2. Storage and indexing stage

Arachnids’ access to your pages does not necessarily mean that they will be sent to the index.

Therefore, you need to make sure that the search engine indexes your site in order for it to appear in the search results.

Robots Meta Tags

Remember the robots.txt file with which we tell spiders which parts of the site they can browse and which they cannot?

Bot tags are tags that bots follow to carry out specific commands regarding how they treat your site page.

These codes are placed in the section of the page’s HTML, the most famous of which are:

1. index/noindex

This code is used to instruct spiders to index or not index this page.

Arachnids automatically index new web pages you access, so you don’t need to add an index.

You can use noindex for pages that you don’t want to appear in search engine results, but that visitors can still access and see.

2. noarchive

Using this code prevents the search engine from storing an image of your website pages to display in search results.

The indexing process is not done every minute but rather at intervals, and the search engine returns search results from pages that are already indexed.

If your site is commercial and product prices are constantly changing, you can use this code, so that visitors do not get a different price in search results than the real price within your site.

3. nofollow

If spiders find any link on your pages, they follow it and start a new crawl process on a new site.

But if you don’t want to, you can add a nofollow code to prevent bots from following links.

You can take advantage of this code if you allow visitors to write on your site and do not prefer spiders to follow strange links.

The indexed version of your site

You can always see the current indexed version of your site by clicking the little button next to your site name in the search results, then choosing Cached.

This does not mean that this is what visitors who arrive on your site through a search engine see, but rather that the search engine directs them to your site link so that the pages appear as they are.

But indexed copy helps the search engine analyze your site, the content of its pages, and its ranking in search results.

But when you update the content of a page on your site, you definitely want to index the most recent version.

Relying on crawling spiders and waiting for the indexing process can take some time, but you can submit a request to Google to index a page.

Use the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console to:

• Knowing the status of the current link, whether it is indexed or not, and why Google can’t index it
• Check the indexability of the page
• Submit a request to Google to index a specific link.
• See the page the same way you see Google bots.

3. Ranking stage

When the user enters search words into the search box, the search engine analyzes the data of millions of indexed pages to choose the best results to display.

The search engine for this analysis uses many complex algorithms that have been developed and modified over the years.

All modifications and changes in the algorithms are for the purpose of displaying the best and most relevant result for the search terms entered.

What is the basis on which modern algorithms depend on determining the priority of pages and their relevance to search terms?

There is not a single factor on which the algorithms depend, but rather several factors, the most important of which are:

links

There are two types of links:

1. Backlinks: Links directed to your site from other sites.
2. Internal links: Links to your different website pages that are within the pages of your own website.

To understand the importance of links in ranking results, let’s say you’re looking for a doctor to treat stomach pain, and you have the following possibilities:

• A doctor you’ve never heard of and none of your relatives know about.
• A therapist recommended to you by a group of strangers who have never been to him before.
• A doctor nominated by the nurse who works for him.
• A doctor your family member has been to before and can recommend it to you.

Those recommendations are just like links. Having a link to your site on another site’s page means that the other site trusts your site’s content to the point of referring to it on its pages.

But if that site belongs to you, or you are not credible, the link will negatively affect your site.

The more powerful the site that points to your site, the more important the link.

Search engines analyze the links coming to your site in terms of number and quality, and the higher the number and quality of links, this is a strong signal to the search engine of the strength of your site.

Content

Strong links do not matter if your site is without real content!

Content is the most important thing on your site, when a user searches for specific words they are looking for an answer, and the content of your site is what gives them that answer.

And all the other factors that SEO targets to improve the chances of the site appearing in the first results, are indispensable for valuable content.

Rather, it is a means of communicating this content to the user or visitor.

Even some pages with fewer backlinks can outperform strong site pages if they provide powerful content that is useful to the user.

That’s what Google RankBrain, a machine learning tool, does.

RankBrain constantly analyzes results and pages to re-rank results according to the highest quality.

If your site is new and you don’t get backlinks yet, don’t worry, you can still rank in the first results by providing valuable content that will benefit and add to your visitor.

interaction

Being on the first page or in the first results doesn’t mean everything.

User interaction with your site is taken into account when reevaluating and ranking results.

