What is SEO and how to promote a site in Google

What is SEO or site promotion in the search engine?

1. Creation of a site structure that covers all types of demand from a potential client. We are talking about commercial, informational, transactional, multimedia, and, of course, navigational search requests.
2. Each page of the site, including product filter pages or other things, should cover the client's needs, so they answer his questions and do not mislead the buyer. Otherwise, the person will quickly close the page, which will negatively affect the promotion process
3. The final result of the work — high positions in Google and Yandex for ALL requests that your target visitors ask. The ideal site for search engines — knowledge about the product, its functionality, and answers to popular customer objections that arise every day and are closed by your sales department.

SEO-optimization of the site is a whole complex of works aimed at increasing the visibility of the resource and improving its position in search results. One of the main tasks of SEO is to increase targeted organic traffic, that is, a free flow of users from the search engine who are directly interested in your product, service, or information.

In the process of optimization, the site becomes more attractive to the search engine. This is due to the following factors:

• improving content quality;
• improving the site structure;
• elimination of technical errors;
• increasing the number of backlinks to the resource.

Answering the question of how to promote the site, we have collected key recommendations in one instruction. So, below are the main steps that need to be taken when launching and promoting a new site.

Step 1. Checking the site for technical errors

Yes, this is the first thing you should do before promoting your site in search engines. If the site works slowly and incorrectly, then all other manipulations will be meaningless.

Checklist of a simple check that you can do yourself:

1. Check the loading speed of the key pages of the site with the help of a free service from Google. He will also provide all recommendations for improving indicators.
   1. For a comprehensive site check regularly, you should connect Google Search Console to it - we have detailed instructions on how to do this. With the help of this panel, you will be able to:
      — Check the correctness of the robots.txt and sitemap.xml files (if you already have them, read how the sitemap is here);
      — Detects broken pages (pages with response code 404 not found);
      — Detect problems with the server (with a large number of pages with a 505 response code);
      — Check the correct operation of the mobile version of the site and much more.
2. Check the correctness of the robots.txt and sitemap.xml files (if you already have them, read how the sitemap is here);
3. Detects broken pages (pages with response code 404 not found);
4. Detect problems with the server (with a large number of pages with a 505 response code);
5. It will check the correctness of the work of the mobile version of the site and much more.
6. Check the indexation of the site. To do this, use the Google site: operator. How to use it: type site:https://site.com into the search engine. In the output, you will see all the pages of your site that have already been indexed. If important pages, such as the main page or categories, are not in the index, this is an alarm bell. Check whether your site has been banned from the search engine. You can read more about this in our article.
7. It will check whether there are any errors in the layout of the site. This can be done with the help of convenient validators, for example, this one. If there are errors, you need to pass them on to the developer who made your site.
8. It will check the correctness of the site display in different browsers, and on different screen extensions.

Step 2. Collecting the semantic core

Semantics is an important part of website promotion. Therefore, maximum attention should be paid to its collection. The totality of search queries characterizing the product, service, or information you provide is called the semantic core (abbreviated as SYA). You can collect your ego with the help of various services:

• Serpstat;
• Keyword Planner;
• SemRush:
• KeyCollector and others.

With the help of these tools, it is quite possible to promote the site in search engines yourself. However, first of all, when collecting semantics, you should decide on the main informational message of the pages for which you will collect search queries. The more precisely you define it, the more targeted traffic will come to you and the higher the probability of targeted action, for example, completing an application.

What should you pay attention to when collecting? First of all, on frequency.

The frequency indicates the number of impressions of the request for the last month. The higher the frequency, the more difficult it will be to break into the TOP because the competition is also higher. It is better to focus on requests with a lower frequency - it will be easier for you to get to the top by them.

Step 3. Work from the site menu

Before promoting your site in search engines on your own, make sure that your potential clients are comfortable using it. The more convenient your site is for users, the higher the probability of conversions, that is, ordering a service, product, callback, etc. This applies not only to some decisions on the design of the site but also to the implemented menu.

What to check:

• do the names of the menu items correspond to the content on their pages;
• Are the pages correctly grouped in categories and subcategories;
• how many nesting levels are in your menu - try to avoid too long nesting chains (more than three levels).

