Optimizing your search engine optimization (SEO) is essential if you want to be visible on the web. You may have the most beautiful site in the world, but without SEO, you’ll be drowned out among the 2.2 million queries made on Google.
In this respect, SEO is the decisive element in propelling your site to the first page of Google and attracting more qualified traffic.
In this guide, you’ll find all the best practices and key elements for achieving your visibility and business objectives.
We help you boost your visibility and increase your traffic: our ultra-complete SEO solution analyzes your sector, studies your needs and creates a tailor-made strategy to get you to the top of the search results.
SEO: The keys to optimized natural referencing
What is SEO?
It’s a set of techniques designed to improve a website’s position in search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) and make it more visible to Internet users. It’s also known as natural search engine optimization (SEO), because it involves actions that act organically on a site’s indexing and visibility. These actions require technical effort, but are not billed by the search engines, unlike SEA (Search Engine Advertising), where results are paid for.
This improved positioning, facilitated by SEO, offers several advantages:
- Visibility: better positioning in the top search results increases a website’s visibility.
- Traffic: better visibility attracts more traffic to a site.
- Lead generation: the better the SEO, the more qualified the traffic. In other words, visitors interested in content or products can become potential prospects… and customers.
- Revenue: by attracting qualified visitors, the site is more likely to generate revenue through product sales or content monetization, among other things.
SEO or SEA: the main differences to be aware of
SEO and SEA are two levers that tend to be pitted against each other. SEO leads to organic results, obtained through technical SEO efforts. SEA, on the other hand, generates instant traffic, in return for advertising costs.
Unlike SEA (Search Engine Advertising), organic results are achieved through ad-free search engine optimization (SEO), with the aim of responding to Internet users’ queries within the search results pages (SERPs). SEO therefore applies to search engines, but also refers to the needs of Internet users.
To achieve this, it’s important to understand what users are looking for when they type a query into Google, in order to provide them with the best possible response. As Google is the most widely used search engine, with 94% of the market share in France and 92% worldwide, it is preferable to focus on the latter when building an SEO strategy.
How to do SEO?
When Google’s robots crawl your site, it takes into account 3 families of criteria that are important to remember. So what are the 3 pillars of SEO (technical, content, netlinking)?
Technical website optimization (technical SEO)
Technical SEO ensures that your site is technically efficient and compliant with search engine criteria. It forms the backbone of your site.
It’s the first thing Google sees of your site. In order for Google to see your site, it must index it in its database. To check this, you can type the command “site:” in the Google search box, followed by your domain name.
For example: “site:PIUP.net”. The results displayed will show which pages of your site have been indexed in the search engine index. Google can then explore your site and carry out an analysis of your site, in particular:
- Optimization of site structure
- HTML tag management (meta title and meta description)
- Optimization of header tags (Hn), which structure content
- URL management
- XML sitemap to facilitate indexing by search engines
- The robots.txt file
- Loading speed
- Mobile compatibility
- Site security using HTTPS protocol
- Image optimization (size, quality and use of alt attributes to help search engines decipher images)
Quality and quantity of content
Content SEO involves writing and optimization techniques specially designed for the web.
The content of a site is essential to position you in the SERPs and to assert your expertise in the eyes of Internet users. High-quality, unique, well-structured and attractive content has every chance of ranking higher than lambda content. This includes, among other things :
- Researching relevant keywords for your industry and target users
- The creation of quality content – informative, with high added value and capable of answering users’ questions
- Literary tag optimization
- Keyword density while maintaining content fluidity
- Internal links to establish a logical structure for search engines and users
- Backlinks from other sites to reinforce the credibility of your content
- Multimedia content (images, videos, infographics, etc.) to enhance the user experience and make your content more attractive
- Regular updating of content (improvement and creation) to maintain the site’s relevance
- Responding to search intentions and questions posed by users on search engines
Website popularity (netlinking)
Netlinking (or linkbuilding) consists in obtaining links to your site (backlinks) from other reliable sites, to reinforce your site’s credibility in the eyes of search engines.
