What should I know about SEO for basic knowledge and survival?

Most commonly, every recent update in the search algorithm subsequently delivered by Google usually brings much frustration among the webmasters and website owners. The previous major updates (like Panda and Penguin), as well as the most recent one (known as Fred), caused lots of severe drops in organic traffic for some websites, or at least sudden spikes shaking the world of SEO and making the question even more reasonable. So, let’s have a brief review of the SEO and basic knowledge needed both for a quick-fix over the central issues of current importance, and to survive the next updates looming over your website’s traffic performance.

Keep an eye on your website’s traffic

It comes without saying, that you should keep monitoring your website’s organic traffic and its actual numbers. Keep in mind, however, that you need to pay some more precise attention, with reference to every algorithm update eventually delivered by Google. Use your Google Analytics account, or any other tracking tools to analyze the latest history for any noticeable hikes in traffic correlated to the actual dates of algorithm changes.

That way, you would know exactly what updates might have crashed your on-site performance, or brought the most severe issues you were probably penalized for. Knowing your enemies, you will be able to read the guidelines correctly and finally fix it all.

Consider removing massive ads and affiliates

The most recent improvement of Google’s algorithm (Fred) is seen to be among the major quality-control updates, as the most severe impact was registered particularly for those websites (most commonly, blogs), which had their primary focus on landing too much ads and gaining affiliate profit, at the expense of high-quality content, and hence fine and handy user experience. In fact, such websites with too poor content yet still too heavy with different commercials are seen now by Google as hardly capable of delivering any actual value to the users. As a result, in the foreseeable future, we could reasonably expect that too annoying or deceptive ads can drive possibly any website down the list of top search results, sooner or later.

Considering SEO and basic knowledge to avoid this penalization, I suggest removing those most burdensome ads intruding upon a good user experience. If you have ones, try to get rid of the most annoying ads landed in the middle of the page, any autoplay videos, and other deceptive advertisements, for example, cloaked to look like download buttons. Even if you were lucky to avoid the penalty this time, you’d better clean up your website right now.

Become SEO-friendly. Basic knowledge for better user experience

Most commonly, the primary purpose of nearly every recurrent update by Google is to evolve the Internet into safer and cleaner place to browse on. Here are the backbone issues of SEO and basic knowledge you will need to do the following stuff:

• Use Schema Markup to make the users feel well-aware on what they are going to get on your web pages once they see your website in the SERPs.
• Create an XML Sitemap for better indexing. It will help Google’s crawling bots find your web pages quicker and understand your content. That usually leads to better ranking.
• Keep working on the logical structure of your website. Make sure your URLs and web pages are relevant and reflecting your site’s structure in full.
• Have a double-check on your content to rework any thin or low-quality writings, so that your brushed articles will become more valuable and engaging for the users.
• Check your web pages are well-optimized for all devices and platforms. Make sure everything is accessible and user -friendly on your desktop version, as well as running well on the tablets and smartphones.

Local SEO. Basic knowledge to be always visible

Today, the actual location of the user making search has become even more decisive for what search results will be generated by Google. Now it’s even easier to find what you are looking for close at hand, thanks to the recent local search update (known as Possum). I mean now most of every search results are heavily driven by the physical location of the search request, and its proximity to the input query used to find any business location or service provider nearby.

Now handling a proper local SEO needs basic knowledge to make sure all your contact information used for local search is always up-to-date. I suggest doing the following stuff:

• Don’t hesitate to invest some time on handling a competitor research. Just check your regional opponents, as if you were an independent user. Check what keywords are used more frequently, and compare them against the main set of your ones. To see exactly what search results are most likely to be displayed in your local area, use special rank tracking software.
• Considering that the recent local search update by Google supports certainly more options to the similarly-looking search queries, make sure you are ranked well for every possible variant. Should you face any difficulties on that issue, use tracking tools to find and target your most relevant local keywords and key phrases.
• Of course, don’t forget to create your personal page on Google My Business. Work well in every category. Also, make sure to get listed in all local directories. I recommend using a link building software to help you get more local directories your business is listed in. At last, check how accurately your business name, address, and location mentioned in any third-party directories.

In conclusion

Google keeps working on its search algorithm every day, and there is no time to rest. Nevertheless, considering that only significant updates usually bring the most severe impact, you can always keep your eye on the current state of affairs, to stay one step forward keeping your website well-prepared for every next algorithm update. Fortunately, it’s a manageable task to survive in the ever-changing world of SEO. Having basic knowledge of Google’s major algorithms and applying for use-proven sets of actions will help you do that.