It accomplishes this with a combination of high-quality content that’s relevant to internet users’ needs and an outstanding user experience. With a team working non-stop on improving Google’s search engine, the focus moved from factors like keyword density to user experience and high-quality content. These algorithm updates are still very much a part of the SEO field, with Google releasing a new one (or multiple) every year. Although websites have been around for a little while longer, people started optimizing their sites for search engines in the mid-1990s.

Understand the metrics

This is mostly done by using various kinds of black-hat SEO techniques. Back when search engines lacked a lot of the sophistication they have today, the term “10 blue links” was coined to describe the flat structure of the SERP. Any time a search was performed, Google would return a page with 10 organic results, each in the same format. There would be no point to links if they didn’t direct searchers to something.

What is RankBrain?

And in this first step I’m going to show you how to create a list of awesome keywords for your business. I saw that most of the content ranking for “SEO Audit” listed out non-technical steps. Most of the content ranking for “increase website traffic” listed bite-sized traffic tips. When it comes to search engine optimization, short URLs generally outperform long URLs.

Putting your focus keyword in the title tag (and, to a lesser extent, in the meta description) is very important. Your content strategy should be based on a proper understanding of your niche and the needs of your audience. If you check the keyword “vacuum cleaners” a lot of people are searching for it (223,000 average monthly search volume). However, if you look at the search results, you’ll notice that all the pages ranking for “best squat rack” are reviews and buying guides, not product pages. In other words, Google considers it a commercial, not a transactional keyword. Many keyword research guides recommend focusing on the so-called long-tail keywords – keywords that are more specific and usually consist of more words.

“Having a sitemap can hurt your website performance. You shouldn’t use one unless you have thousands of pages.”

At the time of writing this, according BHS Links to Ahrefs (a popular SEO researching tool), Calm’s website gets 1.3M monthly visitors from SEO alone. By the end of this, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to approach SEO for your website — whether you’re a media blog, ecommerce site, or SaaS website. Then, put your knowledge to use on your website and measure your performance with the above tools! If you’re looking for more guidance, check out our SEO podcasts and SEO FAQs for answers to the most common SEO questions.

• This means that you can work to improve these factors over time by following best practices for SEO.
• Here’s how brands can meet rising expectations and respond with care, speed, and strategy.
• Perhaps they noticed some of their articles ranked for certain keywords and were bringing in search traffic, so they decided to focus only on SEO.
• For example, the SEO for beginners course, the WordPress for beginners course and a course on structured data.
• If you want to rank number one for all the keywords, you need to apply SEO to increase your rank.