SEO ... A vast subject that we have condensed into 10 key points!

No matter the size of your business, you need the internet to market yourself better. This is particularly the purpose of the websites. But the competition is so fierce on the Internet that it is not enough to have a site to be visible. As proof, according to figures published by Internet Live Stats , in January 2020 there were more than 1.6 billion websites in the world. The best strategy to attract visitors to your site is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or natural referencing . The goal of this operation is to position a website among the very first search results without paying for advertising . Here is a guide that gives you the 10 key points to apply for successful SEO on your site.

First SEO key point: have a secure site

The development of the Internet and computer technologies goes hand in hand with cybercrime. Hackers are working more and more on the sophistication of their methods of action. The acts of cyberattacks which make the headlines then lead Internet users to be suspicious on the Internet .

To reassure your target, secure your site . In order to gain the trust of Internet users and to prove yourself reliable, you must opt ​​for the protocol HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure). The latter is more secure than HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and is materialized by a closed padlock to the left of the site address. If your site was created under HTTP, then you must migrate to HTTPS.

Google, which is the world's largest search engine, places great importance on the use of HTTPS . In order to protect its users from leaks and theft of personal data, the web giant favors secure sites during indexing.

Among them, some are responsible for checking the security level of the pages they scan. Thus, the SERPs (search results pages) are organized so that the first results are, among other criteria, those offered by sites with HTTPS protocol .

Create relevant, optimized and original content

If you need any SEO service then do check our site and coming back to The second key SEO point to respect for a successful natural referencing of a site is the creation of quality content . With well-written texts, accompanied by illustrative images and arranged in categories, you will have a good site structure, which is essential in SEO. This makes it easier for search engine robots to crawl and improves user experience (UX).

To create relevant content , you must take into account the needs of your target . Talk about the subjects that interest the latter. To get there, you need to do a little survey or study upstream to see what successful competitor sites are offering. Your content must also be consistent to be easily understood by all reader profiles.

Publishing well-written texts is no guarantee of getting traffic to your site. The content must also be optimized for natural referencing . You must therefore respect Google's SEO rules in order to get its algorithms to index your site on the queries that interest you. To that end, put keywords at the heart of your copywriting strategy. However, keywords should be used sparingly , as Google sanctions keyword stuffing . The application of Hn tags is also essential to have optimized content.

Finally, make sure that your content is not duplicated to avoid penalties from Google . No spinning either. Each text must be original and therefore unique.

Optimize images ➡ third key SEO point

Google Images is increasingly used by Internet users to search on images. The SEO image becomes a necessity to improve the SEO of a website. By referencing the images that illustrate your writing, the chances that your pages will receive new visitors will be increased tenfold. To get the most out of images, make sure they are of high quality . You don't have to use your own photos. There are copyright-free image banks on the Internet that are legal to download. From Fotolia to Free Image via Pixambo, many sites offer quality images for free .

To properly reference an image, consider naming it using keywords. For information, Google's indexing robots are unable to read the images at the moment. It's up to you to tell them what your image represents . For example, to reference a photo of a football field, avoid a name like IMG000.jpg. Instead, use a name that directly resembles the image: terrain-foot.jpg. In addition to the name, you must fill in the ALT tag , which is alt text displayed when the pointer is hovered over the image. Include keywords in the ALT tag. Also, give preference to JPG, PNG and GIF image formats because they are easily analyzed by search engines.

Speed ​​up page loading speed

With the plethora of sites tackling the same theme on the web, no one stays on a page that is slow to load. The loading time of a site's pages is a major criterion for the UX design or the user experience. Google is picky about the satisfaction of Internet users, it attaches importance to pages that load quickly. The loading of a page must be done in 3 seconds maximum . You can gauge your site's loading speed using a tool like PageSpeed ​​Insights.

If the loading time of your pages is not optimal, you can improve it. Besides poorly optimized code or server issues, images can slow page loading .

So please use images whose size, resolution and weight do not prevent pages from loading quickly. If necessary, reduce the size of the images to have a maximum width of 2000 pixels. The size of an image should not exceed 500 kb.

Optimize the site for mobile navigation

Mobile navigation continues to grow. As proof, in 2020, internet traffic from smartphones and tablets was estimated at 50.1%. One of the key points for successful SEO for a site is therefore to structure the site so that it is easily usable via mobile devices . Google, which adapts to the new habits of its users, rewards responsive mobile sites . Your site will therefore be more likely to be found in the first search results if it offers smooth mobile navigation.

