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In this guide, Techstreat Web Solution explains everything in plain language about search engine optimization (SEO) in 2024. With this search engine optimization guide at hand, you can do it too.
In short, search engine optimization is optimising your website in order to get a higher position in Google.
We explain it simply: suppose you have a beautiful website or webshop. Then of course you want as many people as possible to find your website or webshop. And, better yet, take action.
For example, consider buying a product. Or requesting a quote.
With search engine optimization there is a greater chance that such actions will be successful.
To become the boss in Google, you have to optimize your content for the search engine.
You do this by using keywords that match your website.
When visitors enter those keywords into a search engine, they arrive at your website. The SERP (Search Engine Results Page) then shows your website.
At least, that's what you want.
And that also happens when you optimize your website.
In short, you should not forget search engine optimization in your online marketing strategy.
We explained that search engine optimization is important to rank higher in the search results. This in turn ensures that more people find your website in the SERP.
Search engine optimization therefore ensures better findability. But there are even more benefits of SEO:
We determined what SEO is and what its benefits are. But to really understand search engine optimization, it's important to know how search engines work. We are going to tell you exactly this in 4 steps.
The literal translation of crawling is crawling. This may sound a bit strange, but this is actually exactly what it means.
With crawling, Google 'crawls' through your website, as it were.
This is how the search engine discovers new content via links. Think of pages, images, videos and PDF documents.
The more content, the more it crawls.
Even with a high authority (see Chapter 4), crawling occurs more often or for longer periods of time.
Google will then render your website.
Rendering is the process by which Google retrieves a page's HTML, JavaScript, and CSS resources and converts them into a visually understandable image for your visitor.
This way Google can understand everything on your website. After this, your website will be indexed.
It is useful to know that a page can also be indexed if rendering has not yet taken place.
This can also happen after indexation.
We will tell you more about indexation in the next paragraph.
After rendering, indexing follows. This is actually a more difficult word for registering.
Indexing therefore means registering your pages.
It is important to know that this does not happen every day.
It may therefore take a while before your pages are (re)indexed.
Only if your website is indexed will it be shown in the search engine results. That is why it is very important to index a website.
Only then can it be ranked.
After indexation comes the ranking.
This is the last step on the way to the search results. By ranking, a search engine gives you a position in the search results.
This could be place 1, but also somewhere on a fifth page.
Spoiler: you don't want the latter.
Because the higher your position, the greater the chance that you will convert visitors into readers.
In short, the basis of search engine optimization lies with the search engine itself.
But there are also 3 important pillars that define search engine optimization. We will now tell you more about this.
Simply put, SEO consists of 3 pillars:
The latter is also called authority.
In this chapter, we explain what these 3 search engine optimization pillars entail and how you can apply them to your website yourself.
We start with the first search engine optimization pillar: content optimization.
It's actually already in the name, but content optimization is all about the content on your website.
This is sometimes also called on-page SEO. It's about everything visible to the eye.
It is important to ensure that your SEO texts align with visitors' search queries.
Let's simplify this with a concrete example.
Are you starting to optimize the content on your website?
Then it's crucial to conduct keyword research in advance, also known as keyword analysis.
This helps you identify which keywords and search terms to use to attract the right visitors to your website.
For instance, imagine you have a webshop selling jewelry. Your keyword analysis reveals that people often search for 'golden chains'.
Incorporating this search term into your website content signals to the search engine that your website is relevant to the visitor's query.
This, in turn, boosts your ranking, increasing the likelihood of the visitor ending up on your website and potentially becoming a customer by purchasing a gold chain.
Once you've conducted keyword research, it's essential to use the identified keywords and search terms properly on your website. The structure of your content plays a significant role in this.
This includes using paragraphs and (sub)headings, also known as HTML headings.
A text without paragraphs, blank lines, and headings doesn't work effectively.
Not only does it impair readability for visitors, but it also signals to search engines that your website isn't optimized.
Maintaining a good layout is crucial for effective search engine optimization.
A well-structured text always includes HTML headings, such as H1, H2, and H3.
Think of it like reading a book: an H1 is the title, an H2 is a new chapter, and an H3 is a subtitle within that chapter. This hierarchy allows readers to delve deeper into the content.
HTML headings ensure a logical layout. The longer the text, the more headings you should include.