When forming a new category, make sure that there is appropriate semantics under it. If there is no semantics at all, it will be much more difficult to promote such a category.

Step 4. Work with content on the site

Safe promotion of the site in search engines must include very thorough and careful work with the content. You can't just take all the collected keys and insert them in one big piece somewhere at the bottom of the page - this approach was relevant at the dawn of the Internet and Google. Now, it is easy to get banned for something like this and simply fall out of the search results.

The main priority of Google is to provide users with the most qualitative, complete, and relevant information. Therefore, when studying the question of how to optimize the site yourself and, in particular, when working with the content part, focus on the following indicators:

1. Quality. First of all, your texts should be yours, so make sure they are unique. No less important is the indicator of spam, that is, the oversaturation of the text with keywords. You can check these indicators with the help of a huge number of services, both free and paid. Type in Google: "check text for uniqueness" and you will receive a whole list of such services. The quality also means the content of the text. Write for people, invest in articles личный опыт to make them as useful as possible for users. Google loves this kind of content.
2. Keys. Use the collected SEO to optimize your texts — it is with their help that users will be able to find your article through a search engine. But be careful with adding keys — optimization of the site itself must be careful and well-thought-out. To avoid spam, we recommend following this formula: one keyword per five hundred characters (not including spaces). Try to place them evenly and organically.
3. Headings and subheadings. If it is a blog, give a loud and noticeable title to your article - it should interest users and make them want to know what you will talk about in the article. Avoid "yellow", and false headlines, do not mislead people and use the most frequent keywords from the collected semantics. Subheadings make the text more readable, they divide it into meaningful parts. Add H2 and H3 level subheadings every 500-700 characters, and observe the hierarchy (H1-H2-H3). On the other pages of the website, there should also be headings, necessarily - the H1 level heading (on the page there should be ONE heading with such a markup!), and sub-headings of the second levels - as necessary (in the required amount).
4. Links Another important point that must be taken into account when you want to optimize your site for search engines without the help of specialists. First of all, link - add links to other pages of the site in the text. This will help the search bot to index the new page faster, and to understand the structure of your site. Link the pages in a chain — the first with the second, the second with the third, the third with the fourth, etc. Put more links to more important pages (main, categories, subcategories). Links to external sources are better placed with caution - give preference to verified and reliable sources, for example, Wikipedia.
5. Pictures. If possible, they should be unique and not "heavy". When adding images to the page, be sure to add ALT text to them. Form it also based on collected SEO: thus, your images will be displayed for various search requests in the Images section of Google, which will increase the probability of users moving to the page.

External promotion of the site

SEO promotion and promotion of the site independently must necessarily include work with the link profile of the site.

A link profile is a set of links from external sources that lead to the pages of your website. The sites that link to you must have a high level of trust from search engines. Thus, part of their "weight" will be transferred to your resource, which will ultimately have a positive effect on promotion.

There are links:

• Anchors — the link is hidden behind an anchor (keyword);
• Unanchored - the link is placed in the text exactly as it is, or it is hidden behind the words "here", "by link", "if you go" and so on.

Before optimizing your site for search engines, consider that unanchored links should prevail in your link profile: an approximate ratio of 70/30.

Catalogs

If you are thinking about how to do SEO promotion of the site yourself without attachments, start with catalogs. First, most catalogs provide the possibility of placement free. Secondly, it will increase the visibility of your business in the regional publication: users will see your company in the list of others for requests related to a certain city, region, or country.

Your link profile should be diverse. Use different types of links to give positive signals to search engines.

Problems

There are many reasons why new sites may not receive traffic positions in Yandex and especially Google search for a long time. Here are the most important of them:

• Errors on the site. Be sure to conduct a technical audit of the site and correct at least the most basic problems. Incorrect indexing of your site is not visible to the naked eye, but it can hinder your progress for years.
• External promotion. No matter what they say, this is still the most influential ranking factor in Google. As for new domains, this is the key reason for the lack of positions. You can stay in the Google Sandbox for more than a year, and no internal optimization of the site will advance you.

