Fundamentals of
SEO

Learn SEO in five steps

Step one - fundamentals

When someone visits Google and enters a search query (such as ‘how to ride a bike’), the search engine will return a list of relevant websites with the goal of providing an answer to the user’s question or provide them with useful and helpful information.

Imagine a user is interested in learning about property investment. They search Google using the keyword ‘How to invest in property’.

There may be thousands of websites which can provide information on property investment.

Why do these particular websites appear within the search results whilst others don’t? And why are some results near the top of the page (i.e. in the first position) whilst others are near the bottom (or on the second page)?

These websites, and not others, are showing within the search results as a result of both Google’s Search algorithm and the SEO activities of each website.

SEO is a competition between your website and other websites which are currently ranking for your desired keywords.

SEO involves understanding how Google (or other search engines) determines which websites to show within the search results when a user enters a search query. Various strategies are used to ensure your website appears within the top positions for relevant keywords and searches.

The focus of SEO is to improve aspects of a website to increase its visibility (i.e. ranking position) within the search results for keywords which are relevant to the brand/website.

The higher a website ranks within the search results, the more traffic (and potential customers) it can attract.

Google’s ranking algorithm uses approximately 200 factors to determine which websites to show for user search queries. These ranking factors are discussed later but are made up of factors which determine user satisfaction/experience with a website and the overall trust of a website.

75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results and are mostly focused on clicking the top positioned results. When it comes to determining which websites to show for search queries, user satisfaction is Google’s number one priority. Google’s main goal is to provide relevant results which answer a user’s search query.

Each website within the search results will be undertaking specific SEO activities including creating in-demand relevant valuable content, maximising the user experience (e.g. site speed, easy-to-use navigation), building backlinks and more.

In the Digital Strategy section, we discussed how content marketing, not advertising, was now the best way to reach customers online. SEO helps guide the content creation process by revealing exactly what people are interested in and what type of content they are looking for online (i.e. what they are searching for on Google).

The advantage of SEO over other channels:

The main benefit to focusing on SEO is organic search traffic is free, opposed to, say, Google or Facebook ads which are paid mediums. Search traffic is also sustainable and consistent for the long term and won’t decline as ad traffic would once ads are turned off.

When advertising on, say, Facebook, you are disrupting people as they are browsing. When people are searching on Google, they are actively showing an interest in a topic and are much more engaged when they visit a website relevant to their search query.

Keywords and search results:

SEO is heavily focussed on keywords – the words people are typing into the Google search box when they are searching for certain topics or answers to their questions.
There are two types of search keywords – short-tail (e.g. one or two words) or long-tail (a phrase or group of words).

Keywords will focus on the topics of a website or the products a business sells. Generally, the items within the menu navigation of a website show the primary short-tail keywords a website is targeting. Long-tail keywords make up 70% of total Google searches and generally have less competition to rank for than shorter-tail keywords.

Short-tail primary keywords focus on the main themes/topics of a website whilst secondary long-tail keywords can provide supporting SEO content. Primary keywords for a financial planner, for example, could be ‘budgeting’, ‘sharemarket investment’, ‘property investment’ etc.

When someone types ‘property investment’ into Google, it is the role of SEO to ensure the financial planning website is satisfying the ranking factors set by Google to maximise their chances of appearing as close to the top of the search results as possible.

This short-tail phrase, however, would be hugely competitive (with many other similar websites trying to rank for the keyword) so the financial planner may decide to create website content (such as blog posts or specific service category pages) around similar but longer-tail keywords.

These less competitive keywords (which are still relevant to the business) could include blog articles such as:

Houses vs apartments – which makes the better property investment?
How to structure loans for property investment
7 tips for building a high performing property investment portfolio
Etc

When a user is searching for advice regarding which type of property to invest in, they may search Google for the keyword/keyphrase ‘house vs apartment property investment’. The search results may then show the web page of the houses vs apartments content piece.

After clicking on the search result and reading the content, the user may view other pages on the website and decide to contact the business for a consultation.
The more content a website has, the more potential visitors/customers it can attract from the search results through various keyword searches.

Search volume refers to the number of searches a keyword has within a time period. If nobody is searching for a particular topic, it doesn’t matter how much content is available – there will be minimal traffic coming to the website.

Broader more popular topics will have more search volume than smaller niche topics but will be more competitive and harder to rank for. Various online tools (discussed in the next section) are available for measuring search volume.

