SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is to improve the ranking of website on search engines’ result pages by optimizing the website and adding quality backlinks

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

"SEO" or "Search Engine Optimization" is a method of adjusting a website, which includes improving content and adding backlinks, which are quality links to the website, in order to promote the website to be ranked high on the Search Result Page when a keyword is searched through a Search Engine such as Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc. This is an effective method for increasing website traffic in the long run.

Currently, many people search for information through Google, which is one of the main Search Engines in many countries including Thailand, the United States, England, India, Japan, etc. Therefore, SEO on Google is primarily focused on. However, each Search Engine has similar principles, which is "User Experience (UX)". Therefore, SEO according to Google's principles will emphasize making a quality website that provides information that matches the searched keyword, and this can also affect SEO in other Search Engines.

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
Example of search result from Google.co.th

Example of search result from Google.co.th with the keyword "รับทำ seo"

In the red frame, it represents the "Organic Search" or also known as "Natural Search". In this section, it shows all the website data that is collected by the search engine system such as Google, using an algorithm to rank the websites. The score is based on the criteria set by each search engine, and the website owner cannot select their position on the search result. Therefore, the method to improve the website ranking in the top positions on the search result is called "SEO" or "Search Engine Optimization", which is a part of "SEM" or "Search Engine Marketing".

As for the text above the red frame with the word "Ad", it represents the section for advertising on the search engine, which is called "PPC" or "Pay Per Click". It involves keyword bidding for displaying ads, and there will be a cost per click. It can achieve a fast ranking without website improvement, while SEO does not require cost per click but takes time to develop a website and create quality content to rank the website in the best position on the search result.

What is Search Engine Algorithm ?

The ranking system of displaying search results on the Search Result Page is called "Algorithm". Each search engine has its own algorithm system for scoring websites differently, and the system is constantly updated to filter out low-quality websites and provide the search results that users want the most. Therefore, it is necessary to create high-quality websites and content that meet the algorithm's standards in order to achieve the best rankings.

Search Engine Algorithm

The algorithm used to rank websites in Google, which is the main search engine used in Thailand and many countries around the world, consists of more than 100 factors. However, we can summarize the algorithm into 2 main factors, which are:

1. Internal Factors (On-page / Micro)

Internal factors come from the optimization of website structure and content. This is the most important part of SEO for ranking. They include:

  • Crawl Ability : Website structure that is favorable for search engine indexing.
  • Site Volume : Number of pages indexed within the website.
  • Site Theme : Internal linking structure within the website content.
  • Text Match : Using relevant keywords and quality content related to the keywords.
  • Other factors related to user experience (UX) such as:
    • PageSpeed : Website loading speed.
    • Mobile friendly : Website usability on mobile devices and responsive web design.
    • Safe Browsing : Website security, which should not contain malware or spam.
    • HTTPS : Using an SSL certificate to prevent data interception such as personal information or credit card numbers.
    • Intrusive Interstitial : No ads that interfere with the main content of the website, such as popup ads.

2. External Factors (Off-page / Macro)

Off-page factors that contribute to SEO include backlinks or links from other websites. These can be links that others create for our website, such as references to our information or links that we create ourselves, such as posting articles on other websites or registering our website in web directories. These off-page factors can be divided into:

  • Link Popularity : The quantity of backlinks that link to our website.
  • Site Theme : The quality of content and backlinks that link to our website.

How is SEO important ?

SEO Marketing, or marketing through SEO, can be considered an important process for online businesses that have their own website. In addition to improving the website's ranking on search engine result pages, SEO also offers many other benefits, such as:

Increase website traffic

Currently, there is an increasing number of people searching for information through search engines. If a website ranks high for keywords that users frequently search for, there is a higher chance of having a high website traffic. Additionally, when a keyword is ranked high, keywords that are similar to it will also rank high. Thus, more visitors will come from other keywords that were not optimized through SEO. Furthermore, if SEO is consistently updated with new information, website traffic has a higher chance of continuously increasing. This can create a loyal customer base and help the business grow sustainably.

