The Front End Experience: Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of grabbing web users’ attention by improving your site’s search results. Every day, the Internet attracts millions of people who are looking for brands, answers to questions, or other useful resources. It’s up to your company to get your site to the top of the list for what a web user is looking for. If what you offer is what the web user is looking for, then optimizing your search engine to get to the top of the search result is crucial. By using free SEO, you can avoid the high costs of paid searches via search engine marketing. Free SEO is also a way to differentiate you from your competition, which ultimately is what you should be providing to your site’s users.

Now that we have a better understanding of what SEO is, there are some things to consider when deciding how to optimize your website. Best practices include defining your keywords, descriptions, and images to position your website at the top of the search results.

How do we get a web user to search for our site?

Keywords are short phrases that define your content and allow web users to find your page (via search engines). So, when a web user types in “SEO best practices,” I’m hoping that my blog will be the first item that pops up in the search results since I’ve tagged that as a keyword. The way to create your keywords is to define what you want to be searched for. To do this, you’ll want to use an analytics tool, such as Google Analytics or HubSpot, to see what web users are looking you up for. The best way to create your keywords is to toe the line of competitiveness and conversion rates.

By using the free tool Ubersuggest, I can see how the competition to rank higher changes based on the number of characters used in my keyword. Long-winded keywords probably have a high conversion rate to low competition ratio, which means you’ll probably be the first search result but could also have low volume of searches. The flipside of the coin is that shorter keywords have a higher volume of searches, which means more competition at a higher cost.

Another useful idea is to find out what your competition is doing. Consider looking up what you want your site to be found for, so in my case, “SEO best practice.” Find the top search results, and copy the URL in Ubersuggest’s search bar to see what keywords they are using for their websites. Their keywords can give you an idea of what blogs or topics are being discussed on the site.

Here’s a short summary of what to consider to get a web user to search for your site:

• Which keywords are you ranking for now?
• Which keywords do you want to rank for?
• How can you select the right keywords?

1. Avoid higher-priced universal terms.
2. Find your niche and own it.
3. Make sure your keyword strategy works hand in hand with search engine marketing (SEM), and pay for those key terms to maximize the real estate.

How do we get a web user to click on our site?

Two approaches can draw users to your site:

The title tag is your 50-character clickbait to the web user. It should quickly explain what the user expects to get out of this page without going into too much detail. The description is what the user will see underneath your title tag. It’s essentially your seller tag for that page. You have around 50 to 150 characters (before getting truncated by Google) to sell the web user on your website. Provide some emotion that will reel that web user in, and add a bit of intrigue for someone who might not have been looking for your page in the first place. Also, write a description for what that page is. There’s no writing multiple descriptions for different users, rather there should be only one description per each page.

The meta description in green does a fantastic job of summarizing the page’s content to a few concise sentences. It describes all of the pieces of content you will be able to read about within the page. It also uses URL links below the meta description to link to sections of the article so that the web user can avoid scrolling to the section they want. The article above, while still providing a great description to the article, does not narrow down the description without being truncated. The description also does not include all the contents of the article, which leaves a bit of desire for the web user who is looking for specific content.

Can we enhance our website to be a better target?

Now that you’ve found your keywords and written descriptions for each of your website’s pages, what else can you do to improve your website in search results? Another way to increase your website’s SEO rankings is with image optimization. I don’t think anyone goes into making a website hoping to have pixelated images. Ideally, you have high-quality pictures that speak to what you’re writing about. How can you make sure this can be done? Well, first, pick the images that will be placed on your website. Third-party tools can provide images to use (for a fee), or your company might have an array of images to choose from. If you don’t have money to spend on images or don’t have a collection of images to choose from, the best bet is to take your own pictures. This can be difficult depending on the topic, but it does give you the peace of mind that no one will be looking to take down your website’s content for copyright infringement. Once you’ve collected the images you need, you’ll want to complete a few tasks before you hit publish. You can use Compresser.io to compress your images to a smaller file size. This will shave off seconds loading your site, which will reduce the bounce rate and improve site retention. Other benefits to image optimization are that you will match the already high-quality devices that need high-quality images. By compressing your files and choosing good images, you’ll get higher into the SEO rankings, which will lead to more site traffic.

Now that we have defined what SEO is and learned some basics about site optimization, we need to think about strategy. Keywords, descriptions, and imagine optimization won’t make your website rank #1 on every search, but it is important to understand how to use these marketing components. I won’t go into too much detail, but I will share some final thoughts on how you should strategize:

• Focus on the basics. Don’t spread yourself too thin on areas that don’t have an impact.
• Review results often — daily or weekly — and make minor adjustments. Keep a long-term strategy.
• Keep up to date on Google updates and how it impacts your SEO and SEM balance.
• Adjust your plan seasonally. If your business has high seasons, bump up SEM to help with SEO, and pull back SEM during slow months.
• Drive for Google’s Featured Snippets based on your keyword strategy.

About Cervello, a Kearney company

Cervello, a Kearney company is a data and analytics consulting firm and part of Kearney, a leading management consulting firm. We help our leading clients win by offering unique expertise in data and analytics, and in the challenges associated with connecting data. We focus on performance management, customer and supplier relationships, and data monetization and products, serving functions from sales to finance. We are a Salesforce partner and help our clients implement, customize, and optimize the platform into the best solution for their needs.