What is SEO?

 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the set of strategies with the objective of enhancing and improving the positioning of a website in the organic results pages, Google News and Google Discover.

Google News shows a compilation of personalized news according to some factors like location, language and relevance. To increase your articles chance to be featured on Google News, create an account on the publisher central.

Google Discover is a mechanism that offers personalized content recommendations based on the user’s interests and history of their online behavior. In addition, through Discover, publishers have the opportunity to have their content delivered without specific searches being made by the user. The algorithm is unpredictable, but follows the same SEO best practices.
 

Headlines

Headlines tell Google the purpose of the page, and conveys to readers the context and meaning of the story. A well-written headline convinces readers to click and tells Google what your story is about.
 

Headline length

Headlines should be under 70 characters. However, on the search results page, Google will cut off a headline based on the pixel width (at 600 pixels). If your headline is longer than 70 characters, Google might show only a portion of the headline or a title link that's automatically generated in the search result.
 

Front-load your main-focus keywords

Try to front-load headlines with the main-focus keyword or phrase — but don’t overload or overwhelm your headlines with target keywords. This is called “keyword stuffing” and it’s a no-no for Google. Identify your main search phrase and maybe one secondary key word/phrase, and get them in at the beginning of the headline.
 

Hacks to help your headline

Here are six helpful hacks to consider when writing a headline:

  1. Numbers: Numbers are a concrete way to let readers know what they can expect in a story, especially if your article has clear action items or takeaways. Odd numbers seem to do better (the human brain is a mystery!), and common figures (5, 7, 9, 15, etc), are great — though something unusual (79? Why not!) can catch someone’s eye, too.
  2. Dates: Useful both for search and for conveying a particular, specific moment when something will happen. People will add the date (March 11, 2021), days (Monday to Sunday), or a recency (today, now, etc) when looking for recent or current news. Use those same phrases in your headline.
  3. Questions/W5 words: Who, what, where, when, why. These trigger words are the bedrock questions your story needs to answer, so tease that information by asking a question in the headline itself. This can help set a reader’s expectations, so be sure your story delivers whatever question you set up in the headline (otherwise this is clickbait).
  4. Synonyms: Consider variations of a name or place, especially if you need to trim for length.
  5. Top keywords and related keywords: Look at the phrases that send traffic to your site or story. Be sure to use those terms in related reporting.
  6. Places: Where a story is happening. If the story is about a specific place/physical location—those words should be in the headline. Specificity is your friend here.
 

Excerpt

A good excerpt provides a summary or teaser of your post. It tells the reader why they should take the time to click on the post to read it in detail. Also, excerpts provide Google Search bots a hint of what your article is all about.

The excerpt appears below the title of your posts on your front page and related posts blocks. Excerpts should be no longer than 1 paragraph.

 

Meta description

A page's meta description gives Google a summary of what the page is about. For better results, keep the meta description between 155-160 characters.

Fill out both Excerpt and Meta description fields for a better SEO!

Google might use meta description as snippets for your pages in Google Search results. Note that we say "might" because Google may choose to use a relevant section of your page's visible text if it does a good job of matching up with a user's query. Adding meta description tags to each of your pages is always a good practice in case Google cannot find a good selection of text to use in the snippet

Also, add to your meta description your primary keywords or secondary keywords that didn't fit in your headline

 

URL

URLs are indexed by their slug (the words after the domain) and should be optimized for simplicity and search. The appropriate page URL is 75 characters long, so it appears on search results complete and not truncated.

The length of the URL don't affect ranking but short links are easier to understand and look more attractive than long ones. Therefore, their clickability may be higher. In case you need to enter a long URL manually in the address bar, it will take you a lot of time.

Some tips:

  • Keep the URL simple
  • Short and descriptive: help readers and robots understand what the page is about
  • Include your main-focus keyword
  • Don’t include extra numbers, special characters, secondary information or quotes
  • URLs should not contain uppercase letters

For live or breaking news, avoid updating a URL more than twice.

 

Images and Alternative text

Google's documentation states that every page must contain at least one image. Google will pick the best image to display in Search results based on the aspect ratio and resolution.

