What is SEO? SEO tools to rise your site to the top of Google search results

SEO-ing Your Blog or Site is Easy!  Just follow these strategic best practices.

1. Search for Keywords

   Use quality SEO tools like:
   ■ Google Trends
   ■ Keyword Tool
   ■ SEMrush Keyword Magic
   ■ Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
   ■ Moz Keyword Explorer
   ■ Google Keyword Planner
   ■ Most of these have both a free & paid version.
   
   Most of these have both a free & paid version.
   
   ? 7 Steps for Choosing Keywords:
   1. When searching for keywords, enter the main topic of your page
   2. What special information makes this page different from every other page on your site?
   3. How would you naturally search for this information on Google? Think of informal, rather than formal terms.
   4. Look for related terms that have the same meaning, but more volume!
   5. Try to look for terms that have increased in volume lately.
   6. Choose terms with low competition from other pages (less than 30th percentile is good).
   7. Choose 3-5 loosely related terms – not more

2. Use keywords in the content

   ■ At least 5-7 times throughout each article – even distribution is key!
   ■ In the title, subtitles & first paragraph
   ■ In the beginning of the page’s meta description
   ■ In the Google Search title
   ■ You can also use bold or italics to emphasize a keyword in a quote

3. Use Your Own Words

   Although it’s ok to get ideas from others, do  not republish others’ content – Google will notice and demote you in it’s search.

4. Structure Your Article

   Make sure your main keyword(s) appear in the following important places:
   ▣ URL/Slug – Make this short  & clear
   ▣ <title> – This is what appears first in your Google search results
   ▣ <meta description> – Use your main keyword first – then summarize the page contents in less than 156 characters!
   ▣ <h1> – H1 – or Heading 1 – is the big title at the top of your page
   ▣ <h2>/<h3> – Headings 2 & 3 – these are the subtitles throughout your content
   ▣ Alt Text – this provides the alternate text for your <img> tags. Yes. This means you should definitely use images on your page & put relevant keywords in the Alt Tag. 

5. SEO Marketing Uses Both Main & LSI Keywords

   You do need to pick 3-5 main keywords and insert them in all the important places on your page as mentioned above, you also need to sprinkle LSI keywords throughout your page. 
   
   What are LSI keywords? They are NOT synonyms, but rather they are words frequently appearing near your main keyword. And they are what Google uses to figure out your page’s overall topic.
   
   ? ArabClicks Tip:
   Use Google Search’s Autocomplete feature to find LSI keywords. Simply type your main keywords one at a time into the Google Search bar and pay attention to the suggestions Google makes on how to complete your search. 
   
   The term “SEO” will yield a list of options from Google that includes:
   ■ SEO meaning
   ■ SEO tutorial
   ■ SEO definition
   ■ SEO marketing
   ■ SEO best practices
   ■ SEO tools
   ■ SEO strategy
   ■ SEO tips
   
   Some of the LSI keywords for an article on SEO are: meaning, tutorial, definition, marketing, best practices, tools, strategy, tips.
   

6. Insert Inbound, Internal and External links

   Inbound links originate from others’ sites and arrive to your own.  Internal links connect to pages on your own website. External links connect from your site to other web sites and pages. Blogs that link to other pages internally and externally are favored by Google. This can make the difference between a fair and good Google SEO strategy.

7. Improve your blog / site structure

   Search engines favor websites and blogs that have a site structure they can understand. Therefore, a good tip to increase your SEO ranking is to: 
   design an efficient site structure  
   create an effective site navigation from your homepage

8. Improve Your User Experience

   as evaluated by RankBrain! RankBrain is Google’s third most relevant ranking mechanism. RankBrain is an AI which orders search results based on factors like:
   ▣ CTR – how often your page gets clicked when it appears in search results 
   ▣ Bounce Rate – what % of users leave your page once they click on it
   ▣ Dwell Time – how much time users spend on your page without returning to the SERP (search engine results page)

9. Optimize your site for mobile

   If you live in the GCC/MENA, up to 83% of your audience’s purchases will be made from mobile – so if you’re not mobile optimized, the maximum you’ll get is 17% of your possible traffic. Nuff said.