Increase the opportunity for product or service sales

SEO is a way to make the website searchable with specific and targeted keywords. It is a targeted online marketing approach. Visitors who come to the website through a search engine are already interested in those keywords, making them more likely to buy the products or use the services offered on the website. In addition, having more website visitors increases the chances of selling products or services even further. This is a marketing approach that can effectively increase the conversion rate, the proportion of visitors who take additional actions on the website.

Promote your website and brand to be known.

Typically, when people search for information through a search engine, they will only open websites that are on the first or second page of search results. Having our website appear on the first page, especially in the top ranks, will make the website's name visible and well-known, even if people haven't clicked to see the content on the website. This creates good brand awareness, and importantly, people tend to trust websites that are at the top of the search results, giving confidence and trust to businesses that can rank high in search results. This makes it easier for people to make decisions to buy products or use services on those websites.

Reduce advertising costs with SEO

Since SEO takes some time for the website to rank on the first page, it is suitable for long-term marketing. Additionally, clicking on a website through SEO does not incur costs like PPC advertising directly with search engines. This can help reduce advertising costs, and SEO is relatively cheaper than advertising with other media. However, if you choose to do SEO with popular keywords that many people use, the cost may be high due to high competition. Therefore, when selecting keywords, it should be appropriate for marketing purposes and the value of the investment.

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How to do SEO to rank in 2024?

How to do SEO to rank

The strategy for achieving the greatest success in SEO is "to make SEO as natural as possible, with a focus on the user." This will result in a website that is truly of high quality and ranks sustainably, without having to worry too much about updating algorithms. The main methods for achieving this are as follows:

On-page SEO strategies

On-page SEO is a method of improving the content and structure of a website, both in terms of coding and design, within the website's pages.

Perform Keyword Research to Plan SEO.

  • Choose keywords for SEO that are relevant to your business, whether it be products, services, or various articles related to it.
  • Choose keywords that have search volume or the number of search results to see how many users are searching.
    ※You can see the search volume and get more ideas using various tools such as Google Keyword Planner, KWFinder, Uber Suggest, Ahrefs.
  • Keywords should be categorized systematically according to the type of product or service and the Search Intent of users to create content that meets user needs. Example:
    • Informational Keyword are terms used to search for information or answers, sometimes in the form of a question. For example, Japan tour, how to go to Japan, best places to visit in Japan.
    • Navigational Keyword are terms used to navigate to a website or location and are often the names that users already know. For example, AAA tour company, online check-in for Thai Airways, Thai Airways check-in counter, Suvarnabhumi Airport.
    • Commercial Keyword are terms used to search for information to make a decision or check before buying or using a service. For example, Which is the best Japan tour company, Japan tour reviews, Japan tour comparison.
    • Transactional Keyword are terms used to search for products or services to buy, as well as other transactions. For example, Book Japan tour, Japan tour price.
    • To maximize the coverage of content on each page, it is advisable to identify and include both primary and secondary keywords within each category. This will help ensure that your page is optimized for a wide range of relevant search queries.
      • Focus Keyword is the main keyword for SEO and is often a broad keyword, which is a short term with a wide meaning and has the highest search volume, such as Japan tour.
      • Related Keyword are secondary keywords that are related to the main keyword and are often niche or long-tail keywords that are more specific. For example, package tour japan, going with a tour japan, cheap japan tour, japan tour price, etc.

