SEO
News via Media Man: Ways to Improve your Site’s
Ranking (SEO)
What
is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential digital
marketing practice that plays a vital role in making
your website visible to both visitors and search engine
crawlers. The primary objective of SEO is to optimize
relevant and authoritative content to assist visitors
in finding solutions to their queries efficiently.
The
ultimate aim of SEO is to create high-quality and
informative content that increases the volume of traffic
that your website receives daily. Optimizing your
website involves creating and expanding your content
to ensure that search engines will choose your site
over its competitors.
The
focus of SEO is to perfect the quality and quantity
of your webpage to make sure that your website has
an edge over others. Therefore, SEO plays an essential
role in driving traffic to your website, which is
crucial for the visibility and success of your online
Business.
1.
Publish Relevant, Authoritative Content
This article provides valuable suggestions on how
to improve search engine optimization (SEO) and enhance
website ranking on search engine results. Creating
quality content that caters to the user’s needs
is the driving factor of SEO marketing, and the article
emphasizes that there is no substitute for great content.
The article further provides guidance on identifying
appropriate keyword phrases for each authoritative
content page and making use of them strategically
throughout the content. Creating distinct web pages
for each distinct targeted keyword phrase is advisable
to enhance ranking.
The
article suggests using keywords in headings, subheadings,
URLs, and titles, and stressing the importance of
readability and user-friendliness of the content.
Using emphasis tags and strategically linking to relevant
sources is also encouraged. By following these valuable
suggestions, users can create SEO-friendly content
that benefits the readers while improving their website’s
overall ranking.
2.
Update Your Content Regularly
Maintaining updated content is crucial to improve
your website’s relevancy, and it is a crucial
factor that search engines prioritize as well. We
highly recommend scheduling regular content audits,
for instance, on a semesterly basis, to update your
webpages and blog posts accordingly.
Writing
additional content frequently on your departmental
news blog can enhance your search engine rankings
by incorporating relevant keyword phrases. Brief blog
posts can also be helpful if they offer specific updates
related to your targeted topics.
Moreover,
interlinking your related CMS webpages and blog posts
can provide readers with a better understanding of
your website’s content and additional information
on the subject. Thus, keep your website updated and
relevant to improve your visitor’s user experience
and attract more traffic to your site.
3.
Metadata
Website designers use metadata to provide information
about a website’s content. When creating a webpage,
a space between the “head” tags is reserved
for metadata.
f you use a CMS website produced by the UMC web team,
they have already filled in the metadata. However,
as your content changes, it is important to review
and update the metadata.
Title
Metadata
Title metadata is the most important because it determines
the page title that appears at the top of a browser
window and in search engine results. For those with
a CMS website, the web team has automated this process
based on your page title. Therefore, it is essential
to use well-thought-out page titles that include keyword
phrases.
Description
Matadata
Description metadata is a brief and interesting summary
of what your website contains. It’s like a store’s
attractive display that encourages people to visit.
Usually, it should be two sentences long. Search engines
may or may not use this summary, but it’s good
to have it in case they do.
Kayword
Metadata Keyword metadata is not very helpful in improving
your search engine ranking. However, it’s useful
to include some of your important keywords in the
metadata. You should select a few phrases with one
to four words each and add three to seven of them.
For example, “computer science degree” is
a good keyword phrase to use.
4.
Have a Link-worthy Site
Making your website popular involves efforts in developing
valuable content and enhancing its search results.
To achieve this, you must focus on creating informative
and unbiased content that caters to the readers’
interests and queries.
Furthermore, your website might earn a backlink from
other websites if it provides good value to the readers.
This can improve its search engine ranking immensely,
which can bring in more visitors. It is also crucial
to incorporate descriptive hyperlinks in the text
as opposed to generic “click here” links.
This
helps in giving proper context to people who use screen
readers and makes it easier for search engines to
crawl your website. You can lift your website SEO
performance by using appropriate keywords in your
content and developing internal links. These techniques
can help you build a better online presence and increase
your website’s popularity.
5.
Use ALT Tags
Want search engines to find your website and to make
it more accessible for people who use text-only browsers
or screen readers? Simply put, use alt tags to describe
your media content, like images and videos, with alternative
text descriptions.
