To learn SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or natural referencing is an essential approach today to be visible on the web. Being on the first page of search engines is the goal of any website, but to achieve it, the road is sometimes long and winding: “Rome was not built in a day”!
When you start in natural referencing, it is important to understand how a search engine works, to know the fundamentals of referencing, to follow the news and to know how to master the tools to optimize the SEO of a site. At the same time, several methods allow you to learn and train SEO …
Do you want to deepen your knowledge of natural referencing or know the right methods to learn SEO effectively? This article is here to enlighten you on the subject.
UNDERSTAND HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK
Before taking the plunge, it is essential to understand how a search engine works. Let’s take the example of Google, which in 2017 represented a little over 90% of the search engine market share.
You should know that search engines work from a very precise algorithm to classify the web pages of a site within the “SERP”, in other words, the search engine results pages. For example, to give a page of results to the Internet user according to his request, Google uses an algorithm based on a multitude of criteria that we will see later.
WORK ON YOUR SEO ACCORDING TO GOOGLE’S ALGORITHM AND ITS FILTERS
To have a maximum of traffic within its search engine and to offer answers to the expectations of Internet users, Google seeks to classify as well as possible the quality sites, in other words sites accessible by all Internet users, navigable on any medium. , and responding as much as possible to their requests. To keep only quality sites, Google has implemented two filters to downgrade web pages in search results: Google Panda and Google Penguin. Let’s take a quick look at these two scenarios. Also read article:
The purpose of the Google Panda filter is to downgrade poor quality sites that do not meet Google standards. These quality standards refer to the fundamentals that we will discuss later in this article. Another filter put in place since 2012 by Google is Google Penguin. This one has another functionality than Google Panda. Indeed, this filter is mainly interested in bad SEO practices which aim to inflate the popularity of a site via abusive linking, not respecting Google standards.
AN EVOLVING SEARCH ENGINE
Google declares that it performs around 500 optimizations of its algorithm each year, which is a lot of criteria to take into account, grouped into several large families that form the basis of natural referencing. Let’s take a concrete example: from the start, the PageRank of a site allows Google to rank the web pages of a site in the results pages. PageRank is an index assigned to each page of a site and which is based on the analysis of links between web pages. How does this index work? This is very simple, the more a page has inbound links, the more its index increases. The higher the index (PR) of that page, the more PageRank it distributes to outgoing links. Generally we assimilate the PageRank of a site to that of its home page, because it is the page which has the best index compared to the other pages of the site. If you want to know more about links, here is one of our articles on the impact of links. Today, PageRank is still relevant in the ranking criteria for web pages, but is no longer made public (what is called the PageRank Toolbar has in fact disappeared). But new criteria are now intervening in addition, where user experience becomes the major objective of Google. We must therefore work on UX thoroughly, and in all areas and focusing on the fundamentals of SEO! In summary, it is therefore always necessary to train and learn to see the evolution of search engines.
KNOW THE FUNDAMENTALS OF SEO
After seeing how Google works, it is essential to know the fundamentals of SEO and the art of structuring your site through the basics of natural referencing and the tools to use.
THE SEO PYRAMID
According to Google’s algorithm and its expectations, we could represent the structure of a well-referenced site as a pyramid. Each small block of stones, well worked and arranged, would make it possible to build, step by step, one and the same whole, solid and imposing.
To be first is to be at the top
In this case, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the strategy is not a referencing criterion in itself, but that it contributes to knowing the objective (s) of the site, the target (s) it is targeting, the means put in place to achieve it, and how it stands out from the competition in its field. Then come 3 main levels to work on and which in short constitute the bases of natural referencing, allowing a site to be well referenced.
WORK THE BASICS OF NATURAL REFERENCING
Working on natural referencing aims to position your site among the first natural results of search engines. Several points need to be worked on and examined with a magnifying glass in order to position your site in the top 3 of search engine results pages. SEO is therefore based on 3 fundamental levels: having good content, having a technically clean site (good indexing, hn markup, etc.) and working on the popularity of the site.
Optimize your content
To be well positioned, your site must have fresh and unique content, of quality and that responds to the user’s request. You must therefore offer relevant content so that the google robots, the “GoogleBots”, which will analyze the page can then rank it well in the results pages. The goal for Google is to be able to offer Internet users pages with content that responds to their request. For that, here is a list of the main good practices. Start by testing keywords on AdWords or other tools for writing relevant content. Consider giving originality to your content so that it stands out. Consider structuring your content by titles and subtitles (Hn markup).