Design website structure and content

  • It is recommended to create a Sitemap to help plan and organize various web pages and view the links of each page.
    ※ Content should be categorized according to the Keywords specified in the Keyword Research process.
  • Web pages should be organized systematically in a hierarchical order to improve SEO performance and keyword ranking.
    Example:

    • Main Category Page → Japan Tour
    • Sub-category page → Tokyo Tour, Osaka Tour, Hokkaido Tour
  • Content on each page should be suitable for Search Intent, which can be viewed from the content of the website that appears on the front page in various keywords.
    Example

    • Informational Keyword , such as
      • Japan Tour → Create a Japan Tour service page to collect all available Japan Tour packages.
    • Navigational Keyword, such as
      • Thai Airways Online Check-in → Create an article in the blog to recommend channels and ways to check in.
    • Commercial Keyword, such as
      • Which is the best Japan Tour Company, Compare Japan Tours → Create an article in the blog to recommend tour companies.
    • Transactional Keyword, such as
      • Book Japan Tour, Japan Tour Price → Can use the Japan Tour service page, which has a booking button and displays the price of each package.

Insert keywords on the website to be effective.

  • Each web page should have a unique focus keyword to ensure that the desired page ranks highest.
  • Suitable keywords should be placed in important parts within each web page such as:
    • Title Tag and Meta Description which display the title and description on the search engine results page.
    • H1 tag, the main header of the web page, and H2 tag, the subheader.
    • Plain text, the regular content on the web page.
    • Alt Text (Alt Tag), the description of an image.
    • Anchor Text (A Tag), the hyperlink text.
  • Avoid using the same keywords repeatedly to avoid Keyword Spam or Keyword Stuffing, and also to make the content more natural for users to read.

Create and add quality content to meet user needs.

  • Create relevant content to support SEO on the website you want to rank and on other pages with related content. Use links to provide further reading.
  • Write in-depth and useful content to make it the highest quality content in the eyes of users and search engines.
  • Write content that meets user needs or what is called Search Intent, to provide answers to those searching with different keywords.
  • Write content or organize information from different sources by yourself, do not copy from elsewhere, and do not use automated tools to generate articles or what is called article spinning.
  • Divide the content into main and sub-headings to make it easy for users to understand and use H2 to H6 tags in order to help search engines understand the content structure.
  • Create new website pages to increase the number of pages on the website, such as blogs or knowledge articles, with content that is relevant to the main theme of the website and is at least 500 words long.

Create a good user experience for users.

  • The website should be mobile-friendly since around 80% of website visitors come from mobile devices, and Google uses mobile content to rank websites.
    ※The recommended format is responsive web design.
  • Design the website with UX/UI principles in mind to make it easy to use and visually appealing, so users are impressed and want to come back.
  • Install an SSL certificate to enable HTTPS and increase website security for users.
  • Choose a high-performance hosting service to ensure website stability, support high traffic, and have fast loading times.
  • Insert images or videos between articles to make the content more engaging, hold users' attention, and keep them on the website longer.
  • Have clear calls to action, such as "Order now" or "Contact us," to guide users and encourage them to visit other pages.
  • Optimize website loading speed using caching, image and file compression, WebP image format, and lazy loading.
  • Avoid intrusive interstitial advertisements that disrupt the user's browsing experience, such as pop-ups that cover the entire screen and block the website content.

Improve website structure to be search engine and user-friendly.

  • It's recommended to add a canonical tag (rel="canonical") to help Google remember the desired URL in case of duplicate content on multiple pages.
  • Navigation should be organized, easy to understand, and easy to access.
    For example:  Home › Product › Category › Sub-category.
  • It's recommended to use a static URL structure that search engines can easily read.
    ※Avoid using dynamic URLs with symbols like? and =.
  • URLs should also be easy for users to read and understand.
    ※English words should be used instead of Thai words and hyphens should be used to separate words, for example: .../what-is-seo/.
  • If a website has multiple languages, URLs should be separated such as .../en/, .../jp/.
    ※Avoid using cookies to change languages as the URL won't change and search engines won't be able to read other languages.
  • Use Schema Markup to help Google understand the content on web pages better.

Keep the website updated regularly.

  • It is recommended to improve or add content to the website pages that need to be ranked so that the content is always up to date.
  • New information should be added to the website, such as new products, news, promotions, and the latest works to keep the website fresh.

