The birth of SEO (Search Engine Organization) can be traced back to the 1990s. Ten years later, Google had become a force to be reckoned with, and rules of good practice began to emerge. Today, SEO takes many parameters into account, such as the quality of information, the presence of reliable backlinks and the integration of social networks. SEO is a tool in the SEM (Search Engine Marketing) ecosystem, along with SEA (Search Engine Advertising). Find out more about how you can optimize your website's SEO at low cost.
What are the differences between SEO and SEA?
SEO
SEO, or natural search engine optimization, is totally free and relies on the mastery of techniques that evolve in tandem with Google's new algorithms. Getting noticed on the Internet is becoming increasingly complex, with an estimated 1.7 billion sites, more or less active, worldwide in 2020, including 3.7 million with the ".fr" extension.
What's more, we know that a web surfer launching a query will stop at the first 10 results. For good visibility, it's therefore imperative to appear on at least the first page of the SERP (Search Engine Result Page). To achieve this on competitive queries, you need a sound knowledge of SEO rules. Last but not least, you need to bear in mind that an article that is well placed, from the moment it goes online, will be difficult to dethrone.
The ATS
SEA (Search Engine Advertising) is paid search engine optimization. It represents a considerable expense, and has a limited lifespan. It is therefore recommended for one-off operations, as it offers excellent visibility.
What are low-cost technical SEO optimizations?
Before getting to the heart of the matter, it's important to point out that SEO is considered low-cost, as it doesn't require any financial investment. However, it does require a great deal of preparatory work to ensure strict compliance with the recommended rules. Indeed, it is by following these rules, which are relatively easy to implement, that you will maximize your chances of having a well-positioned site.
The following points should be taken into account:
- The Google search engine favors sites that offer secure access to Internet users. That's why it gives priority in its rankings to sites that use the HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) protocol.
- A website must be " Responsive Design ", i.e. it must be compatible with all reading media (smartphone, tablet, computer...).
- URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) need to be optimized. These are the addresses used to access your site's pages (home page, blog posts, sales page...). These URLs must be short, without accents, and contain the keyword(s).
- Wherever possible, don't forget to create a "Favicon". This is a small icon placed to the left of the URL in the favorites bar, enabling visitors to recognize your site at first glance.
- Only pages that are useful for your SEO should be indexed.
- Finally, you need to ensure that your site loads quickly, by limiting the weight of images. Internet users are often in a hurry, and tend to leave a site if it takes too long to appear on their screen.
Building an SEO semantic cocoon
Building a semantic cocoon means creating an architecture of pages that are linked together by an internal mesh. This semantic cocoon must correspond to the desired objective, i.e. to meet the expectations of your target customer, often referred to as the "Persona" or "Buyer persona". To achieve this, you need to choose your keywords carefully, so that they are perfectly adapted to the queries of Internet users.
Taking UX (user experience) into account for low-cost, high-quality SEO
The user experience takes into account a whole range of criteria to ensure a good user experience. It is therefore necessary to focus on the following points.
Site ergonomics
If your visitor is to stay on your site and want to come back again, they need to feel at ease. They need to find the information they're looking for quickly, while navigating comfortably on a site with an attractive design and harmonious color schemes.
Editorial content
It must be clearly written and well structured using title tags. This is a key element for Google, as it enables the search engine to quickly verify that the content is relevant to the user's query and provides reliable information.
So make sure your keyword (s) appear in your main title and subtitles, and don't hesitate to use long tail.
It's also important that your texts add value and don't simply repeat what's written on other sites in your field. Google strongly penalizes duplicate content and poor-quality information.
Last but not least, pay attention to your backlinks. These links, which point to your site, must be of high quality and come from reliable sites in a related field.