Tip

Create content around less competitive longer-tail keywords as these will offer a greater chance of your website ranking highly for keywords similar to more popular short-tail terms.

How Google works:

Google uses a web crawler called GoogleBot to crawl a website (i.e. understand what the site is about) and then adds the website into its search index. When a user searches for a topic, Google will review its search index and retrieve a list of websites which are most relevant to satisfying the search query/keywords of the user (i.e. providing them with an answer to their question).

There may be thousands of websites available with relevant content which can help answer a user’s search query. Google uses various algorithms to calculate which websites will appear in the search results (and in what order).

These algorithms are designed to determine which websites will provide the best experience and relevant information for the user. Originally the Google algorithm was hand-coded but now it is based around an AI machine learning algorithm called RankBrain.

Google’s algorithm – RankBrain:

RankBrain provides two main functions: understanding search queries (the keywords people enter into Google) and assessing the satisfaction users have with websites displayed within the search results (i.e. their interaction once on a website).

Once a user enters a set of keywords, RankBrain will attempt to understand the concept and intent behind what a person is searching for. This means Google will no longer simply match websites to keywords but will instead try to provide a solution to what a user is seeking.

Keyword stuffing is now an outdated practice but was popular with websites in the early days of Google and SEO. This involved targeting a keyword (such as ‘red shoes’) and listing it as many times as possible on a webpage to lead Google into believing this particular page was the most relevant for the keyword search of ‘red shoes’.

RankBrain is now smart enough to understand what a user is searching for even if direct, relevant keywords aren’t entered when searching.

RankBrain will measure the user experience a website provides by considering the click-through rate, time spent on page, bounce rate and whether or not a user returns to the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page) to view a different website.

Some key factors Google considers when deciding whether a website will provide a good user experience include:

Website content which provides an answer to the users question with enough information to help them
A website which loads quickly
A website which is credible, trustworthy and reliable

Google’s ranking factors:

Google’s ranking algorithm is made up of over 200 ranking signals which provide insight into the quality of a website.

Google is constantly tweaking and improving its ranking algorithm (between 500 and 600 times a year) and nobody knows for certain what Google focusses on when deciding the quality of a website.

These 200 ranking signals fall into two categories for SEO, on-page and off-page.

On-page SEO

On-page refers to optimising the content of a website to ensure users have the best experience. This includes aspects such as: a simple site layout which is easy to navigate, comprehensive and valuable content, the speed of the website etc.

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO involves building backlinks which direct back to your website. When a website links to another website, it is doing so as there is something worthwhile or valuable on the original site which could be beneficial for the users of the first website.

The importance of backlinks:

Google uses backlinks to assess the quality of websites, the greater the number (and quality of) backlinks a website receives then the higher the perceived quality. A backlink is considered to be a vote or endorsement from one website to another. If a website provides little value or usefulness, no other website will have a reason to link to it.

PageRank is a complex formula used by Google to determine the quality of a website by assessing its link practices (including internal links, external links to other websites and backlinks).

The greater the PageRank score, the more authoritative a website is thought to be. PageRank is an older concept (originally from 1997) but is still believed to be in use today (amongst the other 200 ranking factors).

When considering the trust of a website, Google uses another ranking algorithm called TrustRank. This algorithm helps Google determine if heavily weighted ranking factors (such as backlinks and webpage content) are genuine and not spam. A TrustRank score is not publicly available (Moz have a similar metric called MozTrust) but common methods of ensuring you have a positive score include:

Linking to external relevant sites
Having a public, not private, WhoIs (domain registration details)
Ensuring users have a positive website experience (i.e. don’t immediately bounce)
Citing sources and references for larger articles
Active Social Media and other branded channels (including branded keywords)
Trustworthy backlinks from reputable relevant sites

As backlinks are one of the most important aspects to SEO, emphasis should be placed on trying to acquire as many relevant and high-quality links as possible. There are hundreds of ways of building a strong backlink profile but the most common strategies are:

Create them (directories, blog posts, Social profiles – easy to do but minimal effectiveness)
Buy them (pay websites or authors for links, may result in penalties from Google)
Earn them (create good quality content then reach out to other websites as a means of promotion)

A good backlink is made up of the below characteristics:

Relevant to your website
From an authoritative referring website
Anchor text (how the link appears on a page, e.g. click here to view our products)
Link placements (links higher up a webpage are more prominent and valuable than those further down)

Backlinks feature four types of attribution: follow (i.e. default), nofollow, sponsored or UGC.

