SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, but in order to fully understand what SEO in 2021 actually is and what it can do for your website, you need to read this article, this is exactly what we’ll cover.
In article you will learn about how SEO in 2021 be beneficial for your business website.
Let’s say you have a website that is not that popular among the users and you want to increase the number of people visiting your website through Google search results or any other search engine for that matter. This is where SEO comes in.
The main goal of SEO is to increase the organic traffic coming to your website through search results. Through the optimal implementation you can increase both the quality and quantity of the organic traffic.
Table of Contents
How SEO in 2021 works?
The words Search Engine Optimization refers to how you can optimize certain factors which can influence this change in organic traffic. The key factor is the algorithm used by the search engine to rank a webpage when a person performs a search. The higher the ranking of the webpage more likely is for people to click on the website.
In fact, according to backlinko, in a study it was found that the top 3 google search results make up for 75.1% of the clicks made through all the search results for that keyword for which the google search was made. This is called the click through rate (CTR).
Read More: Pay Per Click (PPC) ? How does it works? PPC Advertising Trends in 2021?
According to the study, the first result that shows for a google search takes up for 31.7% of the click-through rate out of all of the other results for the keyword. This CTR decreases as you move down. However, this decrease is not uniform and changes drastically from 2 to 3, and quite insignificant from 9 to 10. Therefore, most people should target the top 3 three ranks for maximum CTR.
This change in ranking occurs through SEO, by optimizing certain factors which are more suitable to the algorithm used by a search engine. This comes as no surprise that Google is the world’s most popular search engine. This is because of the algorithm used by the Google search engine, which provides the user most useful information for the thing they’re looking for out of all other web pages existing on the internet.
Most important thing in SEO is trying to figure out the parameters of the google algorithm, so that your website ranks better than rest of the page.
Read More: What is Cost Per Click (CPC)? How does CPC work?
However, the fact that this algorithm is not revealed by the search engine makes analyzing it all the more difficult. In order to keep giving the user the most relevant information, google keeps on changing this algorithm periodically, so that it doesn’t get tricked by a particular webpage. This is partially the reason why Google is the number one search engine in the world.
How to SEO?
The task of optimising your website to increase its ranking can be done in multiple ways, but it is basically classified into 2 categories:
- On-page SEO
On-page SEO implies all of the things that you can do to the contents present on your website in order make it more compatible with the algorithm of the search engine. The title tag, the meta-description, and the occurrence of the keyword can make a website more or less SEO friendly. If the site is most SEO in 2021 friendly for the keywords used, it is automatically ranked higher.
- Off Page SEO
There are various other things that can be done apart from changing the contents that can affect the ranking of the webpage. This is called off-page SEO. The SEO scope can be both local and international. It is always best to begin locally and then take on the global SEO
On-Page SEO
While performing on-page SEO, in order to make the website more SEO friendly, both the content and the source code of the webpage should be optimized to make it more compatible. There is a common goal of both search engines and SEO, which is to provide the users the most relevant information which they were initially looking for. Therefore in order to increase the organic traffic, it is necessary to make it relevant to both the search engine algorithms as well as the users for the particular keyword(s).
The on-page SEO in 2021 elements are mainly the occurrence of keyword, layout and readability of the page, title, meta description, the number of ads present and many other things such as the loading speed of the page, the URL structure how much time the page takes to load.
You can identify the potential primary secondary, tertiary keywords and so on, by searching the main topic of the webpage and type it in the google search bar. The various auto-complete search that will be present for the phrase entered will be the keyword. Chose a keyword that best describes the information present on the page, or picks the keyword before creating the webpage itself. Once the keyword primary secondary and tertiary keywords are identified choose a suitable title that incorporates the keywords in it. The title tag should be between 15 to 40 characters. The URL of the webpage should also contain the primary keyword. This will make the page more compatible.
(*Tip: Title tags that are written in the form of a question are ranked better, as its CTR increases more than 14%)
In addition to an appropriate title, the repetition of the keywords inside the contents of the webpage should be appropriate so as to increase ranking but also staying away from being spam. The speed at which the page gets loaded is also important as people do not have time to sit and watch the loading icon. Keep your pages light in order to facilitate quick loading speed. Pages having a good Meta description are ranked better as it helps the search engine in scanning through the contents of the page. Since most people are using the internet through their mobile phones, it is also important to keep your webpage compatible with most mobile phones in order to increase the incoming organic traffic.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO in 2021 mainly involves optimizing the website in such a way that it improves the user and the search engine perception of the particular page. The external factors on which this perception depends upon the popularity of the website among the users, whether the information present on the webpage is relevant or not, the trustworthiness of the data and the authority held by the website.
