us see the main difference between organic and paid search.

Difference between Organic and Paid Search

Organic search is free and natural, which is determined by search engine algorithms, whereas the advertiser pays paid searches for listing in the search result page. Organics searches are also known as natural searches and to list webpages organically in the search engine the first page you have to continuously do proper search engine optimization using various techniques which are permitted by search engines.

SEO Techniques which are not authorized by search engines are termed as Black hat SEO and should not be done. If it is found that you are doing Black Hat SEO, then you would be penalized by Search engines. So, you should optimize your website with White Hat SEO which all search engines love.

Let’s us check what falls under Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO.

Different Types of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

White Hat SEO Black Hat SEO Legitimate techniques which are authorized by search engine comes under White Hat SEO Illegitimate SEO techniques which are not authorized by Google or any search engines are Black Hat SEO Strictly abide by Google’s guideline Tries to exploits the weakness of the search engine algorithm to improve the ranking Long term Impact Short term. Search Engines penalizes those websites which follow black hat techniques White Hat Seo techniques include: High-quality content, outreach influencer, speed, mobile friendliness, proper link building Some of the Black Hat SEO techniques are cloaking, keyword stuffing, hidden text, link spam, etc.

We have now got the knowledge about White Hat Seo and Black Hat SEO. Now it is our turn to know about the various categories of Search Engine Optimization.

Categories of Search Engine Optimization

We can categorize Search Engine Optimization or Seo in three categories. These are:

Technical SEO ON-Page SEO OFF-Page SEO

Let us see what are these?

1.Technical SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Technical SEO is related to the creation of Google Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster, and Yandex to monitor the technical aspect of a website such as checking site performance, speed, and coverage, how many external links pointing to a website, sitemaps, and many more.

Given below are the technical Seo checklist which you need to do for SEO:

I.Secured Socket Layer (SSL)

Google or search engines give extra attention to those websites which have enabled SSL certificate on their website. It gives more preference to the HTTPS website, instead of HTTP. So ensure to have an SSL certificate on your website for better rank in SERP.

II.Mobile Responsive

Search engines are becoming smarter day by day due to regular updatation on the search algorithm. Search engines bots are so smart if during the crawl if it finds that a website is not mobile responsive, then it would not provide a ranking.

Google has already indicated that they would give preference and ranking to those websites which are mobile responsive.

III.Page Speed:

Page speed is one of the essential ranking factors or signal in Search engines. If you want to enhance your website’s speed, you can do the given things:

Choose Hosting, which is fast and reliable.

Compress large image sizes

Use minimum CSS

Minimize HTTPS request

Compress your website using GZIP

Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML of your website

Use a fast DNS provider

If your website is made up of WordPress, then you can use caching plugins such as W3Super Cache to optimize your website.

IV. Avoid Duplicity and canonical issue

Search Engines hate duplicate content. It is a good practice to avoid duplicate content because if it is not removed, then your website may not rank in the SERP. The reason for the duplicate content is due to the presence of different versions of a single website.

For example,

Suppose, if you have a website named www.beingoptimist.com. If the preferred version is not set, then search engines would consider the given website has four versions. These are listed below:

1) http://www.beingoptimist.com

2) htttp://beingoptimist.com

3) https://www.beingoptimist.com

4) https://beingoptimist.com

Due to the above 4 different versions of the same website, search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo would consider these websites different and would consider a duplicate content or may your website would be penalized, if the problem is not solved. This problem is fixed using Canonicalization techniques.

What Is Canonicalization?

It is a process of driving traffic to one preferred domain of a particular website from all of its four versions. It is the way of selecting the best URL out of several choices available.

How to Fix Canonical Issue?

After knowing that a website has four versions of URL, you would be wondering how to fix it. Right?

Do not worry, I am here to help you out, and I would let you know how you would fix and set the preferred version of your website.

To fix the issue, you can follow any of the given below strategies. These are:

Using the canonical tag

To set your preferred version of the website, you would have to insert the given below code within the head tag of the HTML element:

<link rel=” canonical” href=” https://www.beingoptimist.com/″>

When you would insert the above-given code in the header section of a website that would tell the search engines to index the webpages according to the given URL set in the canonical tag.

301(Permanent) redirect

301 redirect is the best way to solve the canonical issue. So for permanently solve the problem, you would have to insert the given code in the .htaccess file.