A website’s popularity is measured by the number of links it receives from other websites. The more sites quote you or refer their visitors to your website, the more interest Google will show in you. This technique is based on a comprehensive strategy, covering:
- The quality of links, which is enhanced if they come from reputable and relevant sites
- The search for partners in your field of activity or a related sector to obtain quality links
- A balance between internal and external links, as internal links always reinforce the structure of your site and improve navigation
- A diversity of sources to keep your site as natural as possible in the eyes of search engines
- Informative, original, high-quality content to make your site a reliable source or link
- A content strategy dedicated exclusively to linkbaiting (studies, infographics, in-depth analyses, dossiers, etc.) to encourage other sites to link to your site
- Maintenance of broken links on your site to maintain a good user experience and preserve your site’s credibility with search engines
- Tracking performance with analytics tools to monitor the performance of backlinks and adjust your strategy accordingly
In short, SEO aims to maximize a website’s online visibility, attract qualified traffic, and generate leads and revenue. A well thought-out strategy, taking into account technical aspects, content and netlinking, is essential to achieve lasting results.
What criteria should you take into account when ranking your site on Google?
We’ve talked about the SEO criteria you need to consider for a successful SEO strategy, but what are they? Let’s find out. SEO takes into account almost 200 criteria that are not communicated by Google, but which many SEO experts decipher every day to draw conclusions. Google’s aim is to provide the best possible results to meet the needs of Internet users.
To achieve this, Google’s algorithms rank websites according to on-page and off-page criteria, which we’ll explain in detail below.
On-Page criteria
On-page SEO (also known as “on-site SEO”) consists of optimizing different parts of your website that affect the search engine ranking of your pages. These are technical and editorial optimizations that you can apply to other pages of your site, such as the quality of your content or HTML code, for example.
Here are some examples of factors that directly influence search engine algorithms’ perception of your site, giving it or taking away credibility:
Meta tag analysis
Every piece of content must be unique, and page titles and meta descriptions are no exception.
Title tags are the titles and subtitles that structure your various paragraphs. These tags enable Google to understand the subject of your content. It’s a good idea to insert your main keywords in the H1 and H2 of your pages.
A page must have one main title (H1) and only one. The H1 corresponds to the title of your page or article, while the title tag provides a title for search engines that will be displayed in the SERP.
The title tag should not exceed 70 characters.The meta description is not very useful for SEO purposes, but is highly recommended to encourage visitors to click on your page rather than that of your competitors. Its recommended size is between 70 and 150 characters. Beyond that, Google limits its display to 150 characters.To understand the structure of a web page, you can use the Web Developper tool, then browse the “View Document Outline” tab.
Optimizing images and media
The weight and size of your images must be optimized to limit page loading times.Search engines take into account the speed of your website, and images that are too large or too heavy will take longer to load, which will have repercussions on the site’s overall loading time.
We consider that an image over 60 Kb can be lightened. To compress your images, you can use Photoshop or ILoveIMG.
Also, search engines make sure your images have alternative text, otherwise they won’t be able to read them. Alternative text is actually used by screen-reading software to help blind Internet users understand the content of your images. Search engines analyze images in the same way.
So it’s best to describe the image precisely to help search engines understand the content of your pages.
Website ergonomics
It’s important to provide a good user experience with a site that’s functional on desktop, tablet and smartphone.
Optimizing page loading speed has a direct impact on user experience, and therefore on search engine ranking. Conversely, a long loading time is likely to increase dissatisfaction and bounce rates, with a consequent impact on content indexing.
Google has announced that 70% of pages require 7 seconds for the top part of the content to load, and 10 seconds to load completely. This negative finding includes the fact that the longer the user has to wait for a page to load, the more likely they are to leave the page.What’s more, clean, error-free html code that is correctly structured and compliant with standards facilitates indexing by search engines.Finally, robots.txt files tell search engine spiders which pages to index.
The semantic field around keywords
To optimize your SEO, it’s essential to work on the semantic field of your keywords, choosing relevant, priority and long-tail terms. These keywords must then be strategically positioned in the title, description and body tags.
Finally, the frequency of appearance of keywords must be sufficient in content, without detracting from the user experience.
