Keywords
Keywords are ideas and topics which defines what your content is about. In terms of SEO, these are words and phrases that searchers enter into search engines. These are also known as ‘search queries’.
HOW TO EXECUTE YOUR KEYWORD RESEARCH LIKE AN SEO PROFESSIONAL?
Jan 7, 2022 11:19:27 PM / by Byter Team posted in SEO
BYTER’S GUIDE: 31 GOOGLE ADVANCED SEARCH TIPS
Jan 7, 2022 11:00:16 PM / by Byter Team posted in SEO, Search Engines, Web Design
Google is one of the biggest Internet search engines in the world, and you probably use it many times a day. However, unless you are a technology geek you probably won’t use it to its fullest potential. Google is packed with an extensive amount of data, it is mindboggling how businesses manage to strengthen their SEO. But they do manage to, don’t they? Well of course, through an advanced search! But what is it, and how is it done?
Google Advanced Search is a built-in feature that allows a user to specify additional requirements for a search. When this is used for browsing the Internet, an advanced search gives extra information to Google in order to help refine the results by eliminating the clutter you don’t need.
Even if you are a technology geek and can use Google like the best of them, I still suggest that you bookmark this article on Google Advanced Search tips. You’ll have these Byter tips on hand when you’re ready.
31 TIPS ON HOW TO SEARCH ON GOOGLE
Explicit phrase
An explicit phrase allows you to search for content on Google whilst giving you in-depth search results. For instance, imagine you wanted to find information on SEO. Instead of just typing it into Google, it would be more beneficial to search for the phrase explicitly.
For example, “Inbound marketing”
Exclude words
Imagine you want to search for more facts about Digital Marketing agencies, but you want to exclude any results which uses the word Social Media. To do this, simply use the (- sign) in front of the word you want to exclude.
For example, Digital Marketing Agency – Social Media
THIS or THAT
Typically when you conduct a search, Google will include all the terms specified by default. So, if you are looking for two or more terms to match then you can use ‘OR’ in-between. This enables you to focus your searches solely around your desired content.
Does anyone actually know what SEO is and does?
Jan 7, 2022 10:53:31 PM / by Byter Team posted in Social Media, SEO, Search Engines
The term SEO gets bandied around a lot, and many of us have a vague idea as to what it refers to, but most of us would have a hard time explaining exactly what it is? And why you would actually need it other than, “oh I remember reading blog ages ago and it said it was important”. if you want a more in-depth look at SEO and how it works and how to do it check out this other blog post on our website!
What is a marketing plan?
Jan 7, 2022 10:51:07 PM / by Byter Team posted in Digital Marketing, SEO, Copywriting, Sales and marketing
A marketing plan is a document that all companies use to outline their current status, goals, budget and a plan of action. Specifically through the lens of the marketing department. Basically, a marketing plan is an outline of what you plan to do with your marketing for the next, definable time frame. Each plan is different depending on the company, the goals, and the marketing strategy.
Even if you are a small business you will need to do this. If you don’t organise and plan, marketing will get disorganised very quickly, and you could end up overwhelmed with nothing to show for it.
Below are the 9 standard items that you will want to look at in your marketing plan.
Marketing plan structure
1. Business Summary
This section simply outlines where your business is at now. Company name, headquarters, mission statement and general description.
2. Business Initiative
In this section, you outline the projects that your marketing department wants to do. Campaigns that you would like to run, or experiments you would like to try. This section should not be confused with the overall project outline that is put in the business plan.
3. Customer analysis
Market research section. Here you want to outline your ideal customer. You want t to create a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional description of your ideal customer, focusing on traits like Age, Location, Title, Goals, Personal challenges. Pains, Triggering events
4. Competitor analysis
Look at what your competitors are doing, and where you can make yourself stand out, (hint: Positioning, Market share, Offerings, Pricing)
5. Swot analysis
Your businesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. you’ll write most of it based on your market research and your strategy
6. Marketing strategy
This section will outline in detail how you will sell your product. How will you offer something that your competitors are not offering? In a full-length business plan, this section will have the following (7 Ps of marketing): Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence.
(For an in-depth explanation of these check out our blog about them)
7. Budget
Don’t mistake the Budget element of your marketing plan with your product’s price or other company financials. Your budget describes how much money the business has allotted the marketing team to pursue the initiatives and goals outlined in the elements above. Things that may be included in your budget may be, paid promotions, photoshoots, events, outsourcing your marketing
8. Marketing channels
Where will your company promote your goods? Magazines, newspapers, billboards, and also, importantly what social media platforms will you be using. Use this section of your marketing plan to layout which social networks you want to launch a business page on, what you’ll use this social network for, and how you’ll measure your success on this network.
