Learn SEO - 2022 Guide

Learning SEO is an essential tool in order to achieve your web marketing goals. Whether it's to better understand your needs to hire a professional or to start doing it yourself, you've come to the right place.

In addition, this guide to learning SEO will also provide you with some suggested tools available to you. The tools and their suggested uses, like this guide, are FREE. Happy reading.

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Content Marketing

''Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors''

Google

Content marketing is the key to your success and is the most important part of your SEO efforts today. That’s why we’re starting this SEO guide with this section. Here we will see what content marketing is, why content marketing is important in SEO and how to evaluate content marketing from an SEO perspective.

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Content Marketing

Content marketing is the process of creating and sharing material on various platforms in order to generate interest in products or services, without actually promoting a brand. You are currently reading material created for this purpose. This is a very broad concept that encompasses several concepts other than SEO. Keep in mind that we are only looking at a few aspects of content marketing here, namely those relating to search engine analysis.

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EAT

Google's guideline is to rate your website according to its E-A-T principle. The acronym stands for Expertise-Authority-Trust. All content creation should be done with this goal in mind. Your notoriety on the web depends on it; your content should demonstrate your expertise, cultivate your authority in your field and increase the confidence of your customers. Everything is very qualitative, but take it for granted that any analysis made by the online search giant is based on these values. Your authority is also evaluated with a score that you can consult at any time with the many free online tools for this purpose.

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For The Reader

The primary purpose of search engines is to meet the user's need, which is an information need. Your content will be shown accordingly in the search results. Through the click-through rate on your site, your reader retention rate, the presence of keywords related to the reader's need, and a host of other factors, the search engine evaluates your content. When creating content, make sure you meet the reader's need; are you straight to the point? Is the information easily accessible? Is it complete and relevant? Does it have any value? Does your content make you want to read to the end?

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Quality First

The value of your content is the key to its success. The main issue is always quality. If you manage to combine high quality with quantity, your success is virtually guaranteed. Remember that content also gains in value in its presentation. Your readers need your site to be easy to navigate, and the overall user experience is important to your content.

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Backlinks

The performance of your content marketing depends a lot on the referrals it earns. This is the ultimate confirmation of the value of your content, more than the traffic it can generate. The same goes for your competition. Analyzing backlinks is therefore an essential exercise in your marketing efforts, from creation to review. To do this, many free tools are available on the web, including the Ashrefs tool.

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Content Consideration

Les moteurs de recherche ne considèrent pas tous les partages de contenus dans leurs évaluations. Tout les backlinks menant à votre contenu ont une contribution dans le succès de votre stratégie, mais il en est autrement dans le cadre de votre référencement. En effet, tout les backlink ayant un attribut NoFollow ne sont pas considérés (voir la section sur les backlinks). Il en va de même pour les affichages sponsorisés; vous ne pouvez acheter votre notoriété sur Google. Finalement, n’oubliez pas que tout contenu (mention de votre nom, backlink, référence, etc.) généré par un utilisateur d’un site web (ex: un commentaire sur un blog ou un partage sur Facebook) n’est généralement pas considéré par les moteurs de recherche. Encore une fois, ces partages peuvent certainement contribuer à votre succès, mais ils n’ont pas de poids dans votre référencement.

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Opportunities

Vos recherches dans le cadre de votre marketing de contenu devraient inclure une partie de chasse aux redirections 301 (voir la section sur les redirections) et aux liens non fonctionnels dans les sites web contenant de l’information sur votre domaine. C’est ainsi que vous trouverez des opportunités de backlinks pour du contenu dont vous maîtrisez le sujet. Contactez les gens concernés; ils seront probablement heureux de pouvoir rétablir leur référence vers du contenu à jour et vous en sortirez gagnants.

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Examples To Follow

Analyze the success of your competition's content at a technical level. Go check out the sites that fuel your competition with backlinks. Determine in what context these references are obtained and the nature of the content that is being referenced. Also check if these backlinks are of paid advertising nature. It is not always recommended to copy your competition, but the winning formulas of your competitors are key factors to consider in establishing your marketing strategy.

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Content Nature

Be varied and attractive in the form of your content marketing. While articles are an effective way to convey information, your customers today are leaning towards other forms of presentation. Currently, video clips are a strong trend. The forms of content you can use can take the following (and other) forms:

Article - Guide - Video - e-Book - Infographics - Quiz - Presentation - Interactive web page - Survey - Research

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Attract And Index

Pay attention to what attracts your customer segment. Capitalize on the data you collect on content marketing success in your market. However, be technically vigilant and make sure your content can be indexed by search engines. For example, if you post a Youtube video, properly fill out the captioning transcript of your content so that it is clearly understood by Google and then referenced when your potential customers research the topic.

Backlinks

''The number of referring domains is one of the most important ranking factors in Google’s algorithm, as you can see from our industry study of 11.8 million Google Search results.''

Brian Dean backlinko.com

Backlinks are probably the most important factor after content marketing in your SEO. They are the indicator of your content's value to search engines. They have a very specific function that must be understood and taken into account in your SEO efforts. Here we see what backlinks are, why backlinks are important in SEO and how to use backlinks.

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What's a backlink?

Backlinks are hyperlinks that lead from one site to another with the purpose of providing a reference or leading the reader to more information.

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Importance of backlinks

These links constitute a "vote" for the site and page being referenced. That vote is seen by search engines as a demonstration of content of value and relevance to the topic at hand. The more votes a site has, the more search engines