SEO (search engine optimization) is a complex of processes aimed at promoting a website in search results for specific keywords.
Often, you may come across references to SEO where it’s referred to as masculine or neutral gender. For example, “the website was optimized with SEO” or “SEO was performed on the website”. Which statement is correct? There is no correct answer in this case. We need to remember what the abbreviation SEO stands for, and in our case, it means “optimization”. Therefore, it is correct to write “the website was optimized with SEO”.
Yes, I understand that it’s a small detail, but isn’t mastery often found in these small details?
There are two types of SEO: on-page and off-page.
On-page SEO involves optimizing the content of the website itself. This includes optimizing the code of the website pages (HTML, CSS, scripts, fonts, etc.). All of this should be optimized and placed in the right places. On-page SEO also includes optimizing the images used on the website, from the favicon (website icon) to the images used on the pages. When I created one of my websites, I mistakenly inserted two images that were not optimized, and I received feedback from several speed tests, including GOOGLE. And, of course, on-page SEO also involves optimizing the textual content. The text should be written correctly, without errors and with interest, so that it’s enjoyable to read. It’s extremely desirable to use internal linking correctly in the text – search engines love that, and users appreciate it. It’s also necessary to properly set header types, indicate tags correctly, not forget to add titles to pages, and much more.
Off-page SEO – these are the activities that are conducted not on the website itself, but outside of it, but which directly influence its promotion. This includes citing the site on social networks, linking to the site in popular articles on popular and authoritative resources, etc. Also, live users who perform various actions on the site have a very good impact on the site’s promotion. Such actions include clicking on the site from a search engine, if it is already displayed there, or spending time on the site, clicking through its pages and delving into the content. In general, everything you do on interesting websites leads to its promotion.
Everyone knows that SEO is cool and it must be done! But is it really necessary? If I don’t do SEO, will I not make it to the top? Never? And if I do SEO, will I immediately make it to the top? Let’s figure it out.
Conducting internal SEO is highly desirable. This shows the search engine your effort to make your site understandable to it, so that it can more accurately understand what the site is about and display it correctly in search results. And you also show the search engine that you care about your users by making your site more user-friendly and faster. Search engines will definitely appreciate that!
Is everything going smoothly with external SEO? Actually, no! Incorrect external SEO can not only fail to promote a website, but can actually knock it out of the top search results. In simpler terms, search engines can ban your website. This means that the website pages will not be indexed by the search engine and will never appear in its search results. If you get banned, it is very difficult to get out of the ban. First, you will need to correct all violations, which is often not easy to do. Then you will have to write to support for a long and tedious period, and hope for a positive response. Even if you are lucky enough to get your website unbanned, it’s too early to celebrate. This doesn’t mean that everything is okay and your website will immediately be promoted to the top. Although the ban is lifted, there is still a stigma attached to it, and it will not be promoted as well as others. If your website is banned and it is important for you to be in the top search results, then I recommend simply forgetting about the old website and creating a new one – this is the easiest way. It really is the easiest way!
Why does this happen? Because external optimization is essentially not working on improving the quality of the website, but manipulating search results! Search engines don’t like being manipulated and strictly punish for it.
It is believed that there are 3 types of external SEO:
- White
- Grey
- Black
White external SEO promotion, for example, is real placement of links to your website, real quotes, real clicks, etc. In other words, these are actions by real people. Often, this is a very lengthy process, but if it takes off, it develops like a chain reaction in a geometric progression. Achieved through internal optimization.
Grey external SEO promotion is something that is partially legal, difficult to track and prove, such as buying placement of links in good articles on authoritative websites. It is expensive and requires a lot of time.
Black external SEO promotion is the purchase of links on special exchanges. It is cheap and done quickly. This is a direct road to a search engine ban.
In my opinion, there is only one type of external SEO – black. Yes, that’s right. Let me explain why I think so.
White external promotion is a process that happens on its own, and its implementation is done by users. This means that it is not intentional external promotion, but rather a process that occurs as a result of internal promotion, which contributes to the appearance of the site in the top.
Gray external promotion – I never understood what that was. Any promotion is either legal or illegal, and that’s it! Gray is the same as black promotion, but done more carefully and for more money. But if you get caught, you’ll be banned! Therefore, the conclusion is that external promotion is only black.
If you took a risk and tried black SEO methods, and it worked for you, or rather will work, it doesn’t mean it will continue forever. In addition, a ban can come at a time when you least expect it. Imagine that you started working honestly, and everything started to work out for you… You spent a lot of effort and money, and then you get banned because you once did something using dark ways. It will be very frustrating.
Manipulating search engines is not worth it, they are smarter than they seem, and over time they become even smarter. Previously, to make a robot understand what the article was about, you had to write keywords separately and indicate that they were exactly what the article was about, but now the robot simply ignores such keys. The robot just needs to scan the article to understand what it’s about. There are many examples of this.
I recommend that you run your business honestly, and the Brand-UP team will help you with that! We are ready to take on most of the processes of internal SEO. We can also help promote your site using gray methods, but we do not recommend doing this and warn about the possibility of sad consequences.