These descriptions act as labels for search engines
and help them identify your page better. They also
provide context for those who cannot view the media
directly. By making your website more accessible and
searchable, you can improve its overall user experience.
News
New
strategies for Search Engine Optimization
New
areas of digital marketing are as changeable and require
so much adaption and new-thinking as the world of
SEO. Search Engine Optimization has come a long way
from its beginnings in the 1990s, and the technologies
deciding what is “good SEO” or not changes
from year to year.
That’s
why tech companies such as IncRev are launching new
strategies aimed at long-term goals in both data-driven
and relations-based SEO all over the world, by implementing
tactics from both traditional PR and modern SEO and
link-building.
Below,
we will discuss the nature of SEO, how SEO is changing,
and why choosing an agency such as IncRev will be
the key to your SEO success.
Best
SEO practices 2023:
Find
your customers with data-driven market analysis
Find
authoritative marketing partners using data-driven
PR
Reach
your customers with high quality outreach and credible
link-building
What
is SEO?
In order to discuss the ways in which SEO works, it’s
important to understand the basic principles on which
the concept is built. SEO is an acronym for Search
Engine Optimization, and is an umbrella term for processes
in which users optimize their websites in order to
rank higher on search engines such as Google whenever
customers search for keywords relevant to their website.
By
optimizing the various aspects of a website, SEO aims
to improve its ranking on search engine result pages
(SERPs), thereby increasing the quantity and quality
of traffic. In layman’s terms, it helps more
people to find your website by increasing its digital
visibility.
Why
is SEO important?
There’s an old SEO joke that goes like this:
A man asks a detective “Where’s the best
place to hide a body?” The detective answers
“Why, on the second page of Google, of course!”.
In other words, ranking on the first page of Google
is the key to getting traffic and therefore sales
or viewings on your webpage, as few people bother
to look past the first results page.
In
fact, the first spot on Google is ten times more likely
to get a click than results number ten, and the top
three results receive over half of all clicks. That’s
why the goal of every SEO strategist is to get a website
into the top ten search results on Google, and preferably
in the top three.
That’s
why SEO marketing lives on, despite some people saying
that SEO is dead. The answer is: it’s more alive
than ever. It just doesn’t fit into the mold
of the quick-results culture of the modern world,
but it is still effective.
The
evolution of SEO
SEO as a term first came into use in 1997, despite
the first website being published in 1991. The coin
was termed John Audette of Multimedia Marketing Group
early that year, and so the hunt for the top of the
search engine results pages began.
In
the beginning, there were several competing names
for the concept, including search engine ranking,
website promotion, etc. The strongest competitor was
the term “search engine marketing”, which
was originally pitched as a successor to SEO. But
ultimately, search engine optimization proved to be
the most steadfast and all-encompassing term, while
SEM is used to describe concepts like paid search
marketing and advertising.
Google’s
rise to power
In the 2000s, Google grew to become the search engine
giant we know it as today. Soon enough, the organization
was able to survive on its own. At that time, they
also launched effective web crawlers and PageRank
algorithms, which changed the SEO game.
Google began measuring both on-page and off-page content
to decide SERP listings, forcing SEO to expand their
work sphere and link-building took off as a popular
tactic. Around the same time, Google also introduced
PageRank scores, a website score between 1-10, which
was an early version of today’s Domain Authority.
These
measures were broken down further with the introduction
of Google Analytics and the Google Webmaster Tools
(Search Console) in 2006. Later major updates, such
as Panda and Penguin in 2011 and 2012 respectively,
were put in place to sort out poor quality SEO work
and reward those with quality websites.
To
this day, Google continues to release core and minor
updates that impact the way that SEO can work. The
platform has grown to be such a reputable platform
that in 2022 it was estimated that Google accounted
for more than 85 percent of the search engine usage,
which is why it’s the platform that most SEO
strategies focus on today.
The
big three: Local, social, mobile
There have been three major changes in the way that
people search the web, that has not been a result
of search engine updates. The first of these came
in the mid-2000s, when there was an adaptation toward
geographical searches, which birthed local SEO. This
meant that people were now searching for businesses
near them, such as restaurants or car washes, thus
increasing the need for separate local search engine
strategies. This development also resulted in the
advancement of end-user data, including search history
and personalized interests.