9. Financial projections
Knowing the budget and doing analysis on the marketing channels you want to invest in, you should be able to come up with a plan for how much budget to invest in which tactics based on expected ROI.
The first step of doing anything is planning. You can very easily waste a lot of time and money on marketing and not achieve any of your goals. If you want to be successful, you have to carefully plan out your goal and strategy, then keep careful track of what you are doing and adjust your actions accordingly. A marketing plan is designed to help you achieve this. In a larger company, it helps you keep your team on track, and helps any kind of collaboration immensely.
Happy planning! And remember, even supervillains have to do the planning.
20 Ways to Build Backlinks for SEO
Jan 7, 2022 10:35:09 PM / by Byter Team posted in Digital Marketing, SEO
You’ve created some quality content for your website and you start to see an increase in traffic. Unfortunately, though, the results aren’t quite as positive as you expected. Don’t panic, there’s more you can do to optimise your inbound marketing strategies! We’re going to walk you through another great SEO method that you might not have tried yet.
Inbound vs Outbound Links
Today’s article is all about inbound links (or backlinks). These are different from outbound links (links from your website to another). Instead, backlinks are a type of ‘off-page’ SEO where you drive other websites to link your website and attract readers to your site this way.
Backlinks can increase traffic to your website in two ways:
- When someone else posts a link to your website on their website or blog, their readers might click on it.
- Search engines rank you higher in result pages because backlinks tell them that your website is an authority on a certain subject.
Sounds good right? Backlinks are a great way to get organic traffic to your sight. The more authoritative the websites are that link to you, the better your rankings will be and the more traffic you will generate. So, how do you build backlinks? Well, you have to earn them, and there’s plenty of ways to do this. We’ve created an extensive list of effective link-building strategies for you to have a go at.
1. Produce consistent blog content
If you’re producing regular blog content then you might already be well on your way to earning some quality backlinks. By maintaining the quality and frequency of your blog articles, you’ll naturally build authority on your chosen niche which will drive people to link to your blog.
2. Link to other blogs
A really simple way to earn backlinks is by simply linking to other people’s blogs in your writing. If you do this enough, someone is bound to return the favour.
Make sure you don’t go overboard with this though by linking to every Tom, Dick and Harry. Only link to another blog if the opportunity arises naturally in your writing.
3. Write guest posts
This one might feel a little strange, but trust us it works a treat! Write a really good blog post and reach out to other bloggers to see if they’d be interested in publishing it on their blog. If someone bites, ask if they’d be willing to add a link to your blog. The result is that they get some quality content for their blog and you’ve earned yourself a backlink. It’s a win-win situation.
4. Produce handy resource lists
This strategy is the gift that keeps on giving. Put together a really useful resource list that’s relevant to your niche, for example if you’re a digital marketing agency you could put together a list of the best social media scheduling tools and post it on your blog. This will not only be helpful content for your readers, but great link bait too. Other bloggers can easily link to it instead of having to write out their own.
5. Write newsjack articles
You have to be on your toes for this one. By being the first blogger to comment on a news event, you’ll not only be favoured in Google’s algorithm for your freshness, but you’ll also be the blog post that everyone wants to link to when they publish their own version of the story.
6. Write case studies and rave about your clients
Sing your clients praises in a case study about their business and they’re bound to link to you on their website. Showcase their great results and you’ll leave them no choice but to backlink you.
Or, get on the other side of this strategy by volunteering for case studies. Offer up your time to be the subject of someone else’s case study so that they link you in their post.
7. Offer free tools and templates
Going back to the resource lists we mentioned earlier, you can reap the benefits of being included in one of these lists by creating a free handy tool that other bloggers can include in their resource lists.
Templates are another useful service that people will want to link to. Spend some time thinking about the kind of templates that make people’s jobs easier, for example prospecting email templates, and create shareable ones. Again, other bloggers might link to it in their posts.
8. Write book / product reviews
Write an extensive (positive) review of someone else’s book or product and they’ll definitely want to link it on their own website.
9. Design high-quality infographics and visual content
People love infographics. Create your own aesthetically pleasing and informative infographics for people to share and use in their own posts – they’ll link it back to you as the original source. If you’re not a designer, don’t worry, there’s lots of simple tools you can use to create your own compelling infographics.