Follow links send a message to Google that this link is to be trusted and acts as a ‘vote’ to the external website (i.e. this website has good content).

Nofollow links do not pass on any PageRank and are not considered by Google as a ‘vote’ for a website. These links come from areas such as comment sections in blogs. This is to prevent people from spamming links on websites where they can enter their own content (i.e. a comment on a YouTube video). Whilst Google does not consider nofollow links for ranking purposes, they still use these links to provide insight (or hints) as to what a website is about.

Sponsored (i.e. paid) links are considered for PR and outreach purposes and involve a website/link appearing on another website to promote their brand/products through a content piece.

UGC links are from User Generated Content pieces such as social media posts or discussions on a message board. If a website owner uses the incorrect type of link attribute for backlinks, they may have their own websites penalised by Google.

Whilst backlinks are important, the focus should be on total referring domains. This relates to individual websites which link back to your website.

A single website can provide multiple backlinks to your website however with each subsequent backlink, link juice (i.e. the power a link provides) becomes weaker and weaker. The first backlink from a website will be powerful, however the 50th backlink from the same website will carry a lot less weight.

Whilst there are roughly 200 ranking factors, some are more important than others and carry a greater weighting. The most important SEO factors (in no specific order) are generally considered to be:

Linking structure (backlinks, internal and external links)

Content comprehensiveness and depth which satisfies user search intent

Mobile friendliness and usability (using AMP – Accelerated Mobile Pages)

Site trust and security (HTTPS)

Page speed and user experience

User engagement (RankBrain metrics)

Keyword focus and page optimisations

An active website with fresh updated content

It’s important to remember that there is no one size fits all approach to SEO.

SEO will mean different things to different businesses.

An eCommerce business may not write large amounts of comprehensive content on each product they carry but they will focus on improving the user experience for people viewing their product pages. They would focus on creating content which is as useful as possible to their users such as large images, video reviews, key product features, reviews etc.

This approach helps users stay on their website longer and can help provide signals to Google regarding the quality of the website (i.e. time spent on site, number of pages viewed etc).

On-Page and Off-Page SEO ranking factors

The key factors which impact on SEO are explained further below (in no particular order).

On-page SEO factors:

Use of a user-friendly layout with good site architecture

Site architecture refers to the layout of a website, including the items in the top menu navigation. A simple site architecture helps Google crawl and index a website and also provides a better experience for visitors if they can easily find what they are looking for. A best practice for site architecture is to reduce the number of clicks it takes for people to reach certain parts of a website (i.e. click depth).

Limiting the number of pages on a website can help reduce potential problems (i.e. more pages can mean more problems) and provide a better user experience. Google also prefers stronger more comprehensive single pages rather than several smaller individual pages.

In-depth quality content which provides value and satisfies user search intent

This can be one of the most important aspects to succeeding with SEO. The goal of Google is to provide content which solves a user’s problem or provides the information they are looking for. Create valuable content (based on keyword research) which helps a user solve a problem, achieve an outcome, learn something new etc.

Content length

Generally speaking, the longer the content the more comprehensive and valuable it will be to a user. Content between 1800 – 2400 words usually ranks best on Google however it’s important to remember the aim is to satisfy the users search intent. If you can answer a user’s question in only 200 words or with a few images, then there’s no need for an additional 2000 words. Content shouldn’t be long for the sake of it.

When assessing the quality and thoroughness of content, Google considers thematically linked keywords. These are semantically linked keywords to the main keyword which you would expect to see discussed in a topic article. For example, if a content piece was focussed on bedroom furniture, Google would expect to see related keywords such as ‘bed’, ‘drawer’, ‘linen’ etc. These thematic keywords can also help provide an outline/subheadings for a content piece.

Presence of a linked table of contents at top of the page for longer blog posts

Adding a table of contents can help improve the user experience and make navigation easier on the page.

Content recency and ongoing updates

Google prefers recent content and generally moves away from showing older content which may now be outdated and irrelevant. If older content is on a site, it can be revised with the current yearly date (e.g. best home designs 2021) or extra content can be added to refresh the article.

Opinion of human editors

To help satisfy the EAT principle (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust), websites can highlight the professional profiles of content contributors along with their qualifications and experience. This can also help build site trust and credibility.

Citing references and sources

This also helps build site credibility and trust and can be a useful way to link out to authoritative websites whilst providing additional value for users (i.e. further reading).

