I’ve observed a massive evolution in my 28 years of experience in SEO. I’ve seen how it can positively impact not just websites, but the businesses and people who run them.

In this article, I’ll go over an introduction to SEO, including basic concepts:

• What is SEO?
• What’s involved in SEO?
• What you need to know about SEO
• FAQ: What are the best SEO practices for a successful digital marketing strategy?

What Is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategic marketing discipline that increases a website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).

SEO is crucial because higher visibility in search results typically leads to more traffic and potential customers for a business.

What’s Involved in SEO?

SEO encompasses a wide range of practices and techniques. These include:

Research and Strategy

Effective SEO requires comprehensive market research, detailed competitor analyses and alignment with clearly defined business objectives (whether it’s increasing traffic, driving sales or boosting brand visibility).

A solid SEO program begins with a deep dive into a website and the business. Understanding the unique needs and challenges of your target audience is critical.

Then, an in-depth technical SEO audit is the first best step, as it gives essential insights into what’s hindering search engine success.

Keyword research uncovers the queries your audience is using when searching for what you have to offer.

And competitive analysis comes next to get a clearer picture of what’s needed to succeed in the search results based on the competition.

Technical SEO

This aspect of SEO focuses on creating a website that is easy for users and search engines to navigate.

It includes ensuring fast load times, mobile responsiveness, secure connections, content architecture, internal linking and more.

Anything that has to do with the performance of a website falls under technical SEO.

Content Development

Content is the backbone of any good SEO strategy.

Creating high-quality content means ensuring the content is engaging, relevant and aligned with what users and search engines are looking for.

Content for SEO must be helpful, backed by first-hand expertise and answer the intent of the query completely.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO involves optimizing webpages and their content for search performance and ease of reading, crafting compelling meta tags, optimizing images for search, using heading tags properly and much more.

Off-Site SEO

This aspect of SEO involves building credibility and authority in other ways.

Key activities include earning and managing high-quality backlinks and using brand marketing techniques, public relations and social media as complementary tools for SEO success.

What You Need to Know About SEO

There are three things you need to know about SEO to create your SEO “mindset:”

1. SEO isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
2. SEO is not static; it’s an ongoing process.
3. SEO requires a constant finger on the pulse.

SEO Isn’t a “One Size Fits All”

Different types of SEO, like local SEO and national or global SEO, cater to varying business needs.

Local SEO focuses on optimizing your online presence to attract local customers, while broader SEO strategies aim for a wider, perhaps international reach.

Crafting a successful SEO strategy requires customization based on comprehensive market research, an in-depth understanding of the competitive landscape and a keen grasp of the target audience’s needs and pain points.

A tailored approach is key, whether it’s to enhance visibility in local search results or to achieve a dominant position on a national level.

SEO Is Not Static; It’s an Ongoing Process

Search engines continually update their algorithms to provide more accurate and relevant results to users.

New competitors enter the market. The economy fluctuates, and current events impact society.

Therefore, SEO strategies must evolve and adapt to these changes to maintain or improve a website’s search ranking.

SEO is not and will never be a one-and-done thing.

SEO Requires a Constant Finger on the Pulse

To stay ahead in SEO, continuous learning and innovation are crucial. The field is dynamic; staying still means falling behind.

This involves keeping abreast of industry trends, algorithm changes and emerging technologies.

Regular research, strategic planning, consistent content creation, testing, performance monitoring and program evaluations are essential.

Final Thoughts

Creating an effective SEO program is like planning a grand adventure. It starts with setting clear, measurable roadmaps and being flexible to adapt to changes.

SEO is also a field that demands commitment. Embracing SEO’s dynamic nature is the key to sustained success. It’s a continuous process rather than a one-time task.

While it can be challenging, the payoff is big: traffic, customers, revenue and a positive impact on your livelihood and the livelihoods of those you employ.

We’ve helped thousands of companies succeed at SEO for over 28 years. If you’re in need of more website traffic, leads, sales, customers and revenue, reach out to us today for a free consultation.