Fast-forward
another decade into the 2010s, and a whole new set
of searching and web-using emerged. Rather than just
using the universal search-functions, users were now
turning to medias such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn
and other social medias for news and knowledge. Most
importantly for SEO, these networks became revolutionary
in building brand awareness. As such, the old term
of search engine marketing (SEM) became ever more
important on these platforms.
As
users started to bring their lives and entertainment
from the big screens, such as laptops or TVs, they
also began to use search engines straight from their
mobile phones. This third change in user patterns
led to mobile searching overtaking desktop searches
in 2015, and added mobile adaptability to the list
of SEO tools.
The
2020s, AI, and the future of SEO
We’ve finally arrived at our current time. The
2020s have brought with it a continued increase in
digital usage and SEO is perhaps more important than
ever. One of the biggest challenges the world of SEO
stands before today is generative AI. Chat GPT, the
free global access to generative AI as a search function,
was released in the winter of 2022/2023, and has garnered
instant attraction from both customers and competitors,
including Google. It is still unclear what impact
generative AI will have on SEO practices such as keywords
analysis, although it is already affecting the quality
of content on the web.
New
strategies for new challenges
As new SEO directives arrive from Google’s updates,
they also require new strategies. However, some companies
– such as IncRev – have decided to create
new strategies with a focus on longevity. Among IncRev’s
new strategies are both traditional link-building
and outreach including, in combination with inspiration
from the traditional PR marketing sphere.
The
other two strategies that they’ve developed are
strongly data-driven market research and PR. The market
research is a process in which the company can help
customers who want to scale globally to find the best
geographical place for them to start their SEO journey,
based on SEO factors such as demand and competition.
The
market-driven PR can build on that market research
or stand alone, as a new way of reaching new marketing
partners in international business circles. From these
new partners, it is then possible to continue with
link-building as well as traditional PR strategies.
This is a unique way of piercing niche markets across
the globe to attract potential customers.
How
does SEO work?
Now that we’ve seen the evolution of SEO it’s
time to get to the real question: what is SEO marketing
actually, and how does it actually work? In order
to understand how SEO works, it’s important to
understand these two things: what Google wants and
what the customers want. Only by doing so will you
understand how you should optimize your web page.
What
Google wants
One of the reasons why Google rose to such immense
heights early on was due to the founders’ initiative
to implement RankPage, or clear guidelines for how
to rank content on their platform. Initially, the
program worked by ranking content dependent on the
linkstructure of the website, that built the foundation
for the modern linkbuilding strategies. Simply put,
links to the webpage acted as votes of confidence
for the webpage.
Today,
this concept has developed into the E-E-A-T formula,
where Google ranks content based on Experience, Expertise,
Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These measures
are interpreted by what the site’s linkbuilding
looks like, such as what EEAT websites include links
back to their landing page. They then ensure that
the webpage produces reliable and accurate information,
and are most likely to answer their customers’
questions.
Ultimately,
the reason why Google wants to prioritize high quality
content is because happy Google customers are more
likely to return to Google for more information, and
therefore generating income for the search engine.
So,
how does Google find and rank the webpages? They do
this through three stages: crawling, indexing, and
serving results.
Crawling
means that Google sends “bots” or computer
programs to scan through large chunks of the internet
to find new or updated pages. They can only find it
by going through a link.
Googles
then sorts through and organizes the content and puts
it in the huge Google Index – a database for
webpages.
Lastly,
Google serves the results by how relevant they are
to the customer queries.
What
the customer wants
Broadly speaking, there are three types of searches
that customers make, and they can be described as
Do-Know-Go. Whenever we search the internet, we either
want to do something (such as make a purchase or visit
a tourist attraction), know something, or go somewhere.
These three types of searches can be further broken
down, but these are the basic concepts.
These
three prompts can help you optimize your content so
that you are answering the demand of the people. By
realizing what your customer wants, you can provide
SEO-optimized content which is relevant and fresh,
which Google will reward you for.
SEO
components, or how to do SEO
So how does a webpage get to that top of the search
engine results page? While there is no quick fix,
SEO provides a long-term strategy which aims at doing
just that. SEO incorporates several different tactics
in this long-term strategy, in which there are three
main components:
Technical
SEO
On-page
SEO
Off-page
SEO
Technical
SEO refers to optimization on your webpage. This can
for example mean implementing site maps so that Google
can crawl the page more easily, increasing the website
speed, or making the site mobile adaptable.