If a paragraph is too lengthy, break it up with a blank line to make it easier to read and scan—an important condition for effective search engine optimization.
In addition to text content, content optimization also includes:
Collectively, these elements are referred to as 'rich content'.
Meta tags are pieces of code in the HTML that determine how your website appears in Google.
Meta tags include meta title and meta description.
You can also change these meta tags manually. This way you can make it personal for the visitor.
It is important to mention the keyword of that page.
The meta title is the title of your page. You know, that clickable link in the search results.
The meta description is the summary of the page. You can also change this yourself.
An example of our changed meta title and meta description can be seen above.
Content is therefore not just the text on a website.
It concerns everything you see on a website.
This ensures a higher ranking and more authority. Content optimization includes:
But there are also many aspects of search engine optimization that you do not see. That is technical SEO. We'll talk about this in the next chapter.
The second pillar of search engine optimization is technical SEO. This is everything that happens at the back end of your website.
Technical SEO is important because it ensures a good user experience.
This is good for the search engines.
We explain in this chapter what falls under technical SEO and how to optimise it.
Core Web Vitals is a collective name for three metrics:
In short, you measure the user experience in terms of loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.
This may have to do with your hosting. It may also have to do with the content on your website.
Since July/August 2021, these Core Web Vitals have been an important starting point for Google.
This will remain important in 2024. That's why we explain more about this in the trends for 2024, later in this article.
With structured data, you add a piece of code to your content.
This allows Google to better understand the context of the content of the pages, for example what a telephone number and address are.
You do this via schema.org language using JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa formats.
Structured data has the advantage that Google can display 'rich snippets'. Think of reviews, events, etc.
You use a canonical tag when you want to tell Google that multiple pages belong together.
The tag can be useful if you cannot prevent duplicate content.
Think of one product with dozens of different variants.
Using a canonical tag you simply tell Google that there is one main page and the rest are part of it.
This will save you a lot of extra writing work.
Have you ever seen URLs that consist of hundreds of numbers or letters?
These URLs are therefore not technically optimized. This is detrimental to the ranking of your website.
Your website visitors also do not understand where they are coming from.
It is therefore important that there is a simple URL structure. Think of techstreat.com, you immediately understand where the URL leads you.
What you should never forget is making your website responsive (mobile-friendly).
Most people visit your website via a mobile device. You have to set it up differently than a desktop version.
Consider making texts readable and scaling images.
Want to know more about this? Then also check our mobile SEO article.
An XML sitemap is an overview of all pages.
This way the search engine can see how your website is structured.
This improves indexation and especially crawling.
Caching is the temporary storage of data.
This promotes faster access to this data.
A major advantage of caching is a faster loading time.
Incorporating internal links into your text is extremely valuable.
Consider linking to another internal blog for more information. Or a link to a contact page.
This way you offer the reader more information about a specific subject. And you help the reader find the right page faster.
Using internal links is also beneficial for your findability.
There are also external links to another website.
We talk about this in the 'Link building' chapter.
Technical SEO includes:
After content optimization and technical SEO, there remains one more important SEO pillar, namely link building.
This will be discussed in the next chapter.
The third and final pillar of search engine optimization is link building.
Some people also call this pillar 'authority'.
Link building is actively looking for relevant and reliable external links.
External links are links from a website on another domain. These are called backlinks.
The goal of link building is to build a strong backlink profile in order to increase the online authority of your website.
A backlink profile is a collective name for all external links that link to your website.
Conditions for link building are:
Therefore, carefully consider which external websites you want to link to and which websites link to your website. If you use incorrect backlinks, it can affect the findability of your website.
If you integrate the backlinks properly, Google will see you as an authority. The result is a higher ranking.
The higher the quality of the external links, the more authority you get.
And that is extremely positive for search engine optimization.
We covered the three SEO pillars of content optimization, technical SEO, and link building in the previous chapters.
But there is also a distinction between local SEO, regional SEO, and international SEO.
In this chapter, we discuss these three SEO types. We also explain what it entails and which one is relevant to you.
It's actually already in the name: with local SEO, your website or webshop becomes findable at a local level.
And a good thing too, because no less than 97% search Google for a company or service near them.
In addition, local SEO has a number of advantages:
A very good example of local SEO is of course the nearest restaurant to eat out or pick up food. But it can also be a physical store or a painting company.
