An Easy Way to Understand SEO
Some people are intimidated by SEO. They get flustered with new terms and perceptions that SEO is super technical “digital ninja” work. Well, let me just pop that balloon and demystify SEO for you.There is an #easy way to understand how Google sees the site content that appears to customers (On Page).
Think of on-page SEO like a magazine article.
We’ve all read a magazine or old-school newspaper at some point. They are structured pretty consistently with a headline, body copy… maybe an image, etc. The article is in a particular section of the magazine. The article must have a compelling headline to grab attention. It usually has a sub-heading to prompt you to read more. It will have body copy and paragraphs. And it will have other items to help you along, like smaller headings for article #content chunks, bulleted lists, images, and small descriptions underneath.
It is the same thing for SEO. Think of your website page as a magazine article. We just call these elements, tags. And we are wanting Google to read our article so it can promote it to people searching for this information. For example, I took an article from Pro Arb Magazine and labeled elements (tags) that would apply if it was a webpage (see below). Yes, there is a magazine just for Arborists (tree surgeons who manage and maintain trees).
Title Tag - This is how we tell Google the name of the magazine and the section.
H1 Tag - This is your main headline or Headline 1. It is where we grab people’s attention. The best headlines address a question people are searching for like, “5 Tips for Keeping Blood Sugar in Range”.
H2 Tag - This is your second headline. It can be used to add more context to the main headline or it could be used to add headers to different paragraphs, like “Tip #1 - Blah, blah, blah”.
H3 Tag - Just further chunking of your content if needed.
Image Alt Text - This is how you tell Google and any visually impaired technology what an image is.
Paragraph - This is your article body.
See what I mean? SEO is pretty easy to understand. It’s like digital journalism and anyone can get the hang of it once it is explained.