10. Make slideshare presentations
Similar to the last point – people love to share visually pleasing content. Pull apart your infographic and spread it across a slideshare presentation. Or maybe you’ve got some old ones you can repurpose. Either way, publish these on your blog or website so people can get sharing.
11. Use comedy
Every marketer’s dream is to produce content that goes viral, and humour spreads like wildfire. Even the most ordinary business can find the private jokes in their industry. The Dollar Shave Club produced a perfect example of this, have a look at this viral video they created that worked wonders for their business. If you want people linking to your site, this is an extremely effective way to do it.
12. Reach out when you post something great
If your company has big news to share, or you’ve put together an amazing bit of content, do some outreach to gain attention from the press. Getting published in industry publications will put your business in front of a huge audience, massively improve your credibility, and hopefully gain you those all important backlinks.
13. Team up with other companies
Partner with companies in complementary organisations to yours and work together to build each other up. They’ll want to talk about your business because they have a vested interest in your success. The bigger your company is, the more traffic you drive to their website, and vice versa.
14. Get people to review your products
Obtaining positive reviews of your business is a surefire way to earn backlinks and attract new customers. Ask industry experts who’ve got credibility to review your products. There’s also product review websites you can utilise such as Trustpilot and Yelp.
15. Network
Building relationships with other webmasters will open doors for your business. If you can make real friendships with the people behind organisations, you’ll have a better shot at working with them when future opportunities arise. A company is much more likely to give your business a shout out if you’ve got pals behind the scenes. Networking is a crucial skill to have in the marketing world.
16. Look for brand mentions
Monitor what other webmasters are saying about your business. There’ll be times when something they’ve said warrants an inbound link. For example, if someone quotes some data from your site, you’re well within your rights to ask them to include a link to your site.
17. Search for broken links
Utilise site crawling tools to identify outdated or broken links to your site. It’s natural that over time your website will change and elements of it will get updated, this can lead to the expiration of inbound links within existing brand mentions as they become outdated. Again, you’re well within your right to reach out and politely ask if the webmaster can correct the link.
18. Track your competitors’ backlinks
Carry out frequent competitor research, weekly or monthly, to monitor your competitors’ backlinks. This way you’ll identify any new ways your competitors are gaining backlinks, and you’ll have the opportunity to hop on board and get in on some of the action. For example, if one of your main competitors has been recently reviewed, the chances are the review site will be interested in reviewing your product too.
19. Encourage sharing on socials
A big part of off-site SEO is getting your content out there. If you can get people sharing your content regularly, you’ll rank higher on search engines and social feeds. This will result in even more opportunity for your content to be cited and referenced, along with those all important backlinks. Everytime you create content worth sharing, whether it’s infographics, white papers, blog posts or that humorous viral video we suggested earlier, include social sharing widgets so people can spread the love.
20. Sponsor or speak at an event
If you sponsor or speak at an event, you’re guaranteed to get some publicity. The event host will value having you on board so don’t be scared to negotiate inbound links into your terms.
Also, If you’re speaking at an event, you can use this opportunity to get some great content in front of an audience. Create an amazing slideshow presentation that people will want to share and talk about later – and hopefully link to you!
And there we have it, 20 tried and tested ways to build up your backlinks.
Good luck!
A Simple Guide to SEO Copywriting
Jan 7, 2022 10:28:29 PM / by Byter Team posted in Digital Marketing, SEO, Copywriting, Sales and marketing
Reaching customers is arguably the most difficult part of running a business. That’s where SEO copywriting comes in. If you’re wondering what it is and how it could help your business, we’ve written a simple guide of everything you need to know.
What is SEO copywriting?
You’ve probably heard of copywriting – the act of writing text that aims to increase brand awareness. But, what is ‘SEO’ copywriting? Well, it’s a specialised form of traditional copywriting that contains keywords or phrases. These specially selected words are those your target customer is likely to type into a search engine because they desire the service or product you are selling. Ultimately, keywords will enable your content to rank higher in search results. Sounds simple. Right?
Well, unfortunately, it’s not enough to just shove a bunch of keywords into your website content and hope it pays off. Your copy needs to be fine-tuned to the constantly changing search engine algorithms to ensure it ranks high on google. It also needs to be clearly written and enjoyable for your audience to read.
4 Steps to successful SEO copywriting
To better understand what SEO copywriting is and how to do it, we’ve broken the process down into steps.