Increase awareness of your site
Your site should also have brand awareness. In other words, he has to traffic. For this, you must have a significant number of inbound external links (or “backlinks”) from several referring domains – we speak of “Linkbaiting”. A referring domain is a site external to yours which makes one or more links to a page on your site. You will therefore have to carry out a netlinking strategy by contacting webmasters, creating pages on various directories or other directories to create external links, to have original content and which stands out to acquire a maximum of natural links.
Check the technical structure
Another essential and essential point to be able to properly reference your site: the technical aspect. Indeed, a site that has quality content must be able to be read well and translated by Google robots but also by Internet users. It is important to improve the crawl of your site. To do this, it is necessary to analyze the blocking points and those to be optimized in order to offer a good user experience. First of all, have the reflex to create an easily accessible sitemap and integrate a breadcrumb trail at the top of your pages. Also consider creating a sitemap file and a robots.txt file. The alt markup of your images (alt text) is also important for readability. To not lose the user in his navigation, you can create a personalized 404 page and establish redirects.WHAT TOOLS TO USE IN NATURAL REFERENCING?
Unless you are a real genius, it is impossible to be able to know all the strategic keywords to target concerning a site, nor to monitor the positioning of a site as well as that of its competitors on a daily basis. So yes, having your own reflection is necessary but you can use it for the benefit of tools dedicated to natural referencing to be able to optimize your work.SEVERAL WAYS TO LEARN ABOUT NATURAL REFERENCING
BOOKS TO LEARN SEO
One of the first natural reflexes to have when embarking on natural referencing, consult and read the great classics of natural referencing. Here is a list of the major standards:- Successful web referencing , by Olivier Andrieu
- Google referencing: user manual , by Olivier Andrieu (always the same)
- SEO techniques , by Alexandra Martin and Mathieu Chartier
- Writing well for the web , by Isabelle Canivet
- Optimizing your WordPress SEO , by Daniel Roch
- What Google wants , by Benjamin Thiers and Julien Ringard
LEARN FROM THE COMMUNITY
The SEO community continues to grow and information sources are multiplying, some more up to date than others. In order to learn more and more, it is important to learn about new practices, essential methods, things to avoid, etc.( contact our social media expert) For this you can in particular attend conferences which deal with subjects on natural referencing. Many conferences are accessible everywhere in France and take place in particular during large web gatherings, events dedicated to digital, Search, and communication on the web. To inform you about the next events, many sites list the next web events not to be missed. You can also join groups dedicated to natural referencing on social networks, register on SEO forums and of course consult blogs that deal with SEO in its entirety.LEARN BY DOING
Some will tell you, the best way to learn SEO is to practice it on a daily basis. First of all, you can start by writing content by following the golden rules of SEO optimized writing. If you are just starting out, start by creating a blog, technically optimizing it, creating static pages as well as blog posts. To start, creating a site on WordPress can be a very good solution, especially since this CMS is a tool that allows you to write optimized content, and strengthen the SEO of your site by downloading the right plug-ins. Subsequently, you can then try to rank your site in the best natural results according to the chosen universe. Try to contact webmasters to develop your netlinking strategy and thus give more popularity to your site. Do not forget to install a tracking tool such as Google Analytics for example to analyze your traffic and see the results and add your site to the Google Search Console. Now that we have seen several methods for learning natural referencing yourself, be aware that mastering SEO does not happen overnight and that it is also advisable to take training by professionals.HOW TO TRAIN IN SEO? WHAT ARE THE TRAININGS?