Google believes that local SEO is becoming increasingly important.
To express this, Google is increasingly showing local companies in searches.
You can search Google for terms like 'order food', 'painting company', or 'online marketing agency'. You will also see that many results appear that are close to you.
To be easy to find locally, you can do several things:
We will now explain why these points are so important for local SEO.
Creating a Google My Business is the best way to be found locally.
You enter a number of details here, such as your company name, address details, website, and photos.
If you arrange all this completely and properly, you will get a higher position in local searches.
In concrete terms, this means that if someone searches for your company name, a Google My Business section will appear on the right of the search results with all your information.
This is not only when people search for your company name.
Related searches can also ensure that your company name appears at the top.
To give you an idea of Google My Business, we have an example from Techstreat Web Solution below.
We have talked about structured data before, namely adding a piece of code to your content.
Schema.org allows you to structure your data. This makes it even easier for Google.
Consider providing structured data to your:
The purpose of local guides is to provide an overview of businesses in a particular area.
This way you have a local business guide for every city.
By registering, not only Google will learn more about your company, but also the people nearby.
In addition, business directories also provide that extra link to your website. Good for link building!
With local content you can think of landing pages that are specially designed for local keywords.
Think of 'Online marketing agency Amsterdam' or 'Painting company in Breda'.
But you can also respond to local search queries. Think of 'Where can you buy black trousers in Haarlem' or 'Where is an SEO agency in the Veluwe area'.
To determine the search terms and search questions, it is important to do keyword research. You can find more about keyword research in Chapter 4.
Google Maps is of course the best way to look up the address of a company.
By placing a Google Maps map with your contact details on your website, visitors can immediately see where you are located. They can also find out their own distance from your company.
A Google Maps map is also an additional confirmation for the search engine. And this is beneficial for local SEO.
In the heading 'local business guides' we already talked about link building.
Business directories are therefore a good way to obtain backlinks, which in turn works out well for search engine optimization.
Additionally, you can share content with other local businesses. Think of an online newspaper or a local association.
In addition to local SEO, there is also regional SEO.
In fact, regional SEO is often linked to local SEO. There are many similarities between them.
Yet there is a difference in these two forms of search engine optimization.
Where local focuses on a specific location (for example Amsterdam), regional SEO mainly relates to an entire region or area.
Not just Amsterdam, but a large part of North Holland.
This has a number of advantages for search engine optimization:
If you attract (or want to attract in the future) a foreign market with your company, it is wise to offer your website or webshop in multiple languages.
The most obvious is English, but you can also think of Spanish, French or Chinese.
But literally translating your Dutch website alone will not get you there.
It is important that your website is also well search engine optimized abroad. International SEO is therefore making a foreign website findable, with the aim of attracting the international market.
But that requires a different approach.
We have listed the most important points for you:
In this chapter, we talked about local SEO, regional SEO, and international SEO.
Local and regional SEO are especially important if you want to be found in a specific city or area.
International SEO is necessary if you also want to be found in other countries. But for this you need to optimize your website and data in different ways.
Now that we have covered all facets of SEO, it is important to determine what kind of SEO you will use in your SEO strategy.
In the next chapter, we'll discuss this.
A well-thought-out SEO strategy forms the basis of an easy-to-find website.
Shooting with buckshot or occasionally picking up a part does not provide optimal results. SEO takes quite some time, but in the end you will have a hell of a website.
And of course you want that.
In this chapter we explain which steps you need to follow to achieve a good SEO strategy.
The first step in the SEO strategy is determining your goals.
What do you ultimately want to achieve? Think about:
Based on your goals, you determine whether it is best to do this with content optimization, technical SEO or link building.
It is also important to see where you can still improve.
Suppose your content is not well written for the target group. Then it is important to first do something about it through the content optimization pillar.
The search engine optimization pillars of technical SEO and link building can then be tackled.
Try to make the goals as concrete as possible.
For example, increasing your online visibility doesn't mean much.
When do you want to achieve that goal? And by what percentage do you want to increase your online visibility?
As an example: you want to increase your online visibility by 50% within 1 year. Do you notice that after six months you have only achieved 10% more fame? Then you can make adjustments in time.
We will explain how to make results measurable in the next chapter.