Redirect from WWW to non-WWW

RewriteEngine on

rewritecond %{http_host} sitesbay.com [nc]

rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://sitesbay.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

Redirect non-WWW to WWW

RewriteEngine on

rewritecond %{http_host} sitesbay.com [nc]

rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.sitesbay.com/$1 [r=301,nc]

Note: Never forget to set your preferred domain at Google webmaster Tools.

V.Creation of XML Sitemap:

An XML site map is an XML file which holds the full details of a website. It helps the search engine to understand what your website is about and helps in indexing of the webpages. It helps search engine to understand where the webpage is.

If you are using a WordPress, then you can use Yoast SEO Plugins which create a sitemap of a website automatically, or you can use sitemap generator tool.

VI. Consider AMP:

AMP means Accelerated Mobile Pages. It is an Open Source framework which was developed by Google in collaboration with Twitter. It was mainly developed for the mobile version and helped the webpages to load fast in mobile by reducing the extra HTML and CSS code.

AMP is essential for loading webpages fast in mobile devices and also helps in enhancing usability and reduces the bounce rate and increasing ranking immobile devices.

VII. Add structured data markup to your website

Structure Data Markup is a specific code which helps you to markup elements on a webpage to help search engines to understand the website’s content in a better way. It is also known as Schema Markup. Once a search engine understands your webpage data. It would display your website content in search engine more attractively

Using structured data, you can easily add rich snippets. For example, you can add a star rating, reviews, and products’ prices with the help of structured data.

VIII. Register your site with Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and Yandex Webmaster

Google Search Console, Yandex Webmaster, and Bing Webmaster Tools are free tools from Google, Bing, and Yandex, respectively that allow you to submit your website to their search engines for crawling. When your website is ready, you should submit your website in these free tools so that you can easily monitor your website’s performance. Moreover, submit your website’s sitemap to these webmaster tools so that Google, Bing, and Yandex search can crawl your site to display in search results.

2. ON-Page SEO

ON-Page SEO is a strategy which is used to optimize a webpage and its content by inserting a keyword relevant to your industry or niche in the title, heading, and Meta tags, and so on. This activity is done on the webpage, which is to be published. The On-page SEO activities includes are:

I.SEO friendly URL:

It is considered a good practice to use the SEO friendly URL. To make a URL SEO friendly, you have to keep it short and small.

For example:

Never Use the given below two URLs:

https://www.beingoptimist.com/ p=123/

https://www.beingoptimist.com/ 8/8/18/cat= SEO/pageid=890.html

II.Use Keyword

Always try to use keyword in the webpage’s URL. For example, https://www.beingoptimist.com/SEO.

III.Use Keyword at the beginning of the title

The title tag is significant HTML tag and is vital On-page SEO factor. So always utilize this tag for inserting heading. Do remember your title tag should contain the Keyword for which you are optimizing your webpage. Keyword more closely to the title tag more preference you would get in search engine.

IV. Use H1 heading for your Post title

Always use the H1 tag for the post title. If you are using WordPress or CMS, then your work becomes more comfortable because CMS by default always put the title in the H1 tag.

V.Never forget to ADD modifies in your title tag

Add modifier such as “Best”. “2019” “Beginners” etc. It would help you to rank high for the target keyword.

VI.Use Images or Videos:

Never forget to use images or videos in your webpages. Using multimedia helps in user engagements and makes the post more attractive.

VII.Use the H2 tag for creating subheading

Always include the target keyword on the subheading. Use at least once.

VIII.Use the keyword in the first paragraph

Always use your target keyword within the 100 words of the first paragraph of your article.

IX.Mobile friendly

Your website should be mobile-friendly. If your website is not mobile-friendly, then google would penalize you. Mobile-friendly websites are preferred first for search indexing.

X.Internal linking

Internal linking helps in reducing the bounce rate. So try to put 2 or 3 relevant internal linking on your article.

X.Outbound links

Try to use relevant outbound links on your article. It would help Google to understand that your article is full of quality information.

XI.LSI Keyword

Scatter LSI keyword in your article. LSI stands for latent Semantic Keywords, which are the synonym of your target keyword.

XII.Never Forget to Optimize images

Always use keyword in the “ALT” attribute of the images and reduce the size of the images using an online image compressor or WordPress plugins, if your website is made up of WordPress.

XIII.Content Is King

Make your content longer and engaging. The longer the content there is more chances that your webpage would rank high in search engines. Try to write content with over 1500 words.