Understanding SEO is not that complicated when you look at how search engines work. The referencing of a website refers to its indexing and ranking by search engines.
To answer the queries of Internet users, search engines like Google present web pages rather than others at the top of the results.
Natural referencing or SEO, search engine optimization (optimization for search engines) is based on an inbound marketing strategy directly linked to the quality of the content offered to Internet users.
Here are our explanations for understanding natural referencing or SEO. You will also find 10 tips to improve the optimization of your site for search engines.
The role of search engines in the referencing of a site
The optimal referencing of a website depends on the visibility of its content. The pages of a site can only appear to Internet users if they are visible to search engine robots.
The adventure of natural referencing or SEO: a story of links
These are search engine robots (Google, Bing, etc.) that crawl and index websites. These robots are called crawlers or spiders.
Imagine them as adventurers, exploring content on the internet on a daily basis. Their ultimate goal is to find new or updated web pages.
Concretely, how do they do it? The incoming and outgoing links of websites are all creepers in the internet jungle. Robot explorers take all these routes to flush out new qualitative content.
From content indexing to ranking in the serp
Once the adventure is over, all the discovered pages are kept in an index. It is a gigantic database that stores discovered URLs.
Subsequently, when a user searches on Google, the content deemed most relevant by the engines will be offered to him. Apart from advertisements, organic results will appear.
The positioning of the results in the SERP is not arbitrary. The place of each page is conditioned by the compatibility between its content and the request of Internet users.
Our 5 techniques to facilitate the work of search engines and boost the optimization of your site
It is necessary to verify that search engine robots are crawling and indexing your website correctly. You will then increase the chances of increasing its positioning in the results of the SERP. Delivered with love by me.
Tip 1: Use the advanced search operator “site:yoursite.com”
To check that the pages of your website are indeed present in the Google index, use the advanced search operator “site:yoursite.com” in the search bar.
You will see which pages Google has registered in its index. The number of indexed pages is not precise, but you will have an initial estimate of the pages listed in Google’s index.
Tip 2: Analyze the Google Search Console Index
To go further, use the Google Search Console. In the “Coverage” tab of the Index, you will see precisely the indexed pages and benefit from a lot of information.
If some pages are not indexed, check that you are not preventing search engine robots from browsing the contents of your site.
Tip #3: Share a sitemap or sitemap with Google
Submit a sitemap through Google Search Console. This is your sitemap. The latter includes the URLs of your website.
Rather than getting lost in the internet jungle, robots will find clear directions that will lead them to content to explore and index.
Tip 4: Promote simplified navigation with internal links
Make the work of search engines easier. The crawlers come to your site through a route of links from other sites. They also need routes inside your website.
Do not neglect the internal linking. Think ahead about the internal links to place on each page in order to generate traffic to these other contents of your site. Take the opportunity to build links leading to your home page and your services pages.
Tip #5: Optimize your website crawl budget
Search engine crawlers like Google crawl an average number of URLs when browsing your site. Make sure they don’t spend that valuable time crawling unimportant pages.
The crawl budget should be food for thought. The robots.txt files, which are found in the root directory of websites, tell search engines whether or not to crawl different areas of your site. They optimize the crawl budget of your website.
Understanding SEO through content
Content is of utmost importance when it comes to search engine optimization. Leading Google or Bing robots to the content of your website is good.
Leading them to quality content that brings them complete satisfaction is even better. You will thus obtain qualified traffic and potential customers, the optimization of a website being designed to meet the objectives of a marketing strategy.
Quality content meets the search intent of Internet users
If many operations make it possible to optimize content for Google robots, let’s not forget that it is humans who will read them. The content of a web page must help Internet users and respond to their request.
This is where RankBrain, an artificial intelligence system, comes into play. RankBrain is part of the Google algorithm. It is a computer program capable of learning, observing data, making inferences and adjusting search results based on queries made by Internet users.
Quality content is rewarded by search engines
For a web page to rank effectively in search engines, it must be better than the others. If this page provides valuable information to Internet users, then Google will consider that it offers the best answers to Internet users.
This is why keyword stuffing cannot fool search engines. The keywords and related concepts contribute to the natural referencing of a page, but, without added value, they are as tasteless as a salad without seasoning.
My 5 techniques to improve the natural referencing of your web pages
It is possible to improve the natural referencing of your site thanks to certain tips. These relate to the content of the pages themselves. Other optimizations are effective for the pages of your site, beyond pure content.
Tip #1: Analyze Keyword Difficulty and Competition
Do not try to position your website from the start on very competitive keywords. It is also useless to try to position it on very accessible keywords which do not generate any traffic (therefore no customers).
Google the keywords you want your pages to rank for. See the strengths of the pages that rank best for those keywords and create even more relevant content. An SEO tool like Ubersuggest will help you find keyword opportunities.
Tip 2: Use tools for the semantic optimization of your content
Google will not rank the pages of your site because you have over-repeated the targeted query. When dealing with a subject, use related expressions, synonyms and all the associated lexical field.
SEO tools will provide you with words to integrate to optimize your content and outperform your competitors on Google.
Tip #3: Structure your content with header tags
Header tags represent the titles and subtitles of your pages. They participate, at their level, in the natural referencing of your site. Use them to structure your content.
In all cases, the tags, ranked from H1 to H6, must be designed for Internet users. They capture the attention of visitors, while announcing the content of each paragraph.
Tip #4: Contextualize Link Anchor Text
Anchor text is as important as the links on your web pages. Anchor text is the words you select when you implement a link.
By contextualizing the links on your site, you tell search engines what the content of the landing page is.
Tip #5: Optimize your website images
Images can cause your pages to load slowly. To improve your page speed, choose the correct image format.
If you want to maintain a high image resolution, opt for the PNG format instead. Don’t forget to compress the images on your site to reduce their size, with a tool like TinyPNG.
Finally, understanding natural referencing or SEO means becoming aware of how search engines work and the ingredients that make up qualitative content.
A well-referenced site is a site whose pages respond to the questions and desires of Internet users. These top positions make a site all the more credible in the eyes of Google. This promotes obtaining backlinks and off-site SEO. Me as SEO consultant will implement these strategies dedicated to search engine optimization.