There are a number of programs to make results measurable. The best known are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Google Analytics 4 is a program that you can link to your website or web shop to measure the following things:
Google Analytics gives a good picture of what is happening on your website regarding search engine optimization.
This program allows you to easily track your goals and make adjustments where necessary.
Google Search Console has a different function than Google Analytics. However, it can be linked to Google Analytics.
Search Console allows you to track your website's performance and ranking in Google.
Search Console helps you gain more insight into Google's search functionality. These insights are used to better index your website.
Google Search Console and Google Analytics are two good programs to get a clear and concrete overview of all your performance and subsequent opportunities.
Are you unable to find an important keyword? Is the traffic to your website disappointing? Do you notice that visitors are disappointing in a certain region? Or are there other important results where you see opportunities?
Then respond to this. Especially if they relate to your goals.
For example, are you in South Holland, but do you notice that there are few visitors who also come from that region? Or do you notice that you have few backlinks, while you had set your goals on the search engine optimization pillar authority?
Using Google Analytics and Google Search Console you can analyze results and identify opportunities from there.
SEO wouldn't be SEO if it wasn't constantly optimizing.
There are also SEO trends that Google will see as important for 2024. In this chapter we highlight 4 SEO trends for 2024.
If it were up to Google, so-called Core Web Vitals would become an important ranking factor in Google's algorithm. This has been recorded since July/August 2022.
We already mentioned it at the beginning of this guide, but now we will go into it in more depth.
Core Web Vitals consists of:
This measures the perceived loading performance of the pages on your website. It calculates the time it takes for the largest element to appear.
On many websites this is the header in the form of an image or a video.
Does the LCP take more than 2.5 seconds? Then you better get this down.
The limit that Google has set is 2.5 seconds.
This sounds fast, but ask yourself: do you like waiting longer than 2.5 seconds for a website to load? Probably not.
And Google also sees that trend.
The time it takes for the browser to respond to the first interaction is called the First Input Delay (FID).
Interaction means, for example:
For the FID, Google has a limit of 100 ms, which is a good performance. Anything above 100ms is not a good rating.
The Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures the time between normal image and a 'layout shift'.
These are noticeable layout changes. Consider elements that will be loaded later, such as images, advertisements or special fonts.
Especially on mobile display, this is seen as a very important metric.
Google Passage Ranking is actually a featured snippet 2.0, which we talked about earlier.
It works like this: someone who is looking for an answer to a specific question on a mobile device will look up this question in Google.
A Passage Ranking is then a piece of text from a specific website that answers that question.
Where featured snippet looked at the relevance of an entire page, Google Passage Ranking looks at the relevance of a particular paragraph of a page.
Of course, the relevance of an entire page will still remain important.
Visual Search is not yet a game changer in the SEO world, but it will certainly make a huge leap in 2024.
The name actually says what it means: looking up something through a visual image.
Think of that plant in your living room whose name you can't remember. Or a piece of clothing that you want to know in which store it is sold.
You can do many visual searches on Pinterest.
If you don't use this platform, you can use Google Lens. Upload or take a photo and you will see that Google immediately gives results.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out in the SERP, or the results page in Google.
This is because the organic (non-paid) search results are snowed under by 'SERP Features'.
Think about:
This makes it important to stand out in the organic search results.
You can do this by:
After reading this guide you can conclude that you cannot just do search engine optimization (SEO).
This is because search engine optimization consists of different pillars and types. Each type has a different purpose, so you have to look carefully at which type suits your SEO strategy.
Yet the different types of SEO also reinforce each other.
For example, content optimization and the use of the right keywords can ensure that you are brought to the attention of your target group. But depending on your target group, you will also have to work with local, regional or international SEO.
And this also requires a lot of technical SEO, such as structured data and a correct URL structure.
Search engine optimization is also constantly changing.
That is why we must take into account trends and developments in the field of SEO.
It is useful to integrate Core Web Vitals now and optimise your content to qualify for Google Passage Ranking.
Only by following the trends will you maintain a place on the first page of the SERP.
Now we are curious about your view on search engine optimization. For what purpose do you want to use SEO, and which form of search engine optimization suits this best?
Let us know by commenting on this guide! As an online marketing agency, we can also help you with your search engine optimization!
Or Call us now (+91) 9097 44 55 55
