Search Engine Optimization: Searching the effective

Search engine optimization is a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to

increase the number of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the
search results page of a search engine. It is an important digital marketing strategy and
helps increasing the number of viewers for a particular article or advertisement.
There is a common joke that the best place to hide a dead body is the second page of a
search engine. This joke reflects on the general tendency of internet users to hardly click
on page two or page three of the search results, thus focusing the importance and
relevance of search engine optimization.

Digging through the techniques

While not all the algorithm strategies used by search engines are available to the public,
decades of online marketing have allowed brands to crack a few codes for organically
increasing the traffic on their article or blog.

 Improve the overall user experience for the entire website

The rationale behind this is that with effective and interactive facilities provided, the
average time spent by each user on the website would be higher. This increases the
chance of the website to appear on top results because search engine algorithms follow
the principle that higher the time spent, more meaningful is the content of that site.

 Make the content easier to read

Following the previous point, it is necessary to have reduced bounce rates (user opening
the article/website and immediately closing it) as bounce rates reflect low quality
content and search engines aim to provide relevant content to their users. Thus, following
simple write up tips like medium length sentences, sub headings, pointers, simple
language etc helps creating easily readable matter and increases the chance of the user
to go through the entire article.

 Website speed
Most of the search engines consider site speed as a ranking factor. This is fairly
understandable as people wouldn’t want to wait for a long time to access the information,
they are searching for on the internet, at least. Generally, two seconds is the threshold for
e- commerce websites. The speed of the site can be increased by simple known hacks like
minify unnecessary code on the page, reduce server response timings, enable browser
caching, compress images to cut down page size by 30-40%.

Along with these points, optimizing your site for voice search, having structured data,
considering the context and timing of the article and not only the keywords are other
techniques useful in SEO

The Loopholes

Search engines frequently change the algorithms they use to rank sites. They prevent
unscrupulous site owners manipulating the indexing methods in order to get high
rankings. The aim is to protect the integrity of free search and provide unbiased results
or it could lead to loss of their users and popularity. Though some of the “hacks” are
legitimate, few of the methods popularly used to increase organic traffic may actually
backfire.
 Avoid using irrelevant links and keywords
Generally, it’s a good idea to have a lot of different links pointing to your site, but the
search engines only like relevant links. If the search engines find sites that have nothing
in common with the content on your site linked to your Website, they'll lower the
relevancy rating.

 Don't "keyword stuff" your meta tags.

In the past, people used to repeat their keywords in their meta tags over and over again
which provided them a high ranking with the search engines-but not anymore. Search
engines have caught the hack and are now rather punitive of this practice and lower your
rankings

Conclusion

Digital marketing has become the future of advertising and marketing. Every year,
number of people using internet to obtain information is increasing rapidly. Thus, for the
brands and businesses to stay relevant, it is essential to compete on digital platforms and
one such important strategy is SEO, which requires an understanding of target audience,
search engine algorithms, creative and engaging content and with these skills present,
brands can definitely up their market and consumer game.