Improving the Google natural referencing (also called SEO for Search Engine Optimization) of your website allows it to gain visibility with Internet users on natural search results. SEO optimization is a form of marketing and should be part of your digital marketing strategy .
SEO is the historical service of Google, the “Google Search” branch to be precise and it is important for you to obtain a good position, ideally in the first 3 search results, on user queries that your business knows answer.
Tips for successful SEO natural referencing
Here is an overview of a Google search result page on pc with the query “Google advertising agency” where our Web agency Tribe Studio arrives in position 1.
We will see together how to optimize your search result to try to reach the famous number 1 position for your website.
The history of the search engine, how does Google perceive the web?
In the 90s there was no search engine as such, it was mainly directories. They all functioned on more or less similar indexing models based on semantic searches in the name of html files, or on partially manual additions like at the time giant Yahoo. But during a search, the results were often disappointing and did not necessarily provide an answer to the question asked. It was in 1998 that Google was born, at the time it was the first engine which, with a radically different approach, achieved a rapid and international rise.
If you want more details on the history of the first search engines and the basics of SEO , I invite you to read the article on my old blog (shamefully abandoned).
At that time Google defined main rules which have evolved, but which are still relevant, there is in particular the fundamental principle of “page rank” which means that Google does not see the Internet as a set of sites, but as a set of pages with a different authority rank . This notion is important, because it helps to understand why a search result does not necessarily lead to the home page of a site, but to a specific page providing an answer to the request made by the Internet user.
The second brilliant idea brought by the founders is this notion of page authority , to understand the general principle, Google will look with many analytical beams at the importance of the page for users. To put it simply, if you are popular many people talk about you and they have succeeded in integrating this notion into the analysis of Google robots. So if many sites talk about your page then your content is popular and therefore deserves a good SEO.
Google an answer engine more than a search engine
Since the beginning, Google has therefore worked to provide relevant answers to the queries of Internet users. Today the search engine even integrates answers directly on the search page without having to connect to the site. We are talking about position 0 (which you can see on the search result above, the optimized extract), reaching position 0 is interesting for your site even if you will lose a few visits, you will gain visibility and notoriety .
In addition, Internet users who connect to your site after consulting the response will be qualified prospects and therefore useful contacts for your commercial development.
Create useful and effective content that allows Internet users to quickly find the answers to their questions, you can also try to get into the other questions asked by correctly formulating questions and a short answer.
The fundamental technical criteria for an effective site
The main criteria are:
- The ease of browsing the site and therefore on different media (desktop, smartphone, tablet) is what is called responsive design. Depending on your sector of activity, you even have to think about “mobile-first”, first designed for mobile, which adapts to screens.
- The loading speed , be careful when designing your site, take care of the optimization of images and videos, you can use the tool made available by Google to check the speed of your site or on GT Metrix which is more understandable for the technical aspects.
- Accessibility , as far as possible try to make your site usable by everyone, Pay attention to the contrasts and the size of the writing, describe your images by completing the “alt” attribute which will allow people with visually impaired and a screen reader a description of the image they cannot see.
- The structure of the content (with the Title tags (h1, h2 …), subtitle, you can use bold or italics to highlight important concepts. There is no need to add them everywhere, ask yourself: does it make it easier for the user to read and understand?
- A good internal link between your articles and your pages to improve the internal authority of the pages, it is necessary to facilitate access to information for your users and encourage them to look further
- Incoming links, also called backlinks, are links from other sites that point to yours. It is a proof of authority and trust, see it as an upvote from the web. Obviously these sites themselves must have authority and legitimacy for their votes to have value, and they must preferably be in the same sector as you. We return to this point below.
- The Google Search Console will be your best friend to follow the indexing of your site and the positioning of your keywords. There are many tools that are more powerful and will give you a lot of very interesting data, but they are generally paid. It is interesting for an agency like us, but if you only manage your own site, it is not necessary to spend hundreds of euros per month for these tools.
Create an effective Backlinks, shows your existence on the web
Do not hesitate to create a YouTube channel if you have videos or plan to make them, pages on social networks to highlight your news and a Google My Business page associated with your site. These domains have significant notoriety and if you produce content, they can also be a vector of visitors and prospects.
If you produce interesting content, some sites may be motivated to link back to your article. You can also exchange links with your partners when you work together on a project or a service offer. Again, the more authoritative and relevant the sites in question are to your industry, the better.
Articles in the press can also bring you very good backlinks to your pages, even if the articles often have a short lifespan, they can bring a large flow of visits over a short period. In addition, press sites often have a recognized authority, these links will be valuable.