FAQ: What are the best SEO practices for a successful digital marketing strategy?

SEO drives online growth, visibility, leads and ultimately, sales and revenue. In fact, SEO is so important to the success of a business that it must be prioritized in every digital marketing strategy.

Let’s dive into the key SEO practices you should focus on to achieve better results from your digital marketing strategy.

Keyword Research: Keyword research helps you figure out what keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for. The keywords you select inform your content and optimization strategy to be relevant for your users. You can conduct keyword research by using SEO tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs, or our own SEOToolSet®.

On-Page Optimization: Optimize your website’s meta tags, headings, URLs and content with the identified keywords to improve its visibility in search engine rankings.

High-Quality Content: High-quality content does several things — it provides value and relevance to your audience, answers user queries, addresses their needs and establishes your brand as an expert in your niche. The kinds of content you can develop include articles, blog posts, infographics, social media posts, white papers, videos and more. Just make sure it is informative and helpful, and incorporate your keywords naturally into it.

Link Building: A solid backlink profile helps establish yourself as a trusted authority. You can build high-quality backlinks by reaching out to industry influencers or websites for guest blogging opportunities. When your content is great, other people will naturally start to link to it.

Mobile Optimization: Google has moved to mobile-first indexing, meaning that the search engine will prioritize mobile versions of webpages for ranking. Optimizing your site to be mobile friendly improves user experience, ensures your pages load faster and provides a consistent experience across platforms. This is an important area to improve your ranking.

User Experience: Successful websites are optimized for both users AND search engines. SEO is what brings people to your site, but user experience is what helps people stay on your site longer, resulting in better ROI. Make your site easy to navigate with a clear hierarchy. Users should be able to easily find what they’re looking for, and the content you provide should be tailored to their needs.

Social Media: Social media is a powerful marketing channel to get the word out about your content. It can attract a wider audience to your content and website, improve your online presence and positively influence search ranking through social signals (likes, shares, comments, etc.). Incorporate a solid social media strategy into your SEO program to improve your online visibility even more.

Local SEO: If you’re a local business, optimizing your site for local SEO is critical to stay competitive online in your area. Create and optimize your Google Business Profile and ensure your listed business information is accurate. Include customer reviews and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) details across all platforms.

Remember that SEO is never done — regularly monitor and track efforts, update your strategy as needed to adapt to changes and stay current with the latest SEO trends through SEO training.

Step-by-Step Procedure

1. Do thorough keyword research to find the keywords your target audience is searching for.
2. Incorporate keywords into your website’s meta tags, headings, URLs and content.
3. Create high-quality content that is helpful, engaging and relevant.
4. Build a strong backlink profile by earning links from reputable websites.
5. Optimize your website to be mobile-friendly and provide a seamless user experience across devices.
6. Ensure website navigation has a clear hierarchy and is easy to navigate.
7. Connect with your audience through social media platforms to amplify your content. Engage with them by commenting and responding.
8. If you have a physical location, ensure your website is optimized for local searches.
9. Use SEO analytics tools to gain insights into the behavior and preferences of your users.
10. Research your competition and look for opportunities to outperform them.
11. Look for ways to collaborate with influencers in your industry to expand your reach and credibility.
12. Regularly audit your SEO program to identify and fix any issues that might hinder your progress. Update your strategy as needed to adapt to algorithm changes.
13. Stay current on the latest SEO trends and best practices. One of the best ways to do this is through SEO training.

The post What Is SEO? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• Why is structured data important to SEO?
• What is structured data?
• What is schema markup?
• What structured data types are there?
• Which structured data type should I use?
• Best practices for using structured data
• FAQ: How does structured data impact search engine results and click-through rates?

Why Is Structured Data Important to SEO?

Structured data can enhance the appearance of a listing and add rich information to help searchers make a decision, which can improve click-through rates (CTR).

