SEO – Search engine optimisation is the method of optimising a website to get a place near to the top of search engine result pages for targeted phrases. However SEO is continuously evolving and things that used to work a few years earlier,are now no longer considered the right way to optimise a website. In fact,Google has been continuously updating search algorithms and has also introduced new technologies such as Rank Brain to provide the most optimum results for their users.
Since the algorithms are a trade secret,professionals in the SEO industry are forced to conduct their own tests in order to determine the factors that truly determine the rankings of webpages in the search engine result pages. All the knowledge about SEO is derived from hardworking professionals who carefully go through patents filed by Google as well as by conducting tests in order to determine what actually works.
The field of search engine optimsation can be broadly divided into on page optimisation and off page optimisation.
On Page Optimisation
This category broadly covers all the aspects of a website that are under the control of the site owner. Presence of right meta data,structured data,high-quality content,use of LSI keywords,page loading speed,technical aspects of SEO such as allowing crawlers proper access to all the webpages form the core of on page optimisation.
There are several tools available online that can help a webmaster ensure proper optimisation of all the pages on a website as per the rules issued by major search engines including Google and Bing among others.
Off Page Optimisation
This category primarily covers links from other websites. While SEO has changed a lot over the years,links from other websites remain the primary factor that determines the ranking of a web page.
One of the best ways to attract high quality links is to publish useful and authoritative content on a regular basis. Such content naturally attracts high-quality links. Another way to attract high quality links is to run a blogger outreach campaign in order to get links from other authority websites by publishing high-quality content on those websites.
SEO Tips for 2019
One of the biggest changes expected in 2019 and in the future is the rise of voice search. Most people use search engines such as Google on their mobile devices and the primary mode of search is voice search. Therefore,it is important to optimise your website for voice search by answering questions that are likely to be asked by users.
User experience is becoming a much more important factor for search engine optimisation with the advent of Rank Brain. Rank Brain is the machine learning AI technology used by Google. It is also speculated that time spent on a website is going to play a much more important role in the search rankings as it is one of the primary factors used by Rank Brain for calculating web rankings.
Google has recently announced that it is switching to mobile first index. In simple terms,it means that the mobile version of your website will be considered the primary version by Google for crawling,indexing and ranking purposes. Make sure your site is fast and well optimised for users using mobile devices,like smartphones,as well as those using desktop PCs,if you want to stay at the top of search results.
In Conclusion
Overall,search engine optimsation will keep evolving as algorithmic updates become ever more frequent. However,the very best way to optimise your website is to ensure that your users are well served and entertained/ informed. Keep posting high-quality useful content on your site and pay special attention to the user experience to get to the top of the rankings.