Best practices for images:

  • Use images that are relevant to the article, rather than logos or captions
  • Images should be at least 1200 pixels wide
  • Use the correct image format type (only use PNG if it needs a transparent background; otherwise, it’s a JPG or Wepb)
  • Use proper keywords in the file name (port-au-prince-haiti-july-2021.jpg not IMG_124.jpg)
  • Avoid writing extremely lengthy filenames
  • Reduce the file size (without losing image quality) to help ensure all pages load under 2.5 seconds
  • Populate captions and title text for images in a story

You must provide a descriptive filename and an alternative text (alt text) attribute description for all the images on your website and article. Alternative text serves several functions:

  • Screen readers announce alternative text in place of images, helping users with visual or certain cognitive disabilities perceive the content and function of the images.

  • If an image fails to load or the user has blocked images, the browser will present the alternative text visually in place of the image.

  • Search engines use alternative text and factor it into their assessment of the page purpose and content.

When adding an Alt Text it's important to keep it concise (around of 140 characters) yet descriptive. With a 140 character limit, it is unnecessary to start the Alt Text with "image of", "graph of", "photo of", etc. A screen reader will recognize the file as an image and let the user know.

  • Write clear, specific alt text that explains the semantic meaning of the image
  • Don't start by "Image of" or "Picture above"
  • Keep it up to 140 characters
  • Avoid Stuffing keywords into alt text or copying and pasting entire sentences
  • Also supply alt text when using images as links
  • Avoid using only image links for your site's navigation
 

Videos

The best way to increase your video’s to appear on Google Search is to make it the focus of your article. Avoid hidden videos or below the fold, if the users have to scroll and scroll and scroll until they finally land on the video, this will naturally leads to low plays and play rates.

One video per post: create a dedicated page for each video, where the video is the most prominent subject on the page. If you have multiple videos, make sure that the video you want ranked os the first video on the post.

Add a video description: your video description works much like a meta description. They should be relatively short and to the point with some keywords included.

Add your Video’s transcript on your posts: The minimum words for SEO article is 350-500 words, so a post with only a video and no text would fail that mark. Also, Google will crawls your transcript, making it easier for your article to appear on Search Results. Plus, it allows people who have hearing difficulties to follow along with your video content as well, making your content more accessible!

  • On YouTube: If you include the transcript in the description, you can add time markers to key points, so those who want answers immediately can jump to the timestamp and get the content they need.

Don’t add the same video on multiple posts: you'll be competing against yourself on Search Results.

Thumbnail: this is a must-have for YouTube. Visuals are what grab our attention, so the thumbnail needs to communicate what your video is about. Make sure to use your primary keyword in there. This will help the viewers to see which video on youtube is relevant and related to their search. 

  • What size should YouTube thumbnails be? 1280 pixels by 720 pixels in PNG or JPG

If it's a YouTube video, tag your video properly. When combined with the title and the description, video tags work in SEO harmony and can help boost your video up the search rankings.

Video tags help Google return videos that match search intent and can help users find similar videos by selecting the tags to search under.

To add a tag to your Video:

  • Sign in to your Youtube Studio. (You should have one if you have a Gmail account.)

  • On the side menu on the right, select CONTENT and select the video you would like to add tags to.

  • Add your tags.

 

Tags

Adding lots of tags is harmful for your Google Search rankings. Tags should be used to categorize your posts and, in WordPress, tags are like categories. For every tag, WordPress will create a new tag page. All articles that have the same tag will appear on this specific tag page.

So for every tag that you add in WordPress, you’re adding a new page to your site. And the content on this page is often very thin, it only contains a link to the articles you’ve used the tag for.

Google will take action against domains that try to rank by just showing pages that don't add substantial value to users.

A good ration of number of tags vs. number of posts is 3:1. If you have added a lot of tags to your website, you’ll need to get rid of these pages. The best thing is to delete and redirect these tag pages to something useful. If there’s only one blog post in a certain tag, you could just redirect it to that blog post. That will greatly reduce the number of tag pages.

Also, remove duplicate tags and categories. When you have a category “bathing suits”, you shouldn’t have a tag “bathing suits” too. The same goes for single or plural; an article or post shouldn’t be in the categories “shirt” and “shirts”.

 

Best practices

When choosing tags you should ask yourself:

  • Which other posts does this post relate to?