On-page
SEO refers to edits to the content that is already
on the webpage, rather than the technicalities behind
it. This can for example include keyword optimizing
headings, producing SEO-optimized blog posts, URL
and picture optimization, and adding meta titles and
descriptions.
Off-page
SEO, on the other hand, is part of the link-building
strategy. The focus here lies on building credibility
and brand awareness by for example writing guests
posts and linking to your webpage on other, reputable
sources. The key here is to create backlinks, which
give authority and endorsement to your website, and
thus giving Google a sign that you are a credible
source too.
To
get good results, it’s important to implement
all of the tactics above in a combined effort to get
Google’s attention. However, these general descriptions
are only scraping the top of the iceberg of SEO. Beneath
these lay a whole science of various methods and strategies
to rank at the top of the results page.
Link-building
The on-page and off-stage SEO practices can also be
called SEO link-building. That’s because they
both refer to building a link-system which Google
will reward, whether it’s by driving links to
your website from other credible sources or creating
a seamless link-flow internally on your webpage.
Links
to and on your website act as votes of trust, credibility
and authority, which is why they are a crucial part
of your SEO strategy. However, the links need to be
carefully and thoughtfully crafted so that they maintain
the right level of relevance and credibility, which
can be done through producing high quality SEO content.
SEO
content
For both on-page and off-page work, SEO content plays
a huge role. As mentioned earlier, Google ranks webpages
depending on both their link-building and how credible,
authoritative, and expert their content is. However,
these two factors are not as separate as one might
think: with high quality content, it is also easier
to build a good SEO link-building network.
Often
when we discuss SEO content, we tend to think of texts
of lesser quality that are packed with poor quality
links. However, due to Google’s updates, such
as Penguin, poor content is continually being phased
out. That means individuals and agencies are having
to spend more time recruiting better writers and spending
more time on content.
As
we discussed earlier, SEO content needs to be adapted
to both the demands from the customer (a.k.a. the
searching person) and Google. That means texts need
to be relevant, authoritative, credible, and high
quality. These texts also need to be SEO optimized
using meta-data, such as titles and descriptions,
and keywords in the headings in order for Google’s
crawlers to pick up better on the relevancy factor.
That
being said, the research and preparation for both
good and bad content remains the same – all SEO
content needs proper keyword research.
Keyword
research
Finding the right keywords will not only make you
more competitive as an SEO user, but will also help
you understand your audience better. That’s because
keywords are clues to who your audience is. For example,
the keywords “how to ski” and “ski
maintenance” could technically be placed in the
same text contextually, but they imply that we’re
dealing with skiers of different skill levels.
The
keywords are both guides for the link-building process
and the content. When building links, it’s important
that both the link, the placement, and the publishing
website are relevant in the context in order for Google’s
crawlers to give it a credible ranking.
There
are several tools on the market for finding the best
keywords, and there are also a ton of metrics for
understanding how good a keyword is and what the chances
are of breaking into the competition for that specific
keyword. Common metrics include keyword difficulty,
traffic potential, cost-per-click, etcetera.
Brand
awareness
Ultimately, what these various tactics aim to do is
to bring brand awareness to your website. People are
twice as likely to purchase from a brand they recognize.
An American study found that 75 percent of shoppers
tend to go for known retailers, and nearly 70 percent
do the same when deciding what search result to click
on.
Doing
SEO: alone or SEO agency?
As you can tell, there is a lot of information and
knowledge that goes into producing and completing
good SEO strategies. If you are considering adapting
some SEO strategies, you may be wondering whether
you should do it all on your own or hire an agency.
Without
sugarcoating it, doing SEO alone is a lot of hard
work. First and foremost, you got to have basic understandings
of both SEO tools, Google Analytics, and good writing
skills. Then you need good networking skills and a
sense of price bargaining to get your links out to
credible sources. On top of this, you need to stay
up to date with all the latest developments within
Google updates, market changes, and new technologies
such as generative AI which can impact your SEO strategies.
All of this can be both time consuming and costly.
If
it feels overwhelming, there are a ton of SEO agencies
on the market that are ready to help. Some of them
focus solely on SEO content production, whereas others
focus solely on technical SEO or solely on SEO link-building.