Step 1: Keyword search
Before you start writing, carry out some keyword research. Begin by channelling your customer, and ask questions similar to these:
- What are people searching for?
- How many people are searching for it?
- How do they want their information presented to them?
A lot of people bypass this step because it seems like a lot of effort when you already know what content you want to write. But, it really does pay off. Putting time and effort into the planning means your content is more likely to satisfy both what you want to rank for and what your audience really wants to read.
Now that you’re inside the head of your audience it should be easier to create a list of keywords. You can also use tools such as wordtracker to help you decide on the best variations and combinations of these terms. You might then want to create a table of your keywords to summarise the information and order it according to some form of priority.
Still a little unclear on keyword research? Take a look at this helpful guide .
Step 2: Plan your writing
We know, we know… more planning. But, if you want the writing part to go smoothly, then this stage is essential. Again, begin by asking some questions similar to these:
- What is the purpose of what you’re writing?
Answering this question will help you decide how you are going to write the article. For example, is the purpose to amuse your reader? Inform them? Or, is it to persuade them to do something?
- What’s the key question you want your writing to answer?
Having this in mind will ensure your piece stays on track which is important because you want every word to count.
- What information is required for your piece?
You’ll need to make sure you adequately research the topic before you begin writing. Otherwise, you will risk running out of things to talk about or fail to answer the question your piece is intended to answer.
- How do you want to structure your article?
A clear structure gives you a better chance of ranking well on Google. Your target readers are more likely to grasp your main points, and there’s a higher chance of converting them into customers if they properly understand your message.
Step 3: Get writing!
Don’t let all of that planning and research go to waste, it’s time to get writing.
People often find it overwhelming to stare at a blank page, wondering where to begin. A good trick is to begin by mapping out the structure of your text, write your intro and conclusion, and then fill in the gaps. This way you’re breaking it down into manageable steps. Don’t worry about grammar and spelling, for now, you can perfect this in the final stage.
Step 4: Proofread and edit your text
With your SEO copy written, it’s time to make it perfect. In this final stage, you’ll want to remove sentences that are unclear or awkwardly written, correct any grammar or spelling errors and make sure your structure is well organised. It helps to pinpoint mistakes in this stage if you read slowly and outloud, you can also ask for feedback from someone else – a fresh pair of eyes will spot things that you’ve potentially missed.
The aim of the game is to increase your brand’s search engine visibility. Using the right keywords in your writing is bound to have customers stumble across your content. But, if you want to maximise your success, follow our step by step guide on how to write a great SEO article that will not only rank high but be an enjoyable read for your customers too.
Good Luck.
Byter Team.
Keyword Search Volume: Are People Searching For Your Keywords?
Jan 7, 2022 10:18:00 PM / by Byter Team posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, SEO, Search Engines, Sales and marketing
Keyword Volume is an estimation of the number of searches per month for a certain keyword or key-phrase.
Higher search volume means more potential traffic to your website, but really high volume keywords can often be more competitive as well as more broadly targeted.
You may think that you should always pick the highest volume keyword possible, but that’s not always the case!
Here are some important considerations for keyword volume:
High Volume Keywords
High volume keywords are often very competitive and broadly targeted.
Although ranking for such keywords can send a lot of traffic to your website, it may not be worth the effort because they are too competitive and will require too much time and money to rank.
For example, let’s take the keyword “computers”.
You can see that although the search volume is high, the keyword difficulty is “high” according to this tool from ahrefs.
High volume keywords might also not be worth it because the keyword phrase is too broad and often won’t lead to conversions on your website.
In this case, the search intent isn’t explicitly clear.
Some people searching for that keyword might be looking for information about computers, while others might be shopping for a new computer.
People searching for this keyword are less likely to actually buy a computer than someone searching for a specific brand or type of computer.
High-volume keywords might be worth targeting if you have the resources to outperform the competition.
Such keyword phrases can take longer to rank for, but they can drive a lot of traffic to your website.
Medium Volume Keywords (Medium-Tail Keywords)
Medium tail keywords can drive a significant amount of traffic to your web pages and can also be specific enough to drive targeted traffic and conversions.
Although there is no strict definition, medium tail keywords generally contain 2-3 words.
For example, if you are selling a specific type of computer like business laptops, then ranking for “business laptops” might be more worthwhile than trying to rank for “computers”.
Although the search volume is lower, the phrase is more targeted towards someone likely to buy what you are selling.
The keyword phrase is still competitive, but probably not as competitive as “computers”.