Optimize your website’s meshing
Good meshing makes it easier for Internet users to navigate and for search engines to understand your site.
That’s why it’s so important to optimize your site’s internal and external meshing.
High-quality internal linking ensures that all the pages on your site are logically interconnected. External linking, on the other hand, consists of placing relevant links pointing to other authoritative sites.
Off-Page criteria
In contrast to On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO involves reinforcing elements outside the website. It aims to increase the authority of your domain by obtaining links from other websites.
For example, Wikipedia is a site with very good “domain authority” that receives many links. You can see your domain authority score here.
Here are the main factors to optimize to strengthen your Off-Page SEO:
Your site’s domain authority
Domain authority measures a website’s popularity and credibility. The older the domain, with quality content and backlinks from influential sites, the higher its authority.
This authority facilitates natural referencing and visibility in search results.
The quality and number of backlinks to your pages
A site’s SEO is highly dependent on its backlinks. The more backlinks it receives from high-traffic or authoritative sites in its sector, the better its ranking will be.
Quality backlinks add popularity and credibility to the target site.
Your site’s popularity on social networks
A site’s visibility on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter increases its popularity. Frequent sharing of content on these platforms generates additional visits.
This increased popularity improves indexing by search engines.
SEO trends not to be missed
The evolution of SEO is constant, and the race for performance on the SEO markets intensifies year on year. This motivation is largely fueled by new tools, new algorithms, and new user requirements (as well as their receptiveness).
Artificial intelligence in SEO
Artificial intelligence has revolutionized the way content is designed and optimized for SEO. This revolution is having an ongoing impact on how search engines and users interpret content, as well as on optimization techniques.
By way of example, the latest algorithms such as BERT, MUM and RankBrain incorporate AI to more deeply analyze users’ search intentions. Beyond the simple matching of keywords, the challenge is to better understand the language of Internet users in order to provide them with the most optimal response possible.
On the execution side, AI also offers a number of advantages:
- Automation of time-consuming tasks such as keyword filtering
- Creation of code for small tools or plugins
- Automatic generation of responses and content
Natural search engine optimization rules are taken into account. However, despite these advances, the media and content produced by AI still require human supervision and fine-tuning.
The challenge is to ensure consistency, quality, compliance with specific SEO requirements, and the achievement of set objectives.
In fact, for any professional wishing to integrate AI into their content creation process, it’s a good idea to upgrade their prompting skills. It’s a preliminary phase that involves dictating precise, structured instructions to the tool, resulting in content that’s infinitely close to your expectations. On the other hand, a low-precision prompt will generate poor content that will be penalized by search engines.
AI Overviews: Google’s generative AI in Search
AI Overviews has been designed to provide users with condensed, accurate information to answer their Google queries directly. Users can then interact with the AI to refine their search in a conversational mode.
In concrete terms, AI Overviews uses AI to generate enriched previews of search results, known as “snapshots”. These give users an overview of different types of content (website previews, links to approved sources, etc.). The aim is to make it easier for users to find (and obtain) precise, relevant information.
Please note: AI Overviews does not apply to sensitive content (political, religious, controversial, etc.), in order to preserve the quality of results in line with EEAT rules.
In any case, AI Overviews promises to revolutionize the world of SEO by offering a vertical experience, but above all by putting visibility above traffic. This inversion will lead to new ways of measuring SEO… and using it in the future.
Voice search
Voice search is enjoying a meteoric rise thanks to the rise of voice assistants and enriched results, among other things. The benefits include a fast, convenient experience, as well as natural language comprehension, even in a limited context.
This transformation undeniably redefines the way users interact with search engines. It has also led to strategic SEO adjustments, such as the increased optimization of featured snippets.
Videos
Videos are a particularly popular format with users, and therefore with algorithms. For better assimilation, we recommend:
- Native integration (directly on the page)
- A short, simple, value-added format
- The addition of subtitles and a transcription for editorial enrichment and natural referencing
Mobile first
With more than half of all internet searches carried out via mobile devices, a “mobile first” approach is now imperative. To guarantee optimal visibility, a responsive site is therefore essential to offer users a fluid experience, whatever their screen size. The speed and lightness of pages go hand in hand with this criterion. It’s a question of ergonomics, which extends to practical aspects (but just as essential for your business) such as easy navigation or the presence of buttons.