Highlight customer reviews and recommendations, if you have an e-commerce site you can use third-party systems such as verified reviews which will also bring you backlinks in addition to buyer reviews. Of course Google My Business allows you to receive customer reviews and it’s free.
Gain notoriety! The more we talk about you the better, the incoming links (backlinks) must be relevant (same sector of activity), same customer profiles and return the pages you want to focus on. Reassure Internet users by showing them that your current customers are numerous and happy with your products and services.
Communicate and enhance the customer experience, what is useful to the user is what appeals to Google
How to find the keywords or queries most used by Internet users?
You can search by yourself with the free Google Trends system, or simply with Google’s auto-completion function during a search (enter the first words and Google automatically suggests the next one), or by looking at the Others questions asked or related research. This will give you an idea of the most popular searches. Be careful though: who says popular search says a very competitive SEO. It is better to be on page 1 on a query searched 50 times a month throughout France than on page 5 on a search typed 10,000 times.
Our XXXXXXXX seo agency uses professional tools, these solutions allow us to know not only the most frequently used queries, but also the behavior of Internet users as well as the positioning of your competitors. Consult us, we offer you a free first analysis of your competition on the internet .
How is my content different from the content available on the Internet and does it provide an interesting level of information for Internet users?
Once you know the needs expressed by Internet users , you can begin to establish an editorial plan . It will therefore be necessary to start from the services or products that you want to highlight. Determine what are the main benefits that meet the needs of users and throw yourself with all your heart and soul into writing relevant articles , and yes you will become an author.
How to make relevant hooks on meta tags (title and description)
All this work accomplished, you will have less than a second to convince the hurried Internet user who feverishly flies over the search page, what will he click on? For it to be on your content, Google provides several of the main and most accessible elements: the Title tag (title) and the meta-description , are the two elements that will appear and highlight the link to your site, from the more the keywords of the Internet user’s query will be bolded on these two elements. Google can also offer enriched content in our client example which arrives in result 1 Google to add an image to the right of the search result.
You have done a good job, congratulations the content is qualitative, the partners send back links to your page, but is your site well referenced in Google? How many users log in, where and when? Do not panic, again Google offers free and accessible solutions. All you need is a (free) Google account.
Declare your site in the Google search console system [Google SC link] the new interface is very user-friendly and will send you progress notifications each month, so you can follow the indexing of your site, remember to integrate your sitemap on the search console, this will allow Google bots to save time when crawling your site.
Insert a Google Analytics 4 tracking code as soon as your site is launched , by its small name GA4, to follow visits to your site in real time, the application also offers a history of visits with a lot of interesting data (source of traffic, length of visit, number of page views, etc.) We advise you to set up conversion tracking (online sales or form completion) so that the data is recorded in your Analytics space, you can follow the customer journey, the rate of transformation and thus refine your course.
Bring your site to life
A website, nowadays, is not a set of pages that we put online and that we no longer think about. It’s a bit like leaving a beautiful car to rot in the garage, it doesn’t lead anywhere.
You have to bring your website to life, add information, relevant content, news… Anything that could be useful to your users. Then, you will have to share your content, on social networks, on specialized sites, in short, build your identity.
A site is not a book: everything can be modified on the fly. By properly tracking the information provided by the Google Search Console and Google Analytics, you will see what is working and what is not. Don’t stay on a failure: if a page or an article underperforms, try to understand why and improve it. For example, if you have a page that talks about one of your products that solves a specific problem for your customers, type the question they would ask into Google, and watch how your front-page competitors answer it. You’ll probably see some commonalities or things you haven’t thought of.
Go further
This article is only a quick presentation of the basics of SEO, which is a profession in its own right. I hope it will give you a good idea of what to put in place to reference your website. Do not be discouraged, this takes time, you will have to be patient to see the first results. By working on your content and producing it regularly, you will eventually reach the first page and finally the top score position 1. Stay tuned for our publications, we have a busy program to teach you everything about digital marketing. Otherwise, contact us directly!
Our Markteer SEO agency
If you don’t want or don’t have the time to create content, we will be very happy to do it for you, because we specialize in this area and that’s probably why you came to this page. today. We have a customer satisfaction rate of more than 97%, our prices are very affordable and in addition we can start with a welcome gift the analysis of the positioning of the competition on search engines.
In addition, search represents around 70% of clicks on Google, but not necessarily conversions. There are other acquisition channels, see our article on Google ADS Youtube or LinkedIn to reach your target customers.