Long-Tail Keywords
Keywords that have 3+ words are often referred to as long-tail keywords.
Although these keyword phrases can be lower in volume in comparison to short-tail keywords, they often send highly targeted traffic that is more interested in what you have to offer.
For example, if you are selling a specific type of computer, like a Dynabook Toshiba Terca, then you might be better off targeting the phrase “Dynabook Toshiba Terca” instead of “computers” or even “laptop computers”.
You will receive less traffic for that search term, but the traffic you do receive will be much more likely to buy and you will also have less difficulty ranking for that lower volume keyword phrase.
When creating informational content like blog articles, sometimes you can get traffic for long-tail keywords by simply including them on the page.
Some long-tail keywords have very low search volume, but the cumulative traffic from lots of long-tail keywords can add up. In fact, an estimated 70% of all search traffic comes from long-tail searches!
Conclusion
Keyword search volume is an important factor in keyword research, but you won’t always want to pick the highest volume keyword possible.
Finding the right match between search volume and user intent is vital when selecting your keywords!
The good news is that you don’t need to get hung up on picking the “perfect keyword.”
By writing long-form content, web pages tend to rank for multiple keywords, even keywords that you are not intentionally targeting. Ranking for multiple keywords can result in additional traffic to your web page.
Search Intent: What Do Users Really Want?
Jan 7, 2022 10:17:01 PM / by Byter Team posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, SEO, Search Engines
Search intent is understanding what type of information users are searching for when they enter a search phrase.
Understanding this is crucial because to rank a web page in the search engines, the type of content you create must match the content that the searcher is looking for.
Otherwise, your chances of ranking and attracting the right traffic are low.
Yes, that’s right, even if you have your optimisation perfect, you still might not rank.
Here’s how it works:
Understanding What Users Are Truly Looking For When They Search
When people search on Google, it’s not always clear exactly what they are searching for.
For instance, if someone searches “pool,” what are they actually looking for? A swimming pool, or the game of pool (billiards)?
If someone types “cookies,” are they looking for a recipe for cookies, or are they trying to understand the cookies that are stored in their browser?
You can see how a search query could mean many things!
Search engines tweak their algorithms to make sure they are displaying the results for what people want – even when it’s not explicitly clear.
These are just some simple examples of disambiguation, but search intent goes further.
Categories of Search Intent
We can categorise search intent into several categories:
1) Informational Intent
Information intent means users are looking to get more information on a topic.
For example, if someone searched “how to ride a bike” they are looking for a guide. The search results will display articles or videos about how to ride a bike.
2) Commercial / Transactional Intent
Commercial or transactional intent refers to when a searcher is looking to purchase something or compare prices.
For example, if someone searches for “buy blue trek bike” they are likely looking to purchase. The search results will often display product pages, because this search is so specific.
Note: Just because users are looking for products doesn’t always mean your product page will rank! Google often prefers review-type content or lists of the best products to actual product pages!
3) Navigational Intent
Navigational intent occurs when a searcher is looking for a specific website or destination.
For example, searchers might type in a brand name “Ebay login” into the search engines when they want to find the login page to Ebay.com.
Why Is Search Intent Important?
The reason this is important is that it will be very difficult to rank for your chosen keyword if your content doesn’t meet the search intent for that keyword.
This is one of the biggest mistakes in trying to rank!
Google often changes the search results for a keyword based on what they think the correct search intent is, and often display more informational type pages vs transactional pages.
As an example, in the past, if someone searched for a health supplement, Google might have seen the search intent as “transactional” meaning people wanted to buy the product, and therefore displayed product pages.
It was easy for a brand that sold the health supplements to rank their product pages for that keyword.
But then Google changed the keyword intent to “informational,” and now only articles about the supplement are ranking. Now it would be very difficult for a brand to rank a product page there.
It’s the same keyword, but because Google determined the search intent differently, the type of content you’ll need to create will change!
This is a very common scenario, and why creating long-form content around your products or services gives you a higher chance for ranking versus trying to rank your product or service pages!
So how do you make sure you understand the search intent of the keyword?
It’s easy:
How To Determine Search Intent
The simplest way to determine search intent is to perform a search on Google and see what results come up.
For example, let’s take the word “email marketing software”.
A quick search shows that most of the results are lists of the top email marketing software.
If you’re running a business that sells email marketing software and you want to rank, you’ll need to create a piece of content that matches what Google is currently ranking.