It’s also advisable to take into account the reading and content consumption habits of web users on their smartphones. This behavior influences the creation of content, from text to images.
Concise information, attractive visual elements and a “scannable” structure are therefore essential. They will enable you to meet users’ expectations, optimize your site’s ranking in mobile search results and stay competitive.
The essential rules of SEO to position your website well
Perform an SEO audit
An SEO audit is essential to assess your site’s online health. It should enable you to :
- Identify areas for improvement
- Identify technical problems to be corrected
- Take stock of your visibility on search engines
- Gain perspective on the quality of your user experience
- Aim for higher rankings and quality traffic
However, an automated SEO audit will generate a certain amount of data, the reading, analysis and processing of which require SEO skills. Hence the importance of being accompanied by an SEO expert, who will provide you with relevant recommendations and quickly define your scope of action.
Define your target
Precisely defining your target is an important step in categorizing the different types of customers you want to reach, and understanding their needs and expectations. Once your targets have been determined, you can more easily prioritize strategic keywords and create relevant content to attract them to your website, and convert them into customers.
This will help you to achieve a number of objectives
- Adjust your content (to be as relevant as possible)
- Adapt the online experience to the expectations of your future customers
- Optimize your chances of being well-positioned in search engine results according to the search intent of your target users.
For a target to be determined with precision and certainty, you’ll need to analyze your market and in particular its online behavior. Which keywords should be targeted? What are the emerging needs in terms of content? Using tools such as Google Analytics will help you answer these questions.
For example, for a cycling e-commerce site, one of my targets is:
- Men aged 30-40
- Sportsman
- Senior executive
I therefore know that my target will use Google to buy bike parts, but also to find information about bike rides, bike races and bike repairs. Based on my target’s needs, I’ll be able to create appropriate content.
Research and prioritize strategic keywords
As we mentioned earlier, search engine algorithms are sensitive to efforts made to work with strategic keywords. Whether short or long tail, they are of vital importance to the success of your content strategy.
To carry out this keyword research:
- List and prioritize keywords directly related to your semantic universe, using tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs or Yooda Insight.
- Study the keywords on which your direct competitors are positioned to identify additional keywords related to your sector
- Organize keywords into thematic clusters to match your different product or service lines
- Monitor your website’s positioning on these keywords to evaluate your performance
- Prioritize keywords for improvement to define an SEO action plan that will enable your website to gain visibility on these strategic keywords.
Thanks to this keyword research, you’ve listed all the keywords on which it’s strategic to be visible to Google in order to develop your business.
Define your SEO objectives
Defining clear SEO objectives will enable you to calculate the ROI of your SEO action plan and evaluate the effectiveness of the actions you’ve taken:
- Increased SEO traffic
- Increased SEO leads
- Increased positions on strategic keywords in Google
- Increased brand awareness
- A reduction in customer acquisition costs (SEO is known to be more profitable than SEA).
We advise you to formulate your objective using SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, and Realistic.
Example of an SEO objective: “Go from 50K monthly SEO traffic to 100K in 12 months”.
Establish your SEO strategy
All these steps culminate in the definition and deployment of a clear, concise, coherent and structured SEO strategy.
To guide you, here are the questions it must answer:
- Netlinking: How many Referring Domains should we obtain? What types of links should we obtain and how?
- Content SEO: What content do we need to optimize? What new content should we create? What semantic optimizations are essential for each content? What user signals are lacking? How can they be improved?
- Technical SEO: What are the website’s technical flaws? How to fix them?
Boost your visibility with our SEO solution
PIUP is the SEO solution for your performance.
In addition to driving traffic to your site, our solution also focuses on creating optimized content to strengthen your digital presence. Our team of SEO experts and our solutions help you to:
- Make your content more effective and competitive with tailor-made recommendations
- Boost your SEO content production with direct access to recommendations from your open source CMS or custom solution
- Climb search engine rankings by exploiting the potential of AI in your SEO content.
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