  • Which tag applies best to this group of posts? What’s the common denominator?

  • Is that the best keyword choice for this topic?

 

Keywords

A keyword — or keyphrase — describes the content on your page or post best. It’s the search term that you want to rank for with a certain page, so when people search for that keyword or phrase in Google they should find that page on your website.

Your keyword / keyphrase needs to be throughout your text, keeping in mind the readability, specially:

 

Page title and SEO title

You should always add your keyword in your page title. Ideally you want to add it at the start of your title, especially if your title is long. The same goes for your SEO title, or meta title.
 

Subheadings

You should add your keyword to some of your subheadings (H2 and H3), but not all. It’s just the same as with the keyphrases in your main text. Use your keyword in a heading or a couple of subheadings, depending on the length of your page or post.
 

Introduction

The introduction is the first paragraph of normal text on the page. Your introduction should get straight to the point, so Google and your readers know what you’ll be talking about.
 

Image alt text

Hopefully, your page or post includes an image related to the topic you’re writing about. Add some alt text to your images and see if you can find a natural way to include your keyword.
 

Meta description

  • Your meta description is part of the text Google displays in its search results. It should contain a short description of what users can find on your page.
 

URL slug

You should try to create clear, descriptive slugs for each page you make, and if possible you should include your keyphrase in them too.

Read more on Yoast blog: https://yoast.com/keyword-research-ultimate-guide/

 

Events

If you have an Events Page, keep in mind to fill out the fields correctly. Some fields are mandatory and if not filled out can prevent Google from indexing your event.

Mandatory fields:

  • Name: Don't use the type of event as the name of the event. For example, "Concert" is not a descriptive name for an event.Don't include URLs, prices, or performers. Highlight a unique aspect of the event in the title. This helps users make faster decisions (for example, "feat. Q&A with the artist"). Don't add short-term promotions (for example, "buy your tickets now").

  • Location: Add the correct address

  • Start date: Add both date and time

Recommended fields:

Description: Add a clear and concise description of the specific event. Don't repeat other facts like date and location

  • End date: use the same format as Start date

  • Event status: Scheduled/ Canceled/ Postponed

  • Image: this appear on Google Search results and increase the changes of interaction

  • Event website
  • Organizer
  • Price: Numeric field
More information, on Google Search Central.
 

Anchor text

An anchor is a text you click to move from one internet destination to another; it literally anchors two different locations on the internet together.

Anchor text may be internal—pointing to other pages on your site—or external—leading to content on other sites. In either of these cases, the better your anchor text is, the easier it is for users to navigate and for Google to understand what the page you're linking to is about. So, anchor texts basically:

  • Helps connect stories that are related together (ex: a “related posts” section)

    • Signals to Google that the website has authority on a topic

    • Helps with engagement by directing readers to more stories

  • Help search engines understand the structure of your website.

    • Google finds some links when crawled, but discovers others from a known link to a new page.

Best practices

  1. Write good, explanatory anchor text: It tells your readers what to expect before they click the link and it tells Google algorithms what your content is about. Google’s algorithms use your anchor choices to make sure you are not engaging in spammy practices and to understand the topics you are linking to in your copy
  2. Avoid writing long anchor text, such as a lengthy sentence or short paragraph of text
  3. There’s no magic number of links to include, but only include links when relevant (3-5)
  4. Format links so they're easy to spot: your content becomes less useful if users miss the links or accidentally click them
  5. Avoid writing generic anchor text like "page", "article", or "click here"
  6. Avoid using text that is off-topic or has no relation to the content of the page linked to. Avoid creating unnecessary links that don't help with the user's navigation of the site
  7. Avoid using the page's URL as the anchor text in most cases, although there are certainly legitimate uses of this, such as promoting or referencing a new website's address

More

Google Search Console

Google Search Console helps you measure your site's search performance, fix issues, and make your pages stand out in Google Search results. It also helps you to analise keywords and map your audience from Google Discover and Google News.
 

Google's SEO Starter Guide

A good starting guide that covers the technical aspects of SEO and explains how search engines works by crawling, indexing and understanding content.
 

Google Trends

Google Trends helps you discover queries with consistent interest over time. You can also identify the best moment to write about a seasonal theme and what's trending right now.