Why do SEO?
The aim of SEO is to make a website appear in the top results on targeted queries in order to attract a qualified audience. To achieve this, SEO specialists implement an SEO strategy. They select the right keywords, create quality content, improve the structure of the site and reinforce its authority through backlinks.
The 4 pillars of SEO
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is abouton-page optimisation. It involves modifying the structural elements of the website to make it more comprehensible to search engines. Here are the questions to ask yourself and the tools to use to optimise your site's technical SEO.
- Indexing and crawlability. Are the pages on your site well indexed and responsive in code 200? Does Google crawl my pages easily and frequently? Tools: Google Search Console, XML sitemap, robots.txt.
- Mobile compatibility: Is your site responsive and does it offer an optimal user experience on mobile(Mobile First Index). Tool: Google Search Console.
- Site security: Are you using HTTPS protocol for your domain name? Tool: SSL certificate on your web hosting account.
- URL structure: Are your URLs short, descriptive and include precise keywords? Tool: crawler such as Screaming Frog.
- Pagination: Is the pagination system optimised for SEO with next/prev URLs? Tool: crawler.
- Image optimisation: Are your images small (-150kb), in the right format (WebP) and with ALT attributes? Tool: crawler.
- Multilingual site. Are the Hreflang and Canonical tags set correctly on your site? Tool: crawler.
- Structured data tagging. Have you set up structured JSON-LD data (rich snippets)? Tool: schema.org, Google Search Central documentation, testing rich results.
Content
Quality, relevant and optimised content improves the visibility of your website on search engines. Here are the questions to ask yourself and the tools to use to improve the content of your site.
- Response to search intentions: Do your main pages respond to your users' search intentions? Tool: Google.
- Structure and tree structure. Is there a hierarchy in the ranking of your content, taking into account PageRank to determine the importance and relevance of pages? Tool: Tree structure visualisation tool such as Mindmeister, crawling software such as Screaming Frog or Gephi.
- Keywords. Are you using keywords that are relevant to your sector of activity and your users? Tools: Google Search Console, Semrush, Ahref, Google Keyword Planner.
- Quality content. Do you produce unique, well-structured content with high added value, including text, images, videos or infographics? Tool: Google.
- Keyword density: Do you include the right keywords in the body of the text, in sufficient quantity? Tool: Yourtextguru.
- Internal linking: Do you have enough internal links between consistent pages on your site? Tools: Google Search Console and crawler.
- Optimising HTML tags. Are your meta tags (title and meta description) and heading tags (H1, H2, etc.) unique, descriptive and include precise keywords? Tool: crawler.
Netlinking
SEO popularity, also known as linkbuilding or netlinking, consists of obtaining external links (backlinks) pointing to your website. These links reinforce the authority and credibility of your site in the eyes of the search engines. Here are the elements to take into account whenoptimising your off-page link profile.
- Link attributes. Are your backlinks "dofollow" or "nofollow"?
- Link quality. Do your backlinks come from reputable sites that are relevant to your field of activity?
- Diversity of sources and type of links. Do your links come from specialist blogs, news sites, forums and social networks?
- Link anchor optimisation. Have relevant keywords been used in the text to which the link has been added?
- Anchor branding. Do any of your backlinks have link anchors that mention the brand?
- Rate of acquisition. How often do you acquire new links?
This analysis can be carried out with Semrush, Ahref, SEObserver, Screaming Frog.
UX and engagement
The fourth pillar of SEO, user experience (UX) and engagement ensures that visitors to your website have a positive and engaging experience. Google and other search engines are increasingly taking UX signals into account when determining page rankings. Here are the main points to consider.
- Ergonomics and navigation. Are the menus clear and the architecture designed to enable users to find what they're looking for quickly?
- User experience. Are the most important elements above the waterline?
- Page loading speed. Do your pages load quickly on mobile? Tool: PageSpeed Insight.
- Accessibility: Is your site accessible to all users, including those with disabilities?
The difference between SEO and SEA
SEO and SEA are complementary and share a common base: the objective of improving the visibility and increasing the traffic of a website via search engines. SEA, or paid search, involves buying ads on search engines to appear at the top of the results. The ads are generally based on a bidding system where advertisers pay for each click (CPC - Cost per Click).
Advantages of SEO
- Long-term visibility: Once well positioned, a site can benefit from constant traffic at no extra cost.
- Increased credibility: Users often trust organic results more than paid advertising.
- Lower cost: Although SEO requires investment in time and expertise, it does not cost per click.
Advantages of SEA
- Immediate results: SEA campaigns can generate traffic instantly as soon as they are set up.
- Precise targeting: Ads can be targeted according to location, user interests and other demographic criteria.
- Flexibility and control: Advertisers can adjust their budgets, bids and ads in real time to optimise performance.
SEM strategy
For a complete online marketing strategy, it is beneficial to combine SEO and SEA, known as SEM (Search Engine Marketing). This approach allows you to benefit from the advantages of both techniques: generating immediate traffic with SEA while building lasting visibility with SEO.
Good SEO practices
The SEO audit
The SEO audit provides an overview of the health of your website across the 3 pillars (content, technical, popularity), not forgetting the user experience(SXO). It allows you to take a step back from your site and prioritise the corrective actions and optimisations needed to strengthen your online presence and increase your organic traffic. Regular SEO audits enable you to adapt to Core Updates (updates to Google's algorithm) and remain competitive in your field of activity.
SEO strategy and objectives
As part of a natural referencing strategy, the definition of clear and measurable objectives makes it possible to guide, measure and adjust actions according to the results obtained. The SMART methodology (Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic and Time-bound) is often used.
Keyword research
Keywords are the terms that users type into search engines to find information, products or services. Identifying and targeting the right keywords and long tail words can attract qualified traffic and improve the visibility of your website. There are several tools you can use to find keywords: Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Ubersuggest, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc. Once the keywords have been found, they need to be classified by volume, relevance, competitiveness and conversion potential.