Search engine optimisation is often deemed a complicated subject, but there are actually only four main elements to putting a website onto the first page of the Google search engines. The level of competition for a keyword phrase will determine how hard you have to work at certain elements; but untimely, if you carry out the elements listed below you can rank a webpage.
Here's the elements every single ranking webpage has in place:
1. On-page element
On-page includes the title of a page or post, the url (http://mydomain.com/page-name), and the anchor text – Anchor text is the visible characters and words that hyperlink display when linking to another document or location on the web. Get these elements spot on and a webpage will surge up the Google rankings (serps.) And on-page is becoming increasingly important in the eyes of Google. I have pushed sites from the bottom of page two to second position of page one just be correcting titles, urls and anchor texts.
The ratio of each element is key.
Let's say you have a blog post title about web design in the UK. This string of text needs to be varied for your url and anchor. Example: url "website design in the United Kingdom" or "UK web design", or "seo uk company for webdesign. They're the same keywords but mixed up to make variants or LSI keywords. If you simply repeated the same keyword string in the title, url and anchor you'd get penalized for over optimisation. So plan ahead with your page structure and plan for success.
2. Social element
Social signals seem to confuse the average Jo but all it really means is that your blog post is getting shared about the web. Google love social signals, and just like on-page elements, signals are becoming extremely important. Signals include Facebook likes/shares, tweets, plus ones etc.
Imagine you are the Google bot for one moment. Which site would you put ahead of the other?
A. A site that has no social signals, shares, likes, tweets etc. The site gets very little traffic, nobody is talking about it, it's stagnant.
B. A site that's getting tweeted about and liked on FB? There is fresh traffic every day via social channels and people are clearly enjoying the content.
It's obvious, you'd rank site B above site A every time. That's just how Google see it too.
Now I've created some very cool software that helps with social signals. Because there's not many people out there that want to share about the latest thermostatic radiator values or UPVC windows, I created a software that compensates those industries, that are at a huge disadvantage to those in fashion or sports cars. Who wants to share about boring stuff? Google has it slightly wrong I think.
Want more information on some pretty amazing work?
3. Content element
Clean, original content that gives something new and interesting to the reader it best. I write my articles first and then mix in a ration of keywords. For my main keyword (the one in which I want to rank a page for) I use a keyword density of around 2%, but no more than 3%. Importantly, I used lots of variants of my seed keyword. For example: If my main keyword was "businesses in the UK" I'd use a spread of similar keywords like "UK businesses", "established business in the South West of England" etc.
But people do forget that content is usually created to promote an action of some kind. It might be a like, share, tweet, obtaining an email address or buying something. It's good to keep in mind what the objectives are before writing.
4. Backlinks element
Backlinks are links pointing to your webpage from another webpage. Google sees backlinks as votes of confidence for a particular webpage/website. Linking has changed a lot over the last five years. In the old days you could simply spam your way to the top of the search engines with thousands of automated links. But Google in particular have slammed down hard on this kind of fake link building. A website will get penalized by Google if it's deemed to have cheap, high volume links.
When I build links I focus on building page and domain authority. One of the ways to do this is to have my webpages closely aligned and linking with domains that have huge domain authority. Examples might included Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, GooglePlus, Delicious, Scoop It, Storify, Wordpress, Tumblr, Evernote, Diggo and Digg. All these web 2.0 sites have massive domain authority. Having profiles with each of these web 2.0 properties and linking them back to your website is the way to go. You'll need fresh, relevant content on each new profile created. You'll need to complete the about sections, add profile pictures, images etc. Treat each profile as you would your own website. When you created content, link it back to your site.
But the real trick is to spread the link juice between your home page and your inner pages. Example:
Some links point to http://mydomain.com and others point to http://mydomain.com/page-one http://mydomain.com/page-two etc.
You will get more link juice and greater power if you spread your links across your whole site and not just the home page.
Hope you enjoyed this article. I am an SEO expert in the UK.
Here's the elements every single ranking webpage has in place:
1. On-page element
On-page includes the title of a page or post, the url (http://mydomain.com/page-name), and the anchor text – Anchor text is the visible characters and words that hyperlink display when linking to another document or location on the web. Get these elements spot on and a webpage will surge up the Google rankings (serps.) And on-page is becoming increasingly important in the eyes of Google. I have pushed sites from the bottom of page two to second position of page one just be correcting titles, urls and anchor texts.
The ratio of each element is key.
Let's say you have a blog post title about web design in the UK. This string of text needs to be varied for your url and anchor. Example: url "website design in the United Kingdom" or "UK web design", or "seo uk company for webdesign. They're the same keywords but mixed up to make variants or LSI keywords. If you simply repeated the same keyword string in the title, url and anchor you'd get penalized for over optimisation. So plan ahead with your page structure and plan for success.
2. Social element
Social signals seem to confuse the average Jo but all it really means is that your blog post is getting shared about the web. Google love social signals, and just like on-page elements, signals are becoming extremely important. Signals include Facebook likes/shares, tweets, plus ones etc.
Imagine you are the Google bot for one moment. Which site would you put ahead of the other?
A. A site that has no social signals, shares, likes, tweets etc. The site gets very little traffic, nobody is talking about it, it's stagnant.
B. A site that's getting tweeted about and liked on FB? There is fresh traffic every day via social channels and people are clearly enjoying the content.
It's obvious, you'd rank site B above site A every time. That's just how Google see it too.
Now I've created some very cool software that helps with social signals. Because there's not many people out there that want to share about the latest thermostatic radiator values or UPVC windows, I created a software that compensates those industries, that are at a huge disadvantage to those in fashion or sports cars. Who wants to share about boring stuff? Google has it slightly wrong I think.
Want more information on some pretty amazing work?
3. Content element
Clean, original content that gives something new and interesting to the reader it best. I write my articles first and then mix in a ration of keywords. For my main keyword (the one in which I want to rank a page for) I use a keyword density of around 2%, but no more than 3%. Importantly, I used lots of variants of my seed keyword. For example: If my main keyword was "businesses in the UK" I'd use a spread of similar keywords like "UK businesses", "established business in the South West of England" etc.
But people do forget that content is usually created to promote an action of some kind. It might be a like, share, tweet, obtaining an email address or buying something. It's good to keep in mind what the objectives are before writing.
4. Backlinks element
Backlinks are links pointing to your webpage from another webpage. Google sees backlinks as votes of confidence for a particular webpage/website. Linking has changed a lot over the last five years. In the old days you could simply spam your way to the top of the search engines with thousands of automated links. But Google in particular have slammed down hard on this kind of fake link building. A website will get penalized by Google if it's deemed to have cheap, high volume links.
When I build links I focus on building page and domain authority. One of the ways to do this is to have my webpages closely aligned and linking with domains that have huge domain authority. Examples might included Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, GooglePlus, Delicious, Scoop It, Storify, Wordpress, Tumblr, Evernote, Diggo and Digg. All these web 2.0 sites have massive domain authority. Having profiles with each of these web 2.0 properties and linking them back to your website is the way to go. You'll need fresh, relevant content on each new profile created. You'll need to complete the about sections, add profile pictures, images etc. Treat each profile as you would your own website. When you created content, link it back to your site.
But the real trick is to spread the link juice between your home page and your inner pages. Example:
Some links point to http://mydomain.com and others point to http://mydomain.com/page-one http://mydomain.com/page-two etc.
You will get more link juice and greater power if you spread your links across your whole site and not just the home page.
Hope you enjoyed this article. I am an SEO expert in the UK.