Search engines analyze users’ interaction with your site using several tools, including:

• Clicks: The number of visits you receive from search results.
• Time on page: How long visitors spend on the page of your site that they reached from the search results.
• Bounce rate: The percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page.
• Pogo-sticking: The rate at which visitors leave your site and return to search results to choose a different result or site.

Good interaction helps your site rank higher on the first page towards higher results.

Also, bad interaction affects the ranking of your site, as it ranks lower than the first results.

local search

If you live in Saudi Arabia and are looking for a farmer to take care of your garden, you will not want to know the numbers of farmers in Morocco.

This is known as local search, as search engines place your geographical location among the ranking factors to show the best and closest results to you, especially if you are looking for a local service.

Keywords

For your site to appear in the search results, you need to know the keywords that you target in the content of your site, which answer visitors’ questions and satisfy search engines at the same time.

Keyword search

The process of searching for keywords is one of the most important and first steps for SEO to prepare the site in proportion to search engines.

Here are the most appropriate ways to choose keywords in SEO:

1. Find out what users are looking for

You can skip this step and start with the basic keywords or so-called seeds, but I won’t guarantee that they will be the same ones that users are searching for.

That’s why knowing what words visitors are searching for in your industry is so important to getting started with your keyword plan.

You can find out these words from the search engine itself, as Google gives you many hints about what people are searching for in the People also ask or People also search for field.

Or you can use keyword research tools like Keyword planner.

2. Seed Keywords

When starting any website or any plan to develop a keyword strategy, you definitely have some keywords that you want to rank on.

If your site is about cars, it must include the seeds: the latest cars, and the price of a Mercedes.

Make a list of the keywords you need to rank on, and use it as a guide to knowing what people are searching for in search engines.

This is how you have powerful material that you can use to build a strong keyword strategy.

It’s hard to do all this work on your own, so I’ve found tools to help you plan keywords like the free Google Keyword Planner from Google.

3. Long Tail Keywords

Isn’t it great for your site to be ranked first in the search for the word “food”?!

Yes, this goal is worth days of effort, but what about years of work?

Indeed, it may take years of working on a solid SEO plan to appear in the first result of the keyword “food”.

This is because there are many powerful and outdated sites targeting such keyword which has a huge monthly search rate.

But if your site is new and trying to be top in less time, you should use long keywords.

The idea of long keywords relies on adding a word or two to the keyword or seed.

That long keyword still has a search rate, albeit not as big as the keyword, and there is less competition for it, which means less effort and time to be in the search results.

keyword strategy

Now that you have searched for keywords and you have a great set of words that you can use and build strong content on, let’s dive further into how to develop a strong keyword strategy for your site.

1. Competitors’ gaps

It is always easier and better to work on keywords of lower competition or difficulty, known as Keyword difficulty.

Word Difficulty, Keyword Difficulty, or SEO Difficulty A single name for the amount of competition for a given keyword.

The higher the search rate for a word, the more sites targeted, and the more competition for it.

You can use some SEO tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to see how easy or difficult the keyword you want to target is.

You can outsmart competitors by taking advantage of relatively high search terms that they are not targeting, rather than putting a lot of effort into outsmarting them.

Your strategy is not without a section on keywords emerging from your competitors’ gaps.

2. Trend and occasions

When a news or trend spreads, the search for it increases at an exponential rate for a short period of time.

The equation succeeds when you can use the trend keywords to your advantage in creating valuable content that answers the question of the trend and builds trust between you and your visitor.

It’s the same on occasions and holidays, just don’t make it cliched and use what is really relevant to your field.

3. Covering user intent

At the beginning of our comprehensive SEO guide, we talked about user intent and its importance, and as you plan your keyword strategy keep user intent in mind.

How do you deliver content that covers all user intentions?

If your site is medical, the user is looking for reliable medical information (Informational), and also wants to send his case details to obtain a specialized consultation (Transactional), and may want to know the locations and appointments of the surrounding doctors (Navigational).

Develop a keyword strategy that covers all user intentions from the primary keywords you use.

On-Page SEO Guide

Internal SEO aims to optimize the internal pages of the site to suit the search engines.

But this step requires strong content to build upon.