Keyword Research
Jan 7, 2022 10:16:04 PM / by Byter Team posted in Traffic, SEO, Sales and marketing, Keywords
Keyword Research is important to your business and this is something you are going to want to know more about.
What is Keyword Research? (And Why Is It Important?)
Keyword research is the process of discovering & validating popular words and phrases that people are using in search engines.
When you do keyword research, you can find what phrases are popular (that get search volume) and valuable (that are likely to lead to conversion).
How Does Keyword Research Work?
Keyword research is crucial for SEO success. Before we get into all the details of keyword research, here’s a quick overview of how it works:
Step 1: Brainstorm Keyword Ideas
This process often starts with brainstorming keyword ideas around what you think people would search when they are looking for your products and services.
Looking at competitor websites is another way that people can get good keyword ideas.
Step 2: Validate & Expand Your Ideas With A Keyword Research Tool
Next, you can use one of the many keyword tools to validate and expand your lists and discover other related keywords that people are using.
You’ll be able to see lots of vital information like keyword volume (to see how many people are searching per month), CPC (to see how much people are paying when they advertise on that keyword), and competition.
Step 3: Select Your Keywords
After creating a list of keywords and analysing the list, you can choose keywords to target so that they can drive search engine traffic to your website.
You’ll want to consider factors like search volume, search intent, SEO competition, and keyword value.
Step 4: Optimise Your Website
The last step is to Optimise your website for the keywords.
This may include including them in your title tags, descriptions, and on your page. It also might mean you need to create an entirely new page.
Why Is Keyword Research Important?
Keyword research is important because it will help you discover valuable keywords that people are actually searching for.
Without validating these keywords, you’ll miss out on large opportunities for search traffic!
So what happens if you don’t do proper keyword research?
First, you could waste a lot of time and resources targeting keywords that are too competitive to rank for.
Or the keywords that you target might not send you enough traffic to be worthwhile.
You may also find that keywords that you are targeting don’t convert into paying customers, or you could lose out on valuable traffic if you overlook certain keywords.
Doing proper keyword research enables marketers to make sure that they get a good return on investment for their SEO efforts.
How Do Search Engines Work?
Jan 7, 2022 10:15:06 PM / by Byter Team posted in SEO, Search Engines, Web Design
On an entry level they work by having 3 basic functions:
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Crawling the internet to find new web pages and documents
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Putting that content in a giant index / database
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Ranking that content on various factors
We are going to be going into this in a bit more detail now.
Crawling: How Does A Search Engine Crawl The Web?
Search engines discover new content by sending out search engine spiders, or crawlers, to find it.
Crawlers are computer programs or robots that find new content like web pages, PDF files, videos, and images by visiting links on web pages.
These crawlers can visit web pages very quickly which allows them to discover new websites, pages, and other content.
When creating new content, linking to it from existing pages on your site or from another site is a good way to make sure it gets discovered by the search engines.
Crawlers also tend to visit popular websites that create new content more frequently than smaller unknown websites. Getting a link from a popular website could result in your content getting discovered more rapidly
Creating a sitemap also helps search engines crawl your site. A good sitemap will link to every page on your site.
Signing up for a Google Console account is a good step to take if you want to see more data on pages that get Google has crawled. You can also see any crawling errors that may have occurred.
A few issues that might cause pages to not get crawled include poor navigation structure, redirect loops and server errors.
In the past, it was popular to “submit” your site to search engines, but this is no longer needed as they have become much more advanced at detecting new content that is published on the web!
Indexing: How Does A Search Engine Read and Store Website Information?
When crawlers discover new pages and content, they store the information in an index.
You can think of an index as a very large database containing all the web pages on the Internet that a search engine has found.
Search engines will analyse and fetch content from their index when searchers enter a search query.
By default, search engines will crawl and try to index every page on your site that they can find.
However, if you have pages you don’t want web searchers to be able to find through search engines, like private member-only pages, then use can use Robots Meta Tags will help.
You may also want to exclude pages that aren’t useful like tag and category pages in WordPress.
Ranking: How Does A Search Engine Rank Websites?
Search engines use algorithms to analyse websites and decide how to rank them for various search queries.
These algorithms assign scores to various ranking factors and then rank web pages with the best scores from highest to lowest.
Search engine algorithms also change over time in an effort to improve search results. Keep in mind that the goal of search engines is to provide quality content so that their users are satisfied with search results and keep using their search engine.
So what factors do search engines use to determine what content ranks at the top?
We discuss the top ranking factors in the next chapter!