In order to optimize your site for navigation via mobile phone or tablet, you must make sure that your content is mobile-friendly . Clearly, you must offer pages optimized for smartphones and tablets. In addition, do not hesitate to adopt a mobile-first approach . It will then be a question of designing a site specially for mobile navigation. In this case, the entire structure of the site is optimized to allow smartphone and tablet users to enjoy a great browsing experience . When you implement such strategies, you can then employ various tips to measure and analyze the improvement in your SEO performance.

Netlinking to boost your SEO

Sixth key SEO point ➡ Netlinking ! It is essential for the success of the natural referencing of a website. Also called link building or external linking, this strategy consists of increasing the number of backlinks ( backlinks ) to a website. To rank, Google takes into account the quality of the sites' netlinking. Its PageRank tool considers the number of links as well as the authority score of the sites from which the links come. Likewise, the semantic relevance of the links is evaluated . The backlinks quality are the main ingredients of a netlinking strategy. Their choice must then be made with care.

A strong link should come from an authority website. As a reminder, an authority site is a site recognized for the relevance of its articles and the reliability of its information. It is therefore a trustworthy site . Also, an effective backlink must come from a web page whose content has the same theme as the targeted page. The ideal is to get back links from web pages with a certain seniority.

Be sure to diversify the sources of backlinks . Create a directory of authority sites with which you will have a partnership so that they insert links on their pages pointing to your site. How to convince them? Thanks to the quality content of your site, of course!

Make internal meshing

Internal linking is another key point to apply when doing SEO for your site. It consists of linking the pages of the site to each other. To do this, we must use internal links to create a kind of network between pages of the site. The internal mesh is used to keep the Internet user on the site as long as possible . With a successful link, the reader can easily consult several pages of your site. The internal network is valued by Google, because it makes the site more coherent and makes it easier for indexing robots. The good use of internal links will therefore allow you to gain some places in the ranking of sites on Google.

If you are e-commerce, for example, you can place links to products when you mention them in articles. The same goes for services. Internal linking allows you to reinforce the authority of certain pages and therefore their visibility, while effectively redistributing the SEO juice from the pages to those that interest you.

Use 301 redirect

Have you redesigned your site? Pages may become inaccessible. You can avoid the loss of PageRank of your articles by making use of the 301 code. The 301 redirect , also called permanent redirect, is comparable to a change of address. It indicates that the searched content has been moved to another URL . Thanks to the 301 redirect, you will avoid the 404 error . The latter frustrates Internet users, because it indicates that the targeted web address does not contain any resources.

The operation of a 301 redirect is simple. It tells Google's algorithms that a page has changed URLs . The crawlers register the change and modify the URL of the page concerned. Thus, the Internet user who enters the initial address will be automatically redirected to the new web address. The 301 redirect will be useful to you to improve the user experience of Internet users and therefore your SEO .

Analyze SEO performance

The ninth key SEO point on our list is analyzing your strategy's performance. Only by analyzing the results of the techniques you have used will you be able to determine their strengths and weaknesses . The performance analysis will allow you to monitor your SEO strategy to adjust it, if necessary.

SEO monitoring is essential to increase the visibility of a website. And for good reason, Google's SEO algorithms are constantly evolving.

Analyzing your site's performance will allow you to detect what is or is not working due to the latest Google rules.

To analyze the performance of your SEO strategy, we recommend using Google analysis tools. These include Google Analytics and Google Search Console . With Google Analytics for example, you can find out:

• the time spent by each visitor on your site

• the number of pages / sessions opened

• the bounce rate

• the conversion rate, etc.

As for the use of Google Search Console , it will allow you to analyze and improve the performance of your site in terms of search on Google. With this tool, you will have two tables, one of which presents key figures relating to your site in the Google search engine. The second table deals with the requests on which your site is present. It provides the number of clicks, click-through rates, devices used, etc. Google Search Console allows you to have a detailed report on the SEO of your site and to make the right decisions.

SEO ultimate key point: create a community around the site

Once the technical work is done , finally focus on the human aspect to bring traffic to your site. The tenth and last key point of SEO is to unite the people who read your articles. The objective: to create in them a feeling of belonging to a community. With this in mind, show yourself close to them by regularly replying to certain comments and thanking everyone for following you. You can also organize contests from time to time in order to create a healthy emulation within the community.

To get more people interested in your website, invest in social media. On each of your pages, there should be share buttons . These will be used to relay your content on the most popular social networks like Facebook, Instagram, etc. Encourage your readers to share your articles and invite them to your pages or to your groups if you have any on social media. This will boost the natural referencing of your site because, the more visits it has, the more Google will be convinced of its reliability and quality.