Stages of promotion of the site to the top

The promotion of a young site can be divided into several stages:

1. Internal optimization. To promote a young site to the TOP, the first thing you should pay attention to is internal optimization. There is no point in promoting a site with duplicates, not ready for SYA, and unoptimized tags. It is necessary to remove all internal errors before moving forward.
2. Content marketing. Don't skimp on content. He is always the "king"! Write for users: they will like it, and search engines will like it too. Try to write well and regularly. Quality content is shared, and regularity will allow to increase the coverage of semantics and attract new traffic. There are articles on our site that were written 4 years ago and are updated every hour, including multimedia content from the YouTube channel.
3. Backlinks or external links. Try to attract thematic links, while chasing quality, not quantity. At the same time, try to diversify your link profile: the more different donors, the better and safer for the site as a whole. Keep in mind that links are safer, especially for Google. Also, don't forget about dynamics.
4. Analysis of competitors. This point will be useful before the very beginning of the promotion. Having analyzed the TOP 10 competitors, you will be able to understand what they are doing and how it affects the result. It is important to analyze not only backlinks but also content, and traffic sources.
5. Social factors. It is easiest to attract social media. content traffic. This is much easier to implement if you regularly post content that is useful for your target audience and readers.

These are basic, but no less important tips for promoting a young site in search engines. If in practice this minimum is fulfilled, then it is possible to get good results. The main thing is to act, not just to know them.

Technical Optimization

Some things do not depend on updates from search engines. This is the absence of technical errors on the site. Technical errors mislead the search engine as to what content you consider useful on your site and what exactly needs to be indexed. Therefore, first of all, when we talk about the promotion of the site, we mean the technical component without errors.

Core web vitals 2021

Important update of 2021: download speed, stability, and interactivity of content. Let's analyze the parameters:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) reflects the time required by the site to show the user the largest content on the screen, complete and ready for interaction;
• FID (First Input Delay) tracks the time of the user's first interaction with the site;
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) is a metric calculated by summing all layout shifts not caused by user interaction.

Three metrics are now officially included in Google's ranking factors. The values ​​of these indicators for the site can be seen in Search Console. Recommended values ​​for each of the parameters:

Content optimization

Your content must meet the user's expectations. Today, it is almost impossible to promote a site to the TOP in a competitive niche if the content of the page is useless for the user. Useful content is considered to be content that fully responds to the user's request and is not returned further in the SERP. Based on this, it is important to emphasize 2 points:

1. If we are talking about the content of the online store, it is important that the assortment is as complete as possible. A site with two products will not be promoted to the TOP.
2. Niche standard. If you enter the query "jacket" and you see blog sites, then with the catalog page in the TOP for the query "jacket" you will not advance.

The content and how the user interacts with it play a decisive role in the ranking of the site.

EAT as a ranking factor

E-AT is an algorithm that is deciphered as E — expertise, A — authoritativeness, and T — trustworthiness. Google considers content that meets these three factors to be useful for the user. Authoritative content is important for all niches, but in some, it plays a special role. For topics for which expertise, authority, and credibility are extremely important, Google calls YMYL sites — Your Money or Your Life. These are web resources, the information which may affect health, safety, or financial condition. These sites include:

• news;
• legal and legal;
• financial and state;
• medical;
• educational;
• online stores of any subject.

Now consider how the ranking factor affects YMYL:

1. Expertise The author of the articles on the site should be a person who understands the subject. Authorship and a summary of the author must be indicated in the article. It is also desirable to have a separate page for the author, where you can familiarize yourself with the merits of this person in the area. It is also important that the profile on social networks should indicate that the author completed university or courses in this field. In general, the assessor should not have any questions about the veracity of the specified information, and that the author is indeed an expert in the field.
2. Authority. If the author is a good specialist in his field, but few people know about him, then his achievements will be an advantage in ranking. That is if the author will publish some scientific articles or works on the relevant thematic authoritative resources. Also important are positive user reviews on the site, which confirm that the author is an authoritative expert.
3. Credibility. For your site to be a reliable source, it is necessary to work on the trust of the site: ask users to post positive reviews about you, and also put links from trusted resources to your site. Use, in addition to keywords in the content, special terms that are relevant to the article.