Search Engine

Optimization
Chapter 4
 What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a technique that helps your website rank higher on
search engines like Google to increase site traffic.

How do search engines work?

•Search engines use specialized software programs to search for information the user
desires from the unlimited source of information available on the internet.
•They display results related to specific keywords or phrases in lists which are called Search
Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
•Different types of information related to the query searched by the users are searched in
separate Engine Result Page. This includes Text Documents, Media Files (Images, Videos,
Audio, Animations), etc.
•Based on this information searched by a search engine, it shows the best information first
after this sequence continues sequentially. Such sequences show you millions of results for
a query.
Keyword Research
What is Keyword Research and why is it important for SEO?
•Keyword research is a process by which we can find out high gain rank in the search
engine by adding these keyword terms to our site’s content platform.
•It is a very important part of SEO as it can increase the rank of our site.
What is Keyword Research? And what is Content Hierarchy?
•Keyword research is a search engine optimization practice used to find alternative
search terms that people enter into search engines while looking for a similar subject
matter.
•It is the first step to optimize a website for certain keywords. With its help, we can find
out how much demand there are Keywords in the market world competition we will
have to face to optimize our blog for that Keyword.
What are the benefits of Keyword Research?
•Research not only gives us an idea of traffic but competition coming on it but it also
gives us an idea for our next Blog Post.
•It’s very important to get Top Rank in Search Engines & increase traffic of the blog.
Keyword Research
Keyword Research Process:
• Brainstorming: Generating Keyword Ideas for your website
• Content Hierarchy: How often is this word search done? Finding Search Volume

• Competitiveness: Competitiveness of a keyword

• Selecting: Selecting the right keyword
Types of Keywords:
• Head Keywords: Single words like “Shoes” or “Book”. These have High search
volume and high competition.
• Body Keywords: Phrases made of two words like “Sports shoes” or School
books”. These have Medium search volume and medium competition.
• Long Tail Keywords: Phrases with more than two words like “men’s shoe sale” or
“buy old school books”. These keywords have less search volumes but also less
competition.
Keyword Tools
There are many tools available online to generate Keyword Ideas like SEOhee,
Ubersuggest, etc. Google Search Bar can also suggest high search volume keywords.