Some
agencies, such as IncRev, offer entire packages, where
staying SEO updated, building and optimizing webpages,
link-building, content production, and publishing
is included. Together with the new data-driven strategies
and tactics, IncRev offers services that are great
for both those who are somewhat new as to those who
are already familiar and wanting to grow beyond.
FAQ:
Frequently asked questions about SEO
What is SEO?
SEO
stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a digital
marketing form that focuses on creating digital visibility
on search engines such as Google by improving websites’
rankings in the search results.
What
is the difference between SEO and SEM?
SEO
stands for Search Engine Optimization and works with
creating organic ranking improvements on platforms
like Google. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing
and focuses on paid promotions and marketing on platforms
like Google.
How
long does SEO take?
Good
SEO typically takes between 4 months to a year to
see good results. However, it’s crucial to understand
that SEO is a long-term strategy, that is never really
finished. If you are lucky enough to rank at 1 on
Google, the job doesn’t stop there: then you
want to maintain that spot by continuing your SEO
work.
Why
do you need SEO?
SEO
helps to build brand awareness, which is key in gaining
credibility amongst both Google and potential customers.
That’s why SEO is worth it, even if it is a long
game.
Media
Man
The
Media Man Group is primarily and online news, media
and sports management firm and website portal developer.
By default Media Man developed many effective SEO
(Search Engine Optimisation) techniqes and strategies
since their launch in 2001. SEO helped elevate Media
Man websites into Hitwise "Top 10" status
(entertainment - personalities) category. Media Man
also offers a range of media and convergent media
services including article copy, PR (public relations),
text link based campaigns, product placement and endorsement,
buzz marketing (via websites and social media) and
brand building. The company is best known for insightful
media analysis, specalising in pop culture/entertainment,
streaming and subscriber television including PPV
(Pay-Per-View), pro wrestling aka sports entertainment
coverage, MMA (mixed martial arts), and commentary
and coverage on an array of trending topics, with
strong focus on Twitter, Alphabet (Google, YouTube,
Blogger etc) and new and emerging technology and news
platforms and developments. Media Man is often referenced
in both mainstream, niche and alternative news media
stories. The company motto remains "Putting Your
Name Out There".
SEL
Top 10 SEO Expert Columns
SELs
Danny with an excellent feature on the SEO Year In
Review. The Google algorithm updates remained a hot
topic during much of the year, as webbys across the
world hung on every word from Google powers that be
and Search Engine Land (and the other guys down the
road), to be fair. In addition the E.A.T acronym aka
Expertise - Authority - Trustworthiness element grew
to become E.E.A.T - the extra E for Experience. I
knew my 20 years in and around web publishing, martial
arts, pro wrestling, beach culture and subscription
television would come in extra handy again sometime,
and 2022 was that year. Subscription television morphed
more to become streaming video and streaming entertainment,
and pop culture has largely embraced it. Great for
our coverage of 'The Matrix', WWE Network, Peacock,
Paramount, 'Top Gun', "Hacking Google', UFC,
FITE TV, VICE TV, Netflix and even Alphabet's YouTube
Movies. 2022 was a year that many web and media entrepreneurs
further developed their niche as everyone went after
their slice of the action and advertising budget spend,
with eyes on the return of investment and Tech Wreck
(Twitter, Meta etc) throw in. If you're still in business
or in a gig you did well. What a ride it continues
to be. Web 3 next!
SEL
Danny Top 10
SEL's
Danny with an impressive list of the Top 10 SEO expert
articles/feature for the year of 2022. We love the
concept that the web and readership has the final
say as to what is hot, topical and most popular. Power
to The People. The social media channels also help
facilitate the ongoing popularity of the articles,
channel and Search Engine Land website in general.
The genius of world class SEO and related news media
coverage in action. Here's to ongoing SEO success
for all.
Google
Australia Boss Melanie Silva says it was “not
ever going to be an easy process” to formulate
commercials deals with media companies despite the
advertising and reseller revenue reaching over $700
million in the 2018/2019 financial year.
Google
and other tech giants were asked to develop a voluntary
code of conduct before later being informed a mandatory
code would be formulated.
“We
were making progress and our goal was to have a voluntary
code in place by November,” Ms Silva said, responding
to claims a mandatory code had been brought in due
to a lack of progress in the commercial space to create
a voluntary code.