Before embarking on a natural referencing strategy, training is essential! Several methods are possible. You can hire an SEO consultant who offers training, take training in a school or take online courses. The choice is yours. Buy Edu LinksTAKE TRAINING WITH AN SEO CONSULTANT
- Individual tailor-made training;
- Tailor-made group training (inter or intra-company);
- Pre-defined training (inter-company)
TAKE SEO COURSES AT SCHOOL
Many schools train in digital professions in order to allow students and people in professional retraining to lead to jobs related to the web. Several courses are given and some schools have their specialization. In Nantes, there are several possible choices for those who wish to specialize in SEO, by training in web professions. This is particularly the case for the students of the Web International School (WIS), whose course in 3 or 5 years allows to see the fundamentals of natural referencing and to put their knowledge into practice in an internship or work-study program. (contact our Google ads expert)TAKE SEO TRAINING ONLINE
It is also possible to train yourself in SEO online through different courses that are offered by different platforms. Among them, we can especially mention the excellent FormaSEO . This type of online training is a very good solution for students and an alternative to training in schools. Several courses are available and spread over several hours of training. And having the certification of these different training courses also allows you to boost your skills on the CV. They include tutorials and tests at the end of the course. Here is a shortlist of online SEO training:- SEO training on elephorm.com
- SEO course on openclassrooms.com
- Digital Marketing Training by Google
To learn SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or natural referencing is an essential approach today to be visible on the web. Being on the first page of search engines is the goal of any website, but to achieve it, the road is sometimes long and winding: “Rome was not built in a day”!
When you start in natural referencing, it is important to understand how a search engine works, to know the fundamentals of referencing, to follow the news and to know how to master the tools to optimize the SEO of a site. At the same time, several methods allow you to learn and train SEO …
Do you want to deepen your knowledge of natural referencing or know the right methods to learn SEO effectively? This article is here to enlighten you on the subject.
UNDERSTAND HOW SEARCH ENGINES WORK
Before taking the plunge, it is essential to understand how a search engine works. Let’s take the example of Google, which in 2017 represented a little over 90% of the search engine market share.
You should know that search engines work from a very precise algorithm to classify the web pages of a site within the “SERP”, in other words, the search engine results pages. For example, to give a page of results to the Internet user according to his request, Google uses an algorithm based on a multitude of criteria that we will see later.
WORK ON YOUR SEO ACCORDING TO GOOGLE’S ALGORITHM AND ITS FILTERS
To have a maximum of traffic within its search engine and to offer answers to the expectations of Internet users, Google seeks to classify as well as possible the quality sites, in other words sites accessible by all Internet users, navigable on any medium. , and responding as much as possible to their requests. To keep only quality sites, Google has implemented two filters to downgrade web pages in search results: Google Panda and Google Penguin. Let’s take a quick look at these two scenarios.
AN EVOLVING SEARCH ENGINE
Google declares that it performs around 500 optimizations of its algorithm each year, which is a lot of criteria to take into account, grouped into several large families that form the basis of natural referencing. Let’s take a concrete example: from the start, the PageRank of a site allows Google to rank the web pages of a site in the results pages. PageRank is an index assigned to each page of a site and which is based on the analysis of links between web pages. How does this index work? This is very simple, the more a page has inbound links, the more its index increases. The higher the index (PR) of that page, the more PageRank it distributes to outgoing links. Generally we assimilate the PageRank of a site to that of its home page, because it is the page which has the best index compared to the other pages of the site. If you want to know more about links, here is one of our articles on the impact of links. Today, PageRank is still relevant in the ranking criteria for web pages, but is no longer made public (what is called the PageRank Toolbar has in fact disappeared). But new criteria are now intervening in addition, where user experience becomes the major objective of Google. We must therefore work on UX thoroughly, and in all areas and focusing on the fundamentals of SEO! In summary, it is therefore always necessary to train and learn to see the evolution of search engines.KNOW THE FUNDAMENTALS OF SEO
After seeing how Google works, it is essential to know the fundamentals of SEO and the art of structuring your site through the basics of natural referencing and the tools to use.THE SEO PYRAMID
According to Google’s algorithm and its expectations, we could represent the structure of a well-referenced site as a pyramid. Each small block of stones, well worked and arranged, would make it possible to build, step by step, one and the same whole, solid and imposing.To be first is to be at the topIn this case, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the strategy is not a referencing criterion in itself, but that it contributes to knowing the objective (s) of the site, the target (s) it is targeting, the means put in place to achieve it, and how it stands out from the competition in its field. Then come 3 main levels to work on and which in short constitute the bases of natural referencing, allowing a site to be well referenced.