1. Google Keyword Planner

•Google Keyword Planner is a tool that can help you find keywords related to your
topic.
•It can show how many times a keyword is searched in a month.
•This tool has been made keeping Adwords advertisers in mind and has Bidding
Features.
•To use Google Keyword Planner, you must have a Google Adwords Account.
 What is Google Trends?
Google Trends is a tool that records every change over time and shows it to us in the
form of a graph. This tool also tells us which keywords how many times people have
searched and from which location.
What does trend mean?
When people like something more, then that things is called trendingand it keeps on
changing with time.
How does Google trends work?
Google Trends will give complete information of any keyword from 2004 to just an hour
ago. It shows all the information through a graph. You enter your Target keyword in the
Search Query box. Choose the Keywords trend of any Country you want to check:
• You must select Time-Period that for how long you want to see the trend in the form of
a graph.
• Next, Select the category of Keyword.
• Next, Select the Platform for which you want to see the results. It will also show you
related topics and related queries.
Advantages of Google Trends tool
This tool benefits every blogger and website owner in many ways. The purpose of
creating a blog or website is that it can be made accessible to more people. Because
where there are people, the popularity of the blog will increase. Along with this, the
revenue will also increase.
• Keyword Comparison: You can compare different keywords of the same topic that
has been searched most.
• Interest by Region and Subregion: Google Trends also provides information on
the regional interest in a search term.
• Real-Time Data: Google Trends provides real-time data, allowing users to see the
latest trends and patterns in search behavior.
• Best Content Creation: The Google Trends tool also has advantages in that it
helps in writing the best and highest-quality content. High Quality, then Traffic will
come.
• Use Cases: Google Trends can be used for a variety of purposes, including market
research, content planning, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy, and
identifying emerging trends.
Features of Google Trends
1. With its help, you will be able to choose the best keywords. Because a good
Keyword can prove to be very good for your website, so you should search them
properly.
2. This will give you information about the topics running in Trending and by which
you will be able to write good content good content is necessary for SEO because
your website is not going to grow with low-quality content and if someone clicks by
mistake then that next time will not visit it.
3. You can find Sites and Articles for backlinking.
4. You can monitor your website which is very helpful for you
5. With its help, you can know where you lie in the Battle of search engine and how
much improvement you must do now and all this will happen when you have the
right information in your hand.
Organizing the keywords, Writing Headlines
(Page Titles) with examples
• Search bar: By clicking on the search bar, you can get information about the
popularity of keywords and topics.
• Explore: After clicking here, you can know the details of Search Term and also know
about Top Topics, Top Queries and download their data.
• Trending Searches: By clicking on this, you can know about Daily Search Trends
and Realtime Search Trends of any country. By clicking on Daily Search Trend, you
can know about any day and Most Searched on Google Today and by clicking on Real
Time Search Trend, you can know about the trend of topic according to the category.
• Year in Search: By clicking on this, you can know which topic was trending in
search in any country in any year.
• Compare: With its help, you can compare any 5 Keyword or Topic with each other
and know which topic is trending more.
How to find Trending Topic and Keyword
• First, you must click on Trending Searches, then by clicking on Realtime Searches trends,
select the country for which you want to know the trends. You will find here a lot of posts.
• Click on different topics. The post which will be found on number one means that people
are searching more at that time. By clicking on that post, you can know its trend through
the graph and you can also read the post related to it. Below this post, you will also find
trending keywords related to that topic.
• In this way, you can find Trending Topics and Keywords. Apart from this, you can know the
trending topic by selecting the category.
Using Google Trends:
• Go to Google Trends and select your country.
• Enter the keyword in the search bar (e.g., "Laptop").
• View the trend graph to see the keyword's popularity over time.
• Use filters to customize the data by country, period, category, and search engine.
• Scroll down to see the keyword's popularity in different states of the country.
• Explore related keywords and queries, which can also be downloaded for further analysis.
What is SEO Friendly?
SEO friendly refers to website design, content, or any online platform that is optimized for search engines
to easily crawl and understand its content. It helps improve the website's visibility and ranking in search
engine results pages (SERPs).
Key Elements of SEO Friendliness:
• Quality Content: Relevant, valuable, and engaging content that incorporates relevant keywords
naturally.
• Optimized Keywords: Strategic use of keywords in titles, headings, meta descriptions, and
throughout the content.
• Mobile-Friendliness: Ensuring the website is responsive and functions well on mobile devices.
• Fast Loading Speed: Websites that load quickly provide a better user experience and are favored by
search engines.
• Effective Use of Meta Tags: Title tags, meta descriptions, and meta keywords help search engines
understand the content of a page.
• Structured Data Markup: Using schema markup to provide search engines with more information
about the content.
• Quality Backlinks: Obtaining backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites improves SEO.
• User Experience (UX): A website that is easy to navigate and provides a positive user experience is
more likely to rank higher.
What is Meta Tag?
Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page's content; they do not appear on
the page itself, but only in the page's source code. Meta tags are used to provide
information to search engines and website visitors about a webpage.
Types of Meta Tags:
• Meta Title Tag: Specifies the title of a webpage, which appears as the clickable
headline in search engine results. The correct length of a TITLE Tag is 55 to 65
characters, including spaces.
• Meta Description Tag: Provides a brief description of the content of the webpage,
displayed below the title in search results. The correct length is 120 to 125
characters.
• Meta Robots Tag: Instructs search engine crawlers on how to index and display
the page in search results.
How to buy SEO Friendly Domain Name?
• Focus Keyword: Incorporate your focus keyword in the domain name. For
example, if your site is about cricket, a domain like “CricketMint.com” would be
SEO-friendly
• Domain Length: Choose a domain name under 15 characters for easy recall. While
length doesn’t directly affect ranking, a shorter domain can improve user
experience.
• Domain Extension: Select an extension that aligns with your target country. For
instance, if you’re targeting India, “.in” would be the best domain extension.
Understanding URLs for SEO
