What is SEO and what is its benefit for websites?
SEO or search engine optimization is the process of developing websites to suit the requirements of different search engines such as Google or Bing with the aim of appearing in the first search results for the keywords and terms used by potential customers for companies, projects and commercial activities.
Search engines are the source of 70% of website visits, where site visitors resort to various search engines to answer specific questions or search for a product or service with hundreds of topics published to answer visitors’ questions and the presence of websites for most companies and commercial projects that provide multiple alternatives at a cost Suitable with convenient and fast means of communication that are better than traditional shopping channels.
There are many benefits of SEO for websites for individuals, especially websites for projects and commercial activities, as it is a major source of website visits, which contribute to increasing the profits of companies and commercial projects through free visits (Free Organic Traffic), in addition to the presence of other options to take advantage of search engines. Through search engine marketing campaigns through paid advertising campaigns.
For example, by optimizing your site for search engines and competing for a keyword with a monthly search volume of 1,000 searches, you will achieve the appearance on the first page of search results for this keyword 10,000 times in front of potential customers.
If we assume that the click-through rate (CTR%) on the first three search results is 10% of the number of impressions (1000 visits to your site), which is less than the actual rate of clicks on the first three search results, and the percentage of completed conversions is like purchases The products of your business or subscription to the services you provide are only 10 percent, or 100 completed operations, and the profit from each completed process is $ 100, so the profit by optimizing your site according to the requirements of search engines will be $ 10,000 per month ($ 120,000 annually) through free visits without incurring any costs High advertising cost for marketing your website.
In addition to the financial profit, increasing the number of website visits is sufficient to build a base of followers for your business who are interested in the distinguished content you provide (blog posts) that indirectly promotes the products and services of your business. It answers all questions of potential customers in your field of expertise and business activity. Free advertising by spreading the positive impression of your project or business.
Competition is fierce for the first results on the search pages, so the process of preparing sites for search engines (SEO) requires continuous effort and specialized and experienced individuals in the field of SEO for major commercial activities and projects, but for emerging sites and blogs, we will explain some tips through which you can improve your site to suit the requirements of search engines And provide a positive browsing experience for site visitors in the coming paragraphs of this article.
Search engines search for sites that contain topics related to what the search engine user is looking for, then arrange them and show them to the reader in an arranged and indexed manner according to the quality of the content and the success rate of the site in the SEO process.
This process is done by the so-called search spiders responsible for crawling and tracking links between the pages of different sites or within the same site and to help search engines such as Google to crawl and index your newly created pages or whose content has been modified using the URL Inspection tool in the Google Search Console platform With the aim of indexing your website pages within a few minutes and appearing in the targeted search results in front of potential customers as soon as possible (within a day or two) in the event that the competing sites are superior to the same search terms in the criteria and factors for ranking the pages of the sites in the results Different searches, which will be explained in the next paragraph.
The efforts of websites in the SEO process will not guarantee appearing in the first search results unless you pay attention to all the details and focus on all the factors that affect the ranking of the site and its various pages in the search results targeted by potential customers, the most important of which are:
On-page SEO for any website is the quality and relevance of the content to what visitors are searching for using the search keywords and terms used by potential customers.
You can define target search terms and the volume of monthly searches through Google Keyword Planner. You can also use many other tools and sites to define search terms for site content and new ideas for content, including:
Ubersuggest
Google Trends
KWFinder
Answer The Public
Website content development includes several steps in order to increase the satisfaction and benefit of website visitors from the content of your website, the most important of which are:
*- Page Title: The main title must include the target search word and refer to the content of the page to increase the percentage of page visits on the number of impressions in the search results (Click-through-rate), which is also an important factor in the ranking of your site in the search results and does not exceed 65 characters until it appears in full for computer and mobile phone users.
*- Page description (Meta Description): The description of the page appears in the search results, as a brief description of the content of the page must be taken care of, as it encourages an increase in the page’s visit rate over the number of times it appears in the various search results, such as the main title, and it does not exceed 156 characters to appear in full, including the search word targeted.
*- Page URL: The page link also appears in the search results and, like the title and page description, contributes to creating a brief description of the page's content through 4 or 5 words at most that include the target search word and is close to the page title.
*- Headings: Dividing the content of the page into sub-headings that include some but not all of the main search word helps search engines to better understand the content of the page, index the pages of the sites better, and appear in a higher order in the search results.
*- Text and visual content: Whether it is a blog post page or a product or service marketing page, it must contain distinctive content that answers all the common questions of the page visitors textually while taking advantage of the features of graphic and video designs (motion graphics) to increase interaction with the content of the page and increase browsing time ( Dwell Time) which is an important factor in ranking pages in search results.
*- Internal & External Links: The presence of internal links in the content of the page to other pages within the site or external links to related topics and sites will contribute to enriching the content of the page and linking the pages of the site internally and facilitating the process of search engine spiders in crawling, indexing and arranging the pages of your site in the results search.
*- Loading Speed: Slow loading of your website pages and taking more than 2 to 4 seconds or more will encourage visitors to return to the search results page and choose a competitor site for your website.
You can check the loading speed of your website's pages through PageSpeed Insights, which provides a general and detailed assessment of your website's loading speed on personal computers and mobile phones, as well as instructions to improve the loading speed of your website's pages.
*- Website Design: The website design process must take into account that the design matches the content of the website in attractive colors that are eye-pleasing and responsive to different types and dimensions of different devices and screens.
*- Website Structure: Creating classifications for the content of the site with the inclusion of internal links to related pages will contribute to improving the quality of the structure of the internal site by linking all pages to each other with ratings and nominations for similar content or similar products and services and facilitate browsing the site for visitors and facilitate the process of search engines In crawling and indexing your website pages, in addition to creating and periodically updating a sitemap file that includes links to the entire website pages (previously found / newly created / newly modified).
Steps to periodically review, check and maintain the website include:
Update your sitemap and txt file periodically at least weekly to make sure that specific site pages are indexed
Checking the compatibility of the website pages with the mobile browsing experience
Ensure that there are no duplicate content or pages with the same title or meta description.
Follow-up and modification of software errors in the development of the website
Follow up the download speed of the website pages daily and work to increase the download speed in order to comply with the requirements of search engines
Focusing on developing all of the mentioned website ranking factors on the search results pages through individuals specialized in SEO search engine optimization will ensure that your business website ranks better in results and increases the number of website visits (Web Traffic) from potential customers.