What is search engine optimization SEO?

Metrics like conversions, brand authority, engagement, and revenue are clearly important. For SEO, tracking conversion rates helps you understand how well your site is performing in turning organic traffic into valuable actions. Manual penalties result from a human reviewer at a search engine determining that a portion of your site does not comply with their quality guidelines. Unlike algorithmic penalties, manual actions are explicitly communicated to webmasters through Google Search Console.

In one client report, we found that 52% of all AI search traffic was coming from ChatGPT. SEO Anomaly That insight shifted our focus toward more LLM-friendly copy and formatting. Some brands are already winning in generative search because of their positioning in media, third-party content, and user discussions. They are also showing up in Gemini for many related local search queries. We personalized the content by featuring a mortgage professional as the author, who wrote from a first-person perspective. The author’s expertise improved the E-E-A-T of the content, which is an important signal of quality content.

And you shouldn’t just include them for the sake of it—they should also be valuable for users. Imagine that you have a page that Google THINKS is about a specific keyword. You can use the Semrush Site Audit Tool to find pages that are missing H1 tags and write new tags with keywords incorporated into them.

Keyword Sheeter

• The main benefit of SEO is search engine visibility, which can increase brand awareness and site traffic.
• While black hat SEO can work, it puts websites at tremendous risk of being penalized and/or de-indexed (removed from search results) and has ethical implications.
• To ensure a keyword is relevant to the page you’re creating, check the top-ranking results in Google.
• You’ll get a list of issues to fix ranked based on importance and detailed insight into why those issues matter to prepare you for the future.

Specifically, using directories (or folders) to group similar topics can help Google learn how often the URLs in individual directories change. Parts of the URL can be displayed in search results as breadcrumbs, so users can also use the URLs to understand whether a result will be useful for them. If you’re open to a little technical challenge, you could also submit a sitemap—which is a file that contains all the URLs on your site that you care about. Some content management systems (CMS) may even do this automatically for you.

Remember the “First Link Priority Rule”

And now that your content is optimized for shares, you want to make sure your page’s on-page SEO is good to go. From lots of testing, I’ve found that these icons increase the amount of Facebook likes and Tweets that my posts receive. Fortunately, creating share-worthy content to enhance your off-page SEO strategy isn’t that hard. Well, you could re-create that dead resource on your site and replace the dead link in Wikipedia with a link to your site. You see, when a Wikipedia editor stumbles on a dead link, they don’t delete the link right away.

When it comes to localized content, the most common mistake we see businesses make is creating duplicate content. Instead of producing a unique page for each of its service areas, the business will make a page where the only difference is the service area. Use free tools like Grammarly, Readability Test, and Hemingway Editor to proof your content. These tools can help you find grammar and spelling errors, plus opportunities for improving your content’s readability, which you should tailor to your audience.

With all of these factors taken into account, SEO primarily drives two things — rankings and visibility. Manual actions are penalties Google imposes for violating their webmaster guidelines, such as engaging in spammy link building or cloaking. Use data visualization tools like Google Data Studio, Tableau, or Looker to build interactive dashboards highlighting key metrics, trends, and insights.

That’s because local listings, like a Google Business Profile with photos, reviews, and address information, build trust and authority by demonstrating that you’re a real company. Build a fast-loading, fast-to-respond website by following best practices like compressing images, minifying code, enabling browser caching, and using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool to get URL-specific recommendations. Use your robots.txt file to direct search engine web crawlers on what to crawl.

This chapter covers the things you’ll need to consider when crafting a next-level SEO strategy that will work for your business and goals. By using this form you agree that your personal data would be processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy. The llms.txt file is a document that enables artificial intelligence (AI) to understand your website content more easily. She loves to share her knowledge with others in order to help them grow their online presence. When she’s not busy writing, Nabilla enjoys exploring nature and going on adventures. She is passionate about helping people achieve their online goals.