Among the smart strategies for creating powerful content are:

• البحث في محرك البحث عن الكلمات المفتاحية التي تستهدفها.
• الاطلاع على نتائج الصفحة الأولى.
• تحليل مميزات كل نتيجة.
• صناعة محتوى يفوقهم جودة وقوة.

هذا يعني إن كانت الصفحة الأولى تحتوى على 10 نتائج، فها قد صنعت محتوى في صفحة واحدة أفضل من 10 صفحات.

دعنا الآن نضيف بعض التعديلات لنضمن أن محركات البحث بإمكانها قراءة المجهود العظيم المبذول.

Header tags

In the process of finding out what the page is about, the search engine needs titles.

A main heading at the front of the page with an explanation and detail of the nature of the topic, then sub-headings representing parts or sections of the topic.

These titles are written in HTML, and the headline is denoted by.

A single page needs one headline that contains the keyword, and quickly describes the content of the page and what you are adding to the reader.

Subheadings are denoted by
and have no specific number but you can use them as the context requires.

You may need to derive other subheadings from h2 with symbol h3 through h6, as each derivation or division helps the search engine understand the content.

Also, the use of sub-headings on your page prepares it to appear in the search engine under the name of the page.

Featured Snippet

The featured snippet is a highlighted box before the search results and contains the answer to the researcher’s question without having to click on any search result.

The search engine searches for the ideal answer to the user’s question, pulls it from the page you are viewing in its content and highlights it before the search results.

It adds a link to the page and a read more button that opens the page when clicked.

The search engine tries to facilitate the user and give him the answer in a few moments.

You have to provide the user with content that answers their questions, and in a way that the search engine understands so that they know that you are providing the best answer.

The featured snippet might be:

1. Paragraph

Paragraph is the most popular form of featured snippet and is loved by the user. Google pulls the paragraph that answers the researcher’s question to show it above the search results, such as

If you want your site page to appear in the featured snippet, answer the researcher’s question briefly, and then elaborate on the explanation.

This gives the visitor the answer to his question, and gives him the opportunity to learn more details by clicking on your page and entering your site.

2. the list

Lists appear in the featured snippet when the search word asks to show several types of the same thing. If the page content contains several sections or types, include them in a bulleted list to make it easier for Google to include them in the featured snippet

3. numbered list

القائمة المرقمة بمثابة خطوات يتبعها الباحث لإتمام مهمة محددة، أو مراحل عمل شيءٍ ما.

One of the most popular uses of the numbered list is recipes.

4. schedule

Google loves data in a table, which is clear and gives the visitor quick answers to what they want, such as:

If you have a lot of data that you can put in a table, do not hesitate to do so, as Google can extract the data that the user is looking for from the table instead of displaying it as a whole.

5. Video clip

Google does not only show the written content in the featured snippet, but also shows the videos that answer the researcher’s question. The images come from YouTube channels, so if you are targeting an audience that loves to watch videos, you may need to create a channel for your YouTube site.

6. Pictures

As Google shows videos, it shows images for some search words that require an image to be answered.

Image search results may appear before the search results, or Google may choose a featured snippet with an image caption.

Image Optimization

Images help clarify the meaning and add some joy to the textual content, and it’s great if your pages have some images.

But large images hinder the speed of page loading, and if the page loading time is longer than normal, what will happen?

The visitor will get bored and leave, so choosing the appropriate image format and compressing it to take up less space, are the most important steps to prepare it for search engines.

The appropriate format for the image

Start by choosing the appropriate format for the image:

• For an animation, choose the GIF format.
• Use the JPEG format for most images on your site unless the content requires a high-quality image.
• For a high-quality image, use the PNG format.

And don’t forget to add the alt text to the image.

Alternative Text

Alt text is a descriptive expression of the image’s content, used to help people with visual impairments understand what the image indicates.

But arachnids also crawl on the alt text to understand the content of the image.

Not only that, but you can rank your site images in Google Images on search terms similar to your alt text.

Employ keywords in expressive alt text that will help you get all the benefit of having images on your site.

Copyrights

The content of your site must be exclusive and produced by you without any copies from any other sources, as well as images.

But often you won’t have exclusive photos of your production, so leave your site without photos at all? Here comes the solution by choosing images with a Creative Commons license, which are the images provided by their owners to those who wish to use them without prosecuting property rights.

Read the first part of the article