To start an SEO project we must first analyze the situation of the website we are going to work on and thus know which aspects should be improved or on which ones we should start.
In SEO there are many factors that come into play when it comes to positioning a website in search engines. This article is not intended to be a step-by-step tutorial on how to perform a particular SEO task, but a guide on which to base our steps in the project.
Basic approaches when tackling an SEO project
To know the company or organization behind the website
Before even performing a keyword search on which we are going to work, it is necessary to meet with the company or organization in charge of the website. Know their work philosophy, their goals and objectives in the medium and long term in order to establish a strategic plan based on those goals.
Know their limits, their opportunities and above all soak ourselves in the world in which they “play” to then get the most out of our SEO project.
If for example we work with an online store for office and school supplies. It would be interesting to consider the option of implementing a blog about crafts or tips for the office as an added value to the online store. This way we will get visits to our blog from users with a great potential for our online store.
Analyze keywords
When the company has told us the service it offers, how it offers it, its general characteristics and philosophy that define it, etc… it is time to analyze the most suitable keywords. There are many tools available that help us to know the volume of searches for a given term, such as Semrush or Google trend.
We will write down a list of keywords and then show them to our client to contrast ideas. Sometimes a keyword that we see as a great opportunity may turn out that the client is not interested in it for his business because it has hardly any benefits or it is a service that cannot be offered with all the guarantees.
it is key to maintain a constant feedback with the client so that the time we spend is used to the maximum.
Analyze the competition
Once the list of keywords/phrases has been created, we must analyze our competition and see what techniques they use to get to the top positions. Here we must differentiate the content of a website and its technical part:
- On the one hand we must pay attention to the navigation and content published, it is not about copying it, but to take ideas and give it a different approach to stand out from our competition.
- On the other hand we have the technical part, to know what framework they use (if they use any), how they establish the goals or how the web is structured and coded in HTML code.
Improve loading times
In these times in which more and more users are accessing the web through mobile devices, loading times are very important, since in these devices the bandwidth is somewhat limited.
It is therefore important to optimize the loading of files that the web needs to function, reduce the size of the images to the maximum or work with a server that has a decent response time. Not only from the user’s point of view, Google also takes this into account when displaying results.
Improve the HTML – CSS tagging of pages
H1 and H2 tags, strong or alt attributes in images and title in links are indispensable HTML elements in any web page. Knowing how to add them and what to include in them will make your page optimized for search engines to better interpret its content and ultimately improve its indexing.
Separate as much as possible the javascript and css code from the content, for this purpose generate the necessary code in external files. An important factor is also to layout the content adapted to mobile devices. This affects the results displayed on smartphones or tablets.
Improve web navigation
Avoid dead-end web pages, offer your users content of interest regardless of the page they are on. An important factor for SEO is the time a user spends on a website from the moment they access it until they leave.
If a user spends a long time browsing the web, it is an indication to Google that we are showing quality content, in relation to the search that the user made.
If for example you have a blog, add relevant content to your posts, such as related posts, most popular posts, recent posts, etc… Offer quality content. Remember that in this age of SEO, the content is the king.
Broadly speaking, these are the most important points when starting an SEO project. We could write one or two articles about each of them to explain them in detail, but it is a good starting point to begin. I hope it has helped you.