(*Fact: Off-page SEO in 2021 can carry almost 50% of the ranking factor)
The motive of off-page SEO is to increase this authority and trustworthiness of the webpage. This can be achieved by getting other websites to vouch for the information present in the webpage. This vouching for a webpage on the internet is done through back-linking.
A backlink is a link that is present on any other page on the internet that leads the user to your website, hence linking that page back to yours. The higher number of the backlinks higher the page is ranked. This is because a bigger number of backlinks suggest to the search engine that your webpage is being recommended by many other webpages, hence the information present here must be useful to the user. Building backlinks takes time and effort but can make a world of difference in the ranking of the webpage.
However, all backlinks were not created equal. Backlinks can be classified into three types:
- Natural Links
Natural links are the backlinks which are created with any interference from the page owner. These links are created solely based on the quality and nature of the content. For eg: A car magazine or the newsletter, linking to the website of the manufacturer so that the readers can check out the other content present on that website as well. Naturally created backlinks carry maximum value amongst all three and can substantially affect the overall ranking of the page.
- Manual-Links
The backlinks which are created through some action or instruction from the page owner are called manual links. This manual building of links could be through asking the consumers or affiliates or influencers to link to your website or to share the content. This has some positive effects on the rankings but not as much as natural links.
- Self-created Links
This type of link building can be sketchy and can fall along the lines of black hat SEO. Self-created links are the links wherein the page owner themselves add their links to the online directory through forums, blogs, comment sections, and any other opportunity to post a hyperlinked text. This has the least effect on the ranking of a page as a search engine is able to differentiate between each type of the link.
(*Imp: A large number of self-created links from irrelevant webpages can increase the spam score of the website and decrease the ranking)
Quality backlinks from authentic and relevant sources can increase the authority and trustworthiness of your webpage and hence increase its ranking. The age backlinks also play a role in the ranking, as well as the authority of the host site. If you get a backlink from a website having poor authority and trustworthiness than yours, then it doesn’t do you much good. However, backlinks from popular sites having higher DA can help you increase your rankings. The way through which these backlinks are created is where the SEO tactics of an individual come in.
Checkout various backlinks sites
- Guest Post Sites
- Business Listing Sites
- Blog Sites
- Social Bookmarking Sites
- Web 2.0 Sites
- Wiki Submission Sites
- Infographic Sites
How SEO in 2021 can be beneficial for your business?
SEO can impact your business drastically, and can help you make your more successful. Not only does it help you rank higher on the search engines, it also enables you drive more number of potential clients or consumers to your business website.
We have highlighted some of the major benefits of SEO on your business website:
- It free! And that makes it an even more important tool, as it is available for everyone. Even small business owners can use it for their benefit without much investment.
- One of the direct benefits of SEO for your business, no matter how big or small, is that it helps you surpass your competition. By ranking your website higher than your competitors, you automatically increase your chances of getting more interested consumers to your website.
- SEO enhances the user experience by helping you in curating the contents of your website, which is most favorable by the readers and allows for much better transfer of information. By changing the layout, including better images, and increasing the loading time as well as making your website mobile-friendly. You not only make your website rank higher but also help the readers.
- It brings in more customers and increases the rate of conversion. Hence increasing the revenue. SEO only brings in the people who are already interested in the product or commodity of your business as they themselves made a keyword search on it.
- It can help you in generating leads. SEO allows a business to get in touch with its potential customers who may be looking for a particular commodity. Thus SEO leads, provide for a better conversion rate than traditional leads.
- SEO keeps you updated, and increases your brand awareness among people. As the number of backlinks increases more people start to notice your website. Hence your target market recognizes your presence more easily.
- SEO increases the credibility of your brand automatically by providing you a strong online presence and google rankings.
- SEO is pocket friendly, and thus it can be considered as a major marketing channel for even the biggest companies.
The list may go on and on, and the benefits of using SEO are potentially endless.
Hope this article provided you some insight in the world of SEO and helped you in making your next digital marketing decision!