WORK THE BASICS OF NATURAL REFERENCING
Working on natural referencing aims to position your site among the first natural results of search engines. Several points need to be worked on and examined with a magnifying glass in order to position your site in the top 3 of search engine results pages. SEO is therefore based on 3 fundamental levels: having good content, having a technically clean site (good indexing, hn markup, etc.) and working on the popularity of the site.Optimize your content
To be well positioned, your site must have fresh and unique content, of quality and that responds to the user’s request. You must therefore offer relevant content so that the google robots, the “GoogleBots”, which will analyze the page can then rank it well in the results pages. The goal for Google is to be able to offer Internet users pages with content that responds to their request. For that, here is a list of the main good practices. Start by testing keywords on AdWords or other tools for writing relevant content. Consider giving originality to your content so that it stands out. Consider structuring your content by titles and subtitles (Hn markup).Increase awareness of your site
Your site should also have brand awareness. In other words, he has to traffic. For this, you must have a significant number of inbound external links (or “backlinks”) from several referring domains – we speak of “Linkbaiting”. A referring domain is a site external to yours which makes one or more links to a page on your site. You will therefore have to carry out a netlinking strategy by contacting webmasters, creating pages on various directories or other directories to create external links, to have original content and which stands out to acquire a maximum of natural links.Check the technical structure
Another essential and essential point to be able to properly reference your site: the technical aspect. Indeed, a site that has quality content must be able to be read well and translated by Google robots but also by Internet users. It is important to improve the crawl of your site. To do this, it is necessary to analyze the blocking points and those to be optimized in order to offer a good user experience. First of all, have the reflex to create an easily accessible sitemap and integrate a breadcrumb trail at the top of your pages. Also consider creating a sitemap file and a robots.txt file. The alt markup of your images (alt text) is also important for readability. To not lose the user in his navigation, you can create a personalized 404 page and establish redirects.WHAT TOOLS TO USE IN NATURAL REFERENCING?
Unless you are a real genius, it is impossible to be able to know all the strategic keywords to target concerning a site, nor to monitor the positioning of a site as well as that of its competitors on a daily basis. So yes, having your own reflection is necessary but you can use it for the benefit of tools dedicated to natural referencing to be able to optimize your work.SEVERAL WAYS TO LEARN ABOUT NATURAL REFERENCING
BOOKS TO LEARN SEO
One of the first natural reflexes to have when embarking on natural referencing, consult and read the great classics of natural referencing. Here is a list of the major standards:- Successful web referencing , by Olivier Andrieu
- Google referencing: user manual , by Olivier Andrieu (always the same)
- SEO techniques , by Alexandra Martin and Mathieu Chartier
- Writing well for the web , by Isabelle Canivet
- Optimizing your WordPress SEO , by Daniel Roch
- What Google wants , by Benjamin Thiers and Julien Ringard
LEARN FROM THE COMMUNITY
The SEO community continues to grow and information sources are multiplying, some more up to date than others. In order to learn more and more, it is important to learn about new practices, essential methods, things to avoid, etc.( contact our social media expert)LEARN BY DOING
Some will tell you, the best way to learn SEO is to practice it on a daily basis. First of all, you can start by writing content by following the golden rules of SEO optimized writing. If you are just starting out, start by creating a blog, technically optimizing it, creating static pages as well as blog posts. To start, creating a site on WordPress can be a very good solution, especially since this CMS is a tool that allows you to write optimized content, and strengthen the SEO of your site by downloading the right plug-ins.HOW TO TRAIN IN SEO? WHAT ARE THE TRAININGS?
Before embarking on a natural referencing strategy, training is essential! Several methods are possible. You can hire an SEO consultant who offers training, take training in a school or take online courses. The choice is yours. Buy Edu LinksTAKE TRAINING WITH AN SEO CONSULTANT
- Individual tailor-made training;
- Tailor-made group training (inter or intra-company);
- Pre-defined training (inter-company)
TAKE SEO COURSES to learn AT SCHOOL
Many schools train in digital professions in order to allow students and people in professional retraining to lead to jobs related to the web. Several courses are given and some schools have their specialization. In Nantes, there are several possible choices for those who wish to specialize in SEO, by training in web professions. This is particularly the case for the students of the Web International School (WIS), whose course in 3 or 5 years allows to see the fundamentals of natural referencing and to put their knowledge into practice in an internship or work-study program. (contact our Google ads expert)TAKE SEO TRAINING ONLINE
It is also possible to train yourself in SEO online through different courses that are offered by different platforms. Among them, we can especially mention the excellent FormaSEO . This type of online training is a very good solution for students and an alternative to training in schools. Several courses are available and spread over several hours of training. And having the certification of these different training courses also allows you to boost your skills on the CV. They include tutorials and tests at the end of the course.- Learn SEO training on elephorm.com
- SEO course on openclassrooms.com
- Digital Marketing Training by Google