Off-page SEO strategies

Off-page SEO refers to using external factors outside of the website to help improve its ranking, which includes links or backlinks from other websites to our website.

quality Backlinks

Add quality Backlinks

  • Should create links from websites that are trustworthy and have content or context related to our website or keyword.
  • Backlinks should be "DoFollow" which can send SEO scores to our website (if it's NoFollow, there will be a rel = "nofollow" code attached to the link)
  • Content for Backlink creation should be interesting and useful, as links that can increase Website Traffic by making readers click through to our website are considered high-quality Backlinks.
  • Avoid creating links with repetitive duplicate articles or spinning articles using software to generate new content that users cannot understand.

Add Natural Backlinks

  • Backlinks should be created gradually and not all at once in a short period of time.
  • Backlinks should be added gradually to look natural and prevent being banned from search engines, especially from Google.
  • Avoid creating backlinks by posting on forums or classified ads websites in large quantities as it is considered spam and may cause your website to be ranked lower.
  • It is possible to create NoFollow backlinks, but creating too many can be abnormal and may be considered spam.

Ranking Maintenance Guidelines

After doing SEO for some time, you will start to see improvements in your ranking, which depends on the quality of the content on your website, competition in the relevant keywords, and the quality of your competitor's website. Generally, the ranking will gradually improve over time. If your website's ranking is not satisfactory, it is necessary to add more content to the website and increase the number of quality backlinks.

  • In general, website rankings tend to gradually improve over time. However, if a website's ranking has not yet reached a satisfactory level, it may be necessary to increase the amount of content on the website and improve the quality of backlinks.
  • Even when a website reaches the first page of search results, it is still necessary to update and regularly add content, as well as consistently increase high-quality backlinks, to maintain its ranking.
  • It is recommended to write or update articles on your blog regularly with interesting and relevant content to your website or the SEO keywords you are targeting. This can help increase traffic to your website and maintain your ranking.

Other factors that affect SEO

These factors are not confirmed by Google to affect rankings, but they are signals that indicate whether a website is high quality or not. This can serve as a guide for developers or website administrators to make improvements.

User Signals

User Signals

  • Data on website usage can be seen through Google Analytics, such as the number of users, keyword search reports, and click-through rates (CTR) for specific keywords. This data is an important signal for measuring the quality of a website.
  • For this reason, websites that want to do SEO should install Google Analytics and Search Console to allow Google to access this data and to enable us to check the performance of our own website.
Social Media Signals

Social Media Signals

  • The number of likes and shares of website links, as well as traffic from various social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, play a role in website ranking.
  • Creating useful articles related to the main content of the website and using social media as a channel to distribute the articles to users helps attract people to read the articles and increase traffic to the website. This is a way to improve the website's ranking on Google and make it rank faster.

Things to be cautious about in doing SEO

Things to be cautious about in doing SEO

Do not copy content or images

Copying content from other websites without reorganizing or without permission or without citing the source is prohibited, including using copyrighted images because the content or image owners can submit a report to Google (Copyright Removal) to remove our website page from the search results due to copyright infringement. This can cause our website page ranking to disappear immediately.

Avoid obstructing main content with ads

Avoid using pop-up ads that cover the entire screen and obstruct the content on the web page, as Google considers them to be intrusive to the user's browsing experience (Intrusive Interstitials), which may result in a penalty and negative impact on website ranking. If it is necessary to use pop-up ads, it is recommended to display them after the user has scrolled and read the page for a certain amount of time, and to limit their size to about 20-30% of the screen with a simple-to-close X button. Pop-ups should not appear every time a new page is opened.

Beware of website hacking.

Websites that are hacked often involve changing the website's page and locking the website to prevent it from being used. It definitely affects the rankings in search results because the content on the website has disappeared. In addition, there are also hacks where data is secretly edited, such as inserting other content, or embedding Malware and viruses on the website. When Google detects this problem, it will display the message "This site may have been hacked" under that website on the search results page to alert people who click to enter. This can have a negative impact on SEO efforts.