No duplicate content on the site

Duplicate content across websites can mislead Google into deciding which is the original source (and hence which website to rank in the search results for relevant searches). Google will not show multiple websites with the same content in the search results.

Originality of the page’s content

Content on a website should be original and not copied from anywhere else. If using material from other websites, providing reference/acknowledgment (and a backlink) to their original content is a best practice.

Grammar and spelling

A poorly worded and formatted website leads to a poor user experience and calls into question the credibility and trustworthiness of a website.

Readability of a page and content formatting for user-friendliness

Making your content easy to understand not only helps Google determine page relevance but also helps users have a better site experience. Content which is easy to digest can result in people spending more time on the site reading rather than being turned away (i.e. a higher bounce rate) after seeing jargon and large chunks of paragraphs.

Responsive Design is a method of building a website layout with blocks of content that seamlessly reassemble depending on the size and orientation of the visitor’s screen (e.g. when viewing on mobile).

Number and quality of internal links pointing to the page

Internal links are links which direct to other pages on your own website (rather than linking out to external websites). Internal links provide Google with an easier defined path to crawling the website. Links can also encourage users to view more pages and spend more time on the site (i.e. pages per session).

Internal link anchor text to the page

Anchor text refers to the text which displays a link. For example, instead of a link saying ‘ABC Financial Planners’, a better anchor text would say ‘Financial planners specialising in property investment’. This helps Google (and users) understand the nature of the linked page. A best practice is to use keyword rich anchor text without keyword stuffing. This helps Google further understand what each page is about.

Broken links

Broken links provide a poor user experience (i.e. clicking to a page and receiving an error 404 page instead) and negatively impact Google’s ability to crawl the website. Automated software is available to find broken links on a site (such as Screaming Frog).

Presence of multimedia, images and videos

Multimedia can help break up a page of mostly text and can encourage users to stay on the site longer. Media can also provide more value and comprehensiveness to users when reading about a topic.

Presence of helpful supplementary content, such as free tools and calculators

Useful tools can help in gaining backlinks from other webpages and also encourage greater time on site as people interact.

Use of structured data / Schema

Structured data is data which is organised in a particular way and helps Google develop a better understanding of what a web page is about. Schema is a common approach to using structured data and can help with appearance with search results. Rich snippets make use of schema and allow a website to add additional aspects to their listing in the search results including:

Recipes
Images
Star ratings
Videos

Presence of keyword in H1, H2 and H3 tags

Heading (H) tags are made up of a main title tag (H1), a subheading tag (H2) and subsequent tags (H3, H4, H5 etc). Heading tags aren’t a ranking factor per se but they impact on user experience.

If someone searches Google for the keyword ‘Property investment advice’ and visits the first relevant website in the search results, they may see a H1 tag as ‘Advice for investing in property’ with a H2 tag such as ‘How does property investment work’. This helps the user (and Google) understand the topic of the page and how relevant it is to their search query.

Presence of keyword in the first 100 words

Google places more emphasis on content which is higher on the page (particularly above the fold). Adding keywords in the first paragraph helps establish what the page is about.

Keyword is frequently, but not overly, used in the content (i.e. keyword density)

An optimised page will naturally feature the keyword (and semantically related keywords) throughout the page. If a keyword is only mentioned once, the page may signal to Google it is not a focus point for this particular topic.

Keyword stuffing is the process of adding a keyword too many times to a page to try to trick Google when assessing the topical relevance of a page. Keywords should be used sensibly and allow for content to naturally flow.

Keyword in the meta title and description tag

Meta titles and meta descriptions are used to show websites within Google search results. Similar to H tags, this keyword-insertion tactic does not directly impact SEO but can help the user experience. If a user notices their keyword in the title and description of a website, this helps them determine if the website/result is relevant to their search query.

Keyword in domain name/URL

Not a direct ranking factor anymore but can help a user/Google understand what a web page is about and can improve click through rates within the search results.

Organic click through rates for all ranking keywords

If a website is ranking near the top of Google search results, but users aren’t clicking through, Google will conclude the content of that website is not relevant to the users search query.

Site speed and page loading speed

Site speed is one of the most important ranking factors for Google. A slow site speed can lead to a negative user experience. Using a Content Delivery Network (such as Cloudflare) can improve site speed as the CDN will have servers all over the world to deliver content to users in a closer location.

Image optimisation

As mentioned above, the loading speed of a website is a key ranking factor for Google and has a significant impact on user experience (users will leave a slow website).
Large image files can slow loading time and should be optimized to a smaller file size. If an image doesn’t load correctly, Google will display alt-text which describes what a photo is about.