See the following search result of a Simi Valley, Calif., shopping center as an example.

Structured data on the MallsCenters.com website enables Google to recognize star ratings (which, by the way, are not so good for this particular mall) and the mall’s address and phone number, adding the data to their organic search result.

The ability to better communicate what your webpage is about in order to improve its appearance in the SERPs, dominate more of this valuable real estate and provide rich information to searchers is invaluable.

So how do you do it? Let’s dig into what structured data is and how it works.

What Is Structured Data?

Google defines structured data as a standardized format for providing information about a webpage and classifying its content. It helps clarify to the search engines what type of information you’re presenting.

With the introduction of HTML5 in 2015 came microdata, a set of tags that enabled webmasters and SEOs to do just that. Microdata tells search engines more about the page than what users can see — what type of page it is and what it’s about.

One example is a recipe page. Recipes typically have a list of ingredients, cooking instructions and nutritional information such as the number of calories per serving. Structured data enables you to tell Google where that content is on the page so you can suggest which page elements you would like to appear in search.

The following is an example from this Google help file that shows how to produce an image result in the featured carousel in Google SERPs:

<html>
<head>
<title>Apple Pie by Grandma</title>
<script type=”application/ld+json”>
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org/”,
“@type”: “Recipe”,
“name”: “Apple Pie by Grandma”,
“author”: “Elaine Smith”,
“image”: “http://images.edge-generalmills.com/56459281-6fe6-4d9d-984f-385c9488d824.jpg”,
“description”: “A classic apple pie.”,
“aggregateRating”: {
“@type”: “AggregateRating”,
“ratingValue”: “4.8”,
“reviewCount”: “7462”,
“bestRating”: “5”,
“worstRating”: “1”
},
“prepTime”: “PT30M”,
“totalTime”: “PT1H30M”,
“recipeYield”: “8”,
“nutrition”: {
“@type”: “NutritionInformation”,
“calories”: “512 calories”
},
“recipeIngredient”: [
“1 box refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box”,
“6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (6 medium)”
]
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Doing so gives Google all of the information it needs to pull the following information from your webpage and format it in a visually appealing way:

Articles and blog posts are other common webpage types that can benefit from structured data. Article schema allows you to suggest to Google which headline, publication date, and image should appear in the search result for that piece of content.

Google wants SEO professionals to use this structured data, too. In one Google Search Central resource, it says:

Google Search works hard to understand the content of a page. You can help us by providing explicit clues about the meaning of a page to Google by including structured data on the page.

And in another, it says:

Google supports many interesting search appearance elements that can be applied to your page in search results … A few of these result types are generated automatically by Google Search, but most of them can be coded for by your site.

So, Google is telling you to use structured data. How do you do that, exactly?

One way is by structuring data on your page in ways that are easy for search engines to digest. This is where we need to get to know schema markup. It gives SEOs a way to share the most important information about any given entity so that the search engine can:

1. Understand what the page is about
2. Feature the most important information in the results

What Is Schema Markup?

Schema is a library of shared vocabularies you can use to mark up your page in ways that can be understood by the major search engines.

Think of schema as a collection of tags and microdata, Resource Description Framework in Attributes (RDFa), or JSON-LD code (the format preferred by Google) as the tags themselves. These are used to add markup to your webpages.

Founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex in 2011, Schema.org is your go-to resource for the structured data schema you’ll use to optimize pages for rich search results. It’s already in use by over 10 million sites.

When schema.org first launched in 2011, it included schemas for more than a hundred categories, including movies, music, organizations, TV shows, products, and places. Today, the schema.org vocabulary contains 797 types and 1,453 properties.

What Structured Data Types Are There?

