SEO 2019: A look at the fundamentals

Having recently attended a conference focusing on SEO, I thought it very appropriate to share with you the lessons to be learned for 2019. This article will detail the points raised by the various speakers who shared their knowledge of natural referencing.

Summary

1. Know and optimise your website
2. The link Between SEO and Content Marketing
3. In brief, the essential points of a good SEO for 2019

Know and optimise your website

Before launching a marketing campaign or new products on an e-commerce website, for example, it is essential for all website owners to know their website thoroughly. This also applies to blogs like ours.

Some of the points of your SEO that you should analyse:

• Indexing, that is to say how Google (or other search engines) rates your site and whether it considers it to be a reliable and qualitative site. Indexing, that is to say how Google (or other search engines) rates your site and whether it considers it to be a reliable and qualitative site.
• The performance of the site, between speed and user experience. We recently published a post on the online consumer experience that details the guidelines to follow to ensure a good user experience on your website.
• The structure, to be able to detect hidden defects of the site, such as biased redirections, of the “hidden” content. Hidden content’ means that Google will not have any interest in searching and referencing pages on the site because they are located too far away in the site’s site-maps.
• The internal meshing is closely linked to the user experience (UX: “User Experience”) and must include a good ratio between internal and external links while ensuring the quality of the links used to ensure the qualitative sustainability of the site.
• The source code, between content and tag structure, is the guarantee of readability for Google robots that will analyse websites, whether they are e-commerce sites or blogs. For some time now, it has been important for websites to be “mobile responsive” since Google robots will first analyse if the UX is sufficient on a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet before examining for the PC version.
• Logs, to interpret Google’s perception of your site. WordPress will offer Yoast as an SEO assistant for example, but many possibilities exist such as Toolbars or Google extensions.

The link between SEO and Content Marketing

As seen above, it is essential to structure your source code. This includes the structure of articles, posts and pages published on a site, alternating the use of titles, subtitles and text categories.

Of course, one of the critical points of SEO remains the use of keywords related to the post or page. However, it should not be overused to the detriment of content. For example, you will not find the term “SEO” in all the sentences in this article. This would harm both the quality of the content and, above all, your experience as a reader. In the same vein, it is not in the interest of website owners to duplicate pages. Indeed, this is considered as a decrease in site quality by Google robots when several pages are duplicated without significant change.

A proper referencing is also managed thanks to the meta-description of your page. Indeed, the more precise this short description visible directly on the search engine, the more qualified the clicks will be.

This will prevent users from clicking on your site, not finding the information they want and then returning to the search engine page. This “return” movement is not appreciated by Google robots who will, little by little, not reference the page in question very well.

As you have understood, it is essential to know how to meet the expectations of Google robots, without neglecting the users of your website.

Of course, the text was not the only referencing tool analysed by Google robots. It is essential to be attentive to the size of the images in particular, as well as to the presence of “alt-text” which makes it possible to give indications as to the content of the image to Google robots and users who have blocked the appearance of the pictures. Of course, these images should not affect the user experience. Thus, the sizes and formats must be adapted to different devices.

As you see every week, we strive to be rigorous in the publication of our articles, while ensuring that we offer you exciting and varied content. These points are also essential elements reflecting a good SEO strategy. Indeed, it is critical to be active with Google’s robots to show that you are taking care of your site and your users.

In brief, the essential points of a good SEO

• The performance of the website with a good ratio between speed, reactivity and user experience.
• The structure, that is to say, a bright, well-structured site using the right links and images in the correct format.
• The content, which must be of high quality and meet the expectations of users and Google robots.

Image: Shutterstock

By Lorène Fauvelle