Mobile usability and optimisation

Website access by mobile has risen sharply in the last few years with many websites receiving the majority of traffic from mobile. Ensuring a good user experience (with a responsive design which adapts to mobile) on mobile is key. In 2018, Google started crawling and indexing pages based on the mobile version of the website (rather than the desktop version).

Google offers a tool to see if your website is mobile friendly
Google Search Console also offers a mobile usability insights tool

Presence of a contact us page or appropriate amount of contact information

A website with no method of contact reduces the credibility and trustworthiness of the website.

Use of breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs provide a trail for a user to view their journey across pages. For example Homepage > Investment options > Property. This allows the user to easily return to an overall category page.

Length of URL

Shorter URL’s which clearly state what a web page is about are favoured by Google and users. Make use of shorter word, hyphens and website category folders. Avoid underscores, number chains, or special symbols.

A good URL: www.abcfinancial.com/investments/property
A bad URL: www.longwebsitename.com/page/name_url/85748rel=458@37

Proper use of rel=canonical

A website may have multiple pages which all cover a particular topic. This can cause issues as Google may become unsure which webpage to show in the search results when relevant keywords are entered.

By choosing a ‘canonical’ version of a webpage, you are indicating to Google that this particular page is the ‘master’ page for this specific topic (this helps minimise the risk of duplicate content).
A canonical is similar to a 301 redirect however the page still displays as normal for a user, rather than redirecting to another page. The canonical tag is created by adding to the code of a website.

Core web vitals

When Google assesses the page experience a user may have, core web vitals cover aspects related to the speed of a website. These speed aspects are available to view within Google Search Console and include:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) (the time is takes for the largest visual element, usually a large homepage image, to load)
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) (visual stability – for example any parts of the website which moves around as it loads which can result in users accidently clicking somewhere else)
First Input Delay (FID) (measures the speed of interactivity on the webpage – for example, how quickly a dropdown menu loads)

Time spent viewing the website/page

User engagement is a key metric Google considers when assessing the quality of a website and user satisfaction with the search result. The more engaging a website’s content (text content, images, videos, interactive tools etc), the longer users will spend on the site.

If content is valuable and useful to a user, they will likely take the time to read through. If a user comes across thin fluffy content which provides little value, they’ll likely leave quickly.

Bounce rate

A bounce rate refers to how many people come to a website, view only one page and leave immediately (i.e. they don’t explore any other pages on the website). A high bounce rate can lead Google to believe the webpage/site is not satisfying the user and hence they leave quickly.

However, if a user visits a website, finds exactly the content/answer they are looking for and then leaves (i.e. no reason to visit other pages) this will also count as a bounce.

It’s important to have a variety of content, some which answers a question on one page and others which require viewing other pages. Adding links to other internal pages can help reduce a high bounce rate.

Measurement of how users interact on your site based on RankBrain

RankBrain is the AI machine learning algorithm used by Google to better understand user search queries/keywords and the user experience they have once on a website. For RankBrain, user experience is assessed based on:

Organic click-through rate from Search Engine Results Page (SERP’s)
Time spent on page
Bounce rate
Returning to the search results and visiting other websites (and the experience on those sites)

Percentage of repeat visitors

People returning to a website can indicate the website produces quality in-demand content which is updated regularly.

Brand signals across the web (e.g. Social Media profiles)

Linking to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc can help build credibility of your website and brand. Social media doesn’t impact directly on SEO but can provide a stream of referral traffic and opportunities for link sharing. It also shows a website is active within the ‘digital community’.

Domain Authority

Domain Authority isn’t a metric created by Google but is a concept created by Moz which assesses how likely a website is to rank within the search results (based on a score from 0 – 100). The DA score is mostly based on the number and quality of backlinks a website has.

Domain age

Newer websites will have trouble competing with older established websites. Even if you have greater, more valuable content, an older website may have a greater Domain Authority, more backlinks and more established traffic/SEO practices. It takes time (generally 3 – 6 months) for a new website to start ranking for keywords in Google.

HTTPs / use of a valid SSL certificate

Website security is a key ranking factor for Google. A secure website uses HTTPS (a small padlock symbol will appear in the search bar to the left of the website’s URL). If a website is unsecure, Google Chrome will display a red warning page before a user can access the website. To make a website secure, you must install an SSL certificate.