What is a URL?: A URL is the address of a webpage on the internet. For example,
“www.epsinfotech.in/SEO-SERVICES-PUNJAB.aspx” is a URL.
URL Structure: Your URL should be meaningful and short. It should not contain more
than 2-3 search words, nor should it be more than 5 words in length.
Canonical URL: This is a concept in SEO where you tell search engines which version
of a page to treat as the original to avoid duplicate content issues.
Content SEO, Keyword Research and Copywriting
Content SEO: This involves preparing your website or blog content in a way that can
improve your web page’s ranking in search engines. Factors like writing style, content
structure, page layout, images, and infographics play a crucial role.
Keyword Research: This involves using specific words for your web pages that can
help visitors find your website through search engines.
Copywriting: This is the act of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other
forms of marketing communications.
How to write a Readable and SEO-Friendly Blog Post?: Your blog post should be
easy to read and contain SEO-friendly elements like focus keywords, meta descriptions,
and optimized images.
Interlinking for SEO
Internal linking refers to linking one page to another page on the same domain. It’s like
connecting one post to another post or one webpage to another webpage on your
website.
Importance of Internal Links for SEO: Internal links help Google find, index, and
understand the pages on your site. They also improve website SEO. In simple words,
internal linking is important for search engine optimization because it helps improve
website’s ranking position in Google.
Benefits of Internal Linking:
• Makes your content more informative: It tells search engines and users about
other relevant pages on your website. Internal linking makes your post more
informative when done properly and helps the visitor to move from one page to
another. Google provides top rank to those pages which are useful for the user.
• Better Crawl and Help Index: When your blog is new, search engines do not
index your web pages quickly. That’s why the internet marketing strategy
recommends when customers visit our website, they follow the links to understand
the site structure, and what the crawlers can crawl deeply.
Local SEO
What is Local SEO?: Local SEO is a method by which your website is specially
optimized to rank better among local audience i.e., your city, state, or locality.
It’s a combination of both local + SEO = Local SEO!
If you own a website, you can optimize it as per your desired region whereas if you
want to target a particular locality then for this you have to use Local SEO.
Website Speed Testing:
Page Speed does not affect SEO, Page Speed is a direct ranking factor, a fact known
even better since Google’s Algorithm Speed Update. However, Speed can also affect
rankings indirectly, by increasing the bounce rate and reducing dwell time.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a powerful tool provided by Google that helps website owners monitor,
maintain, and troubleshoot their site's presence in Google search results. It offers a range of features
and insights to improve a site's visibility and performance in search. Here's a breakdown of the key
features and the differences between the old and new Google Search Console:
Overview:
• Old GSC: The old Google Search Console provided a basic overview of a website's performance in
Google search, including the number of clicks, impressions, and average position in search results.
• New GSC: The new Google Search Console offers a more detailed overview, with additional insights
such as the total number of indexed pages, mobile usability, and any manual actions taken against
the site.
Performance:
• Old GSC: The old GSC provided a simple performance report showing clicks, impressions, click-
through rate (CTR), and average position for specific queries, pages, countries, and devices.
• New GSC: The new GSC offers a more comprehensive performance report with additional metrics
and filters, such as total clicks, total impressions, average CTR, and average position. It also allows
users to compare data over different periods.
URL Inspection:
• Old GSC: The old GSC did not have a specific URL inspection tool.
• New GSC: The new GSC includes a URL inspection tool that allows users to check the
indexing status and coverage of individual URLs. It provides detailed information about
a URL's crawl, index, and serving status.
Index Coverage:
• Old GSC: The old GSC provided limited information about a site's index coverage,
such as the number of indexed pages and any indexing errors.
• New GSC: The new GSC offers a more detailed index coverage report, which provides
information about the indexing status of individual pages, including errors, warnings,
and valid pages.
Sitemap:
• Old GSC: The old GSC allowed users to submit sitemaps for their websites.
• New GSC: The new GSC also allows users to submit sitemaps and provides additional
information about the sitemap, such as the number of submitted URLs and any errors
or warnings.
What is YouTube SEO?
YouTube SEO is a technique that helps bring your YouTube videos to rank 1 in YouTube search. It’s a
combination of video quality, keyword usage, meta descriptions, tags, and watch times.
Increase the Quality of YouTube Videos: High-quality videos are more likely to engage viewers and keep
them watching. This can lead to better rankings in YouTube search results.
Use Keywords and Meta Descriptions: Incorporate relevant keywords in your video titles, descriptions,
and tags. This can help your videos appear in relevant search results.
Increase Watch Times: Videos that keep viewers watching for longer periods can improve your channel’s
overall watch time, which can positively affect your YouTube SEO.
Share on Social Media: Sharing your videos on social media can increase visibility and drive more traffic
to your YouTube channel.
Optimize Image (Thumbnail) for YouTube SEO:
• Create Engaging Thumbnails: Good thumbnails can attract more views. People are more likely to click
on a video with an engaging thumbnail.
• Use Image Keywords: Incorporate relevant keywords in your thumbnail image file names.
• Thumbnail Size: The thumbnail size for YouTube videos should be between 1.0 MB to 2.0 MB.
• Thumbnail Dimensions: Use a resolution of 1200x720 for full HD or 1000x720 for high definition.
• Use High Contrast Colors: Thumbnails with high contrast colors can stand out more and attract more
clicks.
What is User Engagement?
User engagement refers to the interaction between users and a website or application. It
measures how users interact with the content and features provided, such as reading
articles, watching videos, commenting, sharing, and liking content. User engagement is
important because it indicates how valuable and relevant your content is to your audience.

Does engagement matter for SEO?

Yes, user engagement is a crucial factor for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Search
engines like Google consider user engagement metrics when ranking websites. Websites
with higher engagement tend to rank higher because they are perceived to be more
valuable and relevant to users.
Types of User Engagement:
1. Reading your content: Indicates user interest and relevance of your content.
2. Leaving your content: This can refer to bounce rate, where users navigate away after
viewing only one page.
3. Social Shares: The number of times your content is shared on social media platforms,
indicating its value and impact.