SEO WEBSITE optimization: the 5 essential steps
Positioning your website well on Google in a natural way (SEO) can be as profitable as it is complicated. Indeed, Google changes its SEO criteria for websites more than 500 times a year, and it is very difficult to know the exact weighting of each of these criteria. It is therefore normal to ask yourself where to start SEO optimization of your website.
This article will help you answer the following questions:
- How can I optimize my website for Google?
- How to improve the SEO referencing of my site?
- What are the best tools for SEO?
We will detail the essential steps for good natural referencing and will share with you a set of relevant tools to improve your natural referencing.
1. Install and properly configure the right SEO tools
The first step in SEO optimization is to make sure you have access to all the important SEO-related data on your site.
Here are some essentials of SEO optimization:
- The Google Search Console. This tool is essential to check the SEO performance of your website and optimize it. For example, you will know from which keywords your customers find your pages, or which technical aspects need to be fixed.
- Google Analytics. Number 1 tool for website performance analysis, Google Analytics allows you to check all the data on your website (pages viewed, visit time, conversion rate, user behaviour, etc.)
- Yoast SEO. If your website is on WordPress, this intuitive and dynamic tool will allow you to make sure that your content respects the rules of SEO writing.
2. Do a keyword study
Researching keywords is the foundation of your SEO strategy. It offers you a precise vision of the needs of your target customers on the internet. The study of keywords allows you to identify the queries made by Internet users in relation to your products and services, their search volume, as well as their seasonality. A keyword study is really like a study of your online market. Crucial for your SEO optimization, it will allow you to orient the architecture of your website as well as your content strategy in order to target and attract Internet users interested in your products and services on Google.
If we had to sum up a 4 step keyword study, here it is:
- Define the market
- Filter keywords
- Classify relevant keywords
- Create a tailor-made SEO optimization plan
3. Optimizing "on-site" content
SEO optimization of your content is essential to your SEO strategy. Optimizing the content of your website helps show Google that your website deserves to be more visible than that of your competitors. Here are the key things to consider when optimizing your content for SEO:
- Your URLs: they must be short and include your target keyword
- The structure of your text:
- The title (H1): it must include your target keyword at the beginning
- Subtitles (H2, H3, etc.): they must include your main and secondary keywords
- The first paragraph: it must contain your main keyword
The density of the main keyword in the text: it should be between 1% and 2%
- External links: they allow you to prove the reliability of the information you provide
- Internal links: they allow Google to understand the hierarchy of the pages of your website
Commonly associated words and synonyms: adding more allows Google to better understand the subject of your text and offer it to more qualified readers
The structure of your website: it must facilitate navigation and provide access to important information
4. Technical SEO optimization
Technical SEO is crucial for the success of your SEO SEO. For example, simple technical elements can determine whether or not your site will be indexed by Google’s algorithms, and therefore referenced.
Among the important aspects of technical SEO optimization, you should check:
- Broken links. These elements represent a real negative criterion for Google because they lead your Internet users to 404 error pages. In one of our articles, we give you a list of tools to check your broken links.
- The presence of an SSL certificate (HTTPS site). Google favours the positioning of secure sites (HTTPS) holding an SSL certificate, at the expense of unsecured sites (HTTP). If you have not yet migrated to HTTPS, this guide may be helpful.
- Duplicate data. Whether it’s your metadata, titles or content, avoid duplicating any content on your website. This can alert Google. To verify that your website is not offering duplicate content, check your Search Console under the “HTML enhancements” category.
- Mobile adaptability. Since the launch of the “Mobile-First Index” at the beginning of 2018, Google has first used the mobile version of your website to determine its positioning in search results. You can use Google’s free tool to find out if your website is mobile enough. If it isn’t, making it responsive should be one of your SEO optimization priorities.
- The loading speed of your site. How quickly your pages load is becoming more and more important to Google as it helps improve your visitor’s user experience. You can use Google’s
- PageSpeed Insights tool to calculate your site’s loading speed and receive recommendations on SEO optimizations to perform.
- Google’s access to your pages. In order for Google to index your web pages and offer them in its search results, you must allow it access to your website.
5. L'optimisation SEO hors site (off-site)
Offsite SEO optimization includes all the visibility levers available to you outside of your website. Among these levers, inbound links or “backlinks” are the most important element of offsite SEO optimization. An inbound link is a link pointing to a page on your site from another site.
When they come from reliable sources, backlinks are considered by Google as an indicator of the relevance and quality of your content. They therefore represent one of the most influential criteria for the SEO referencing of your website.
Here’s how you can create backlinks to optimize your website for SEO:
- Analyze existing inbound links
This will let you know which sites link to yours. You’ll also find out which pages generate the most, and be able to remove backlinks from unreliable or low-quality websites.
Tools such as Ahrefs, MajesticSEO or Netpeak Spider can help you conduct these analyzes.
- Analyze the links of your competitors
The best way to know what content is getting the most links in your industry is to analyze the backlinks of your competition. You will know what type of content is most popular, and be able to identify the sources of those backlinks. Knowing these sources will allow you to contact them once you have produced the content that interests them.
- Think about guest blogging
By investing yourself personally on the most reputable sharing platforms and blogs in your industry, you will have the opportunity to promote your content to receptive Internet users. For this, you will nevertheless have to contribute and interact with these Internet users. Guest posting is an example of what we call outreach.
Register your business in directories and registrars
Directories are an “easy” way to generate backlinks to your website. For example, you could register your business in the Quebec enterprise registrar. A quality inbound link (because it comes from a government site) and easy to create!
Also know that one of the most important SEO optimization online directories is your Google My Business. Your presence on Google My Business is essential so that customers near you can find you and contact you when they search for your products and services on Google.
Website SEO optimization:
That’s it, you now know the main steps essential for SEO optimization. Apply them one by one, equip yourself with the proposed tools, and your SEO will grow! And if you don’t have the time or the inclination to take care of it, our SEO optimization agency remains at your disposal!