Presence of a sitemap

A sitemap is a map of all the pages on a website. A sitemap helps Google crawl a website in a faster manner than simply following internal links. A sitemap should be automatically generated for a website, but if no sitemap exists, one can be generated automatically with an XML sitemap generator online. Ideally, you want to have a dynamic sitemap which will automatically add new URLs and pages as you create them.

Black Hat SEO

Refers to practices that try to quickly increase rankings within Google by using techniques which violate Google’s quality guidelines.

Such practices could include: keyword stuffing, cloaking (showing one type of content to Google then another type when a user visits the website), poor quality content, paid links/link farms etc. These types of activities can result in penalties from Google such as significantly losing ranking for keywords or being removed from the search results/index entirely.

Off-page SEO factors:

Number of referring domains and backlinks

Backlinks are one of the most important aspects of SEO. A backlink acts as a ‘vote’ for one website from another. If a website features high quality valuable content, other websites may link to it to help improve the user experience for their own users. The more backlinks (and referring domains) a website has, theoretically, the higher the quality and usefulness of its content.

Natural rate of growth in number of links

Building high quality content and having other websites link to you naturally is the best way of building links. This process takes time. If there is a large spike in the number of links of a website has acquired, Google may believe these links are being paid for or acquired through suspicious methods.

TrustRank

This algorithm helps Google determine if heavily weighted ranking factors (such as backlinks and webpage content) are genuine and not spam. Backlinks from trusted reputable websites are the key metric when assessing TrustRank.

Number of links that are not from paid placements or ads

Growing backlinks naturally (i.e. building quality content which websites want to link to) is the best, but slowest method, of gaining backlinks. Google considers the rate of backlink growth when assessing whether backlinks are genuine or have been sourced through quick paid efforts.

Theme of outbound links

Outbound links help Google to determine the theme and relevancy signals of a website.

Number and quality of outbound links

Receiving backlinks to a website is important but it’s also important to link out to other websites. Linking to high authority websites relevant to your industry not only provides more value to users but signals to Google you are active within the online community.

Age of linking domains

Similar to the age of a main website domain, referring domain age can provide an indication as to the stability and history of a website.

Anchor text of backlinks

Anchor text can provide insight into what a referring webpage or website is about. This can help both Google and users develop a better understanding of a website. For example, rather than a backlink stating ‘visit ABC website to learn more’, better anchor text would read ‘visit ABC to learn more about property investment’.

Public and non-penalised WhoIs instead of private Whois

WhoIs is an internet registry service which provides details on the owner of a website (such as name, location, date of registration etc). A public WhoIs helps improve transparency and trustworthiness of a website but is not a huge consideration for overall SEO.

ALT tag of image links

Similar to anchor text, an image alt tag can provide insight into what a photo/link is about and help a user understand the kind of content they can view if they click through.

Links from bad neighbourhoods

Bad neighbourhoods are a collection of interlinked websites which have been penalised by Google for poor SEO practices (such as having a spam filled website, using black hat techniques, too many ads, poor user experience etc). Receiving backlinks to these types of sites can lead Google to believe your website is involved in questionable link building activities.

Nofollow links

Google doesn’t follow or acknowledge all backlinks. Links from blogs, message boards, Wikipedia or certain other sites are considered nofollow which means they pass no ‘vote’ on to the website they are referring to.

This is to prevent people from spamming website links across other websites. You can view if a link is a nofollow by visiting a webpage, right clicking and selecting ‘view page source’. Search for the link in the HTML of the page (Ctrl + F) and if you see a rel=”nofollow” attribute, then the link is a nofollow. If no attribute is shown, the link is a standard follow link.

Context of the linking page

Relevance is key when building backlinks. Receiving backlinks from authoritative websites within the same industry or topical environment is best.

Lots of backlinks to URL with 301 redirects

A 301 redirect will take a user from one website/URL to another. When a company moves from an old URL to a new URL, they will 301 redirect the old URL so if users type in the old address they will automatically be directed to the new website/URL. Having too many links to a redirected URL may appear misleading to Google.

Search Engine Land have put together an excellent 18 page resource to learn more about the individual on-page and off-page ranking factors which can impact on SEO.

Resource

The SEO periodic table

Search Engine Land

The SEO periodic table infographic provides insight in to best practices, key SEO areas and overall ideas to help achieve success with SEO.

This concludes step one of learning SEO (fundamentals). In step two (planning a campaign), we’ll cover how keyword research guides the content creation process and how to understand user search intent to create content across the entire customer journey.