The Schema.org vocabulary uses a hierarchy that begins with a “Thing.” A thing can be any of the following:

• Action
• BioChemEntity
• CreativeWork
• Event
• Intangible
• MedicalEntity
• Organization
• Person
• Place
• Product
• Taxon

These are the broadest categories, the most generic types of items. From each one, you can drill down and get more specific. For example, from the Full Hierarchy list, we can click on Event to see the different types of Event schema that are available:

• BusinessEvent
• ChildrensEvent
• ComedyEvent
• CourseInstance
• DanceEvent
• DeliveryEvent
• EducationEvent
• EventSeries
• ExhibitionEvent
• Festival
• FoodEvent
• Hackathon
• LiteraryEvent
• MusicEvent
• PublicationEvent
• SaleEvent
• ScreeningEvent
• SocialEvent
• SportsEvent
• TheaterEvent
• VisualArtsEvent

The next level in the hierarchy is Properties. This is where you can get specific and provide those rich details Google may pull into the search results to make your listing more informative and visually appealing.

For example, choosing ComedyEvent takes you to the full list of Properties for that event type.

Selecting “Audience” takes you one level deeper, where you’ll find more specifics on where you can use this Property, an example, and sample code you can modify to use on your own page.

Remember, JSON-LD is the preferred markup format, so we display that here:

Which Structured Data Type Should I Use?

Keep in mind that using structured data can enable rich search results — it does not guarantee them. And there can be negative consequences to using structured data improperly.

Google provides General Structured Data Guidelines and warns:

Pages or sites that violate these content guidelines may receive less favorable ranking or be marked as ineligible for rich results in Google Search in order to maintain a high-quality search experience for our users. If we find that your page contains spammy structured data or content, we will apply a manual action to your page.

Structured data must be a true and accurate representation of the page’s main content, and the markup should describe content that is visible in the page’s HTML and to users. Choosing the most relevant type of structured data for your content is key.

Google provides an excellent resource called “Explore the search gallery,” which serves as a jumping-off point for structured data.

You can start by either browsing the full list of search features or filtering them into one of five categories to see the features most relevant to your needs. Those broad categories are:

• E-commerce
• Organizations
• Sports
• Jobs
• Entertainment

For each type of search feature, you’ll see an example of what it might look like in the SERPs, with tips (where applicable) on how and when to use it.

Clicking the “Get started” button leads you to a more detailed page on that search feature. Using the Carousel as an example, you’re delivered to a page that explains what the Carousel search feature is, what it looks like in Search, and how to implement this markup with step-by-step instructions.

You’ll also find samples of code for the different types of structured data that could be used for Carousel content.

Best Practices for Using Structured Data

In addition to following Google’s guidelines for structured data, as referenced above, there are several important steps to making sure you’re making the most of your search features opportunities.

Apply these best practices to ensure that search engines can understand your structured data and maximize your chances of triggering a search feature:

Make Sure You’re Putting Your JSON-LD Structured Data in the Right Place

Google provides a helpful video to show webmasters and SEOs where to put a markup on your webpage. In it, John Mueller also describes the different ways that Google processes JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa.

Validate Your Code with the Rich Results Test

Google provides the Rich Results Test tool so webmasters and SEOs can ensure that your marked-up page supports rich results. You can test either your code snippets or by live URL.

Use the URL Inspection Tool to Test How Google Sees the Page

Put a few marked-up pages live and see how you’ve done. Google’s URL Inspection tool gives you information about an indexed page, enabling you to see if there are any structured data errors.

This tool will tell you how many valid items are found on the URL and give a description of each item. It also contains details about any warnings or errors found so you can troubleshoot.

Currently, this tool supports 17 rich results types. Google notes that “not all rich result types are supported by the tool yet. Unsupported types might be present and valid on the page and can appear in Search results, but won’t appear in the tool.”

Once You’re Done Troubleshooting, Ask Google to Recrawl Your URL

Ask Google to recrawl and index your page once you’ve corrected any structured data errors. Remember, it can take a few days to a few weeks for your request to be processed.

Conclusion

Structured data may seem complicated at first, especially if you don’t know HTML.

However, Google and its partners in Schema.org have made it possible for anyone to apply structured data to your web pages by providing robust documentation, sample code you can modify, and testing tools to ensure you get the best results.

Take advantage of this opportunity to speak directly to Google and make your search results stand out in the competitive SERPs.

Our SEO experts can help you utilize structured data to enhance your webpage’s visibility and add functionality to your organic listing in the SERPs. Contact us today for a free consultation.

FAQ: How does structured data impact search engine results and click-through rates?

Structured data holds the key to transforming your online presence. By providing search engines with valuable context and insight into your content, structured data significantly impact search engine results and click-through rates. Let’s delve into the nuances of this impactful strategy.

Structured data serves as a translator between your website and search engines. When properly implemented, it enables search engines to understand the content’s essence, leading to more relevant and visually appealing search results. This enhanced presentation, often including star ratings, images, and other rich snippets, captures users’ attention and encourages them to click through to your site.

Moreover, structured data is crucial in improving the visibility of specific information, such as addresses, phone numbers, and business hours, through the Knowledge Graph panel. This means users can find essential details about your business without even visiting your website, building trust and credibility in their eyes.

The influence of structured data goes beyond aesthetics. It empowers websites to stand out in crowded search engine results pages (SERPs), increasing the likelihood of attracting organic clicks. By providing users with a preview of the content they can expect, structured data minimizes ambiguity and ensures a more tailored user experience.

To harness the full potential of structured data, focus on implementing schema markup. Schema markup allows you to tag various elements on your webpage, providing explicit clues to search engines about your content’s meaning. This can create rich snippets and knowledge panels, further elevating your content’s visibility and click-through rates.

Structured data is a game-changer in the realm of SEO. Its impact on search engine results and click-through rates is undeniable, translating to increased organic traffic and improved user engagement. By leveraging structured data and embracing schema markup, you can position your website for success in the competitive digital landscape.

Step-by-Step Procedure: How to Leverage Structured Data for Enhanced Search Engine Results and Click-Through Rates

1. Understand the Basics: Familiarize yourself with the concept of structured data and its importance in SEO.
2. Identify Key Content: Determine which content on your website would benefit most from structured data enhancements.
3. Choose Relevant Schema: Select appropriate schema types that align with your content, such as articles, products, or events.
4. Learn Schema Markup: Gain a solid understanding of schema markup languages, including JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa.
5. Implement Schema Markup: Embed schema markup code into your webpages’ HTML, focusing on relevant sections.
6. Validate Structured Data: Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to implement your markup correctly.
7. Monitor SERPs: Regularly check search engine results for your targeted keywords to observe the impact of structured data.
8. Analyze Click-Through Rates: Use analytics tools to measure the increase in click-through rates for pages with structured data.
9. Optimize Rich Snippets: Fine-tune your schema markup to enhance the appearance of rich snippets in search results.
10. Utilize Knowledge Panels: Implement schema markup for business details to appear in Knowledge Graph panels.
11. Provide Accurate Data: Ensure that the structured data accurately represents the information on your webpage.
12. Stay Updated: Keep up with schema.org updates and search engine guidelines to maintain effective structured data.
13. Test on Various Devices: Verify that structured data displays correctly across different devices and screen sizes.
14. Experiment with Formats: Test different schema markup formats to determine which yields the best results.
15. Address Errors Promptly: If errors arise, fix them promptly to maintain the integrity of your structured data.
16. Leverage Google Search Console: Use the Search Console’s structured data report to identify and resolve issues.
17. Enhance User Experience: Optimize the user experience on your website to complement the improved search results.
18. Monitor Performance: Continuously analyze the impact of structured data on search engine results and click-through rates.
19. Iterate and Refine: Based on performance metrics, refine your structured data strategy to achieve optimal results.
20. Seek Professional Guidance: Consult with SEO experts to ensure your structured data strategy aligns with best practices.

The post What Is Structured Data and Why Is It Important For SEO? appeared first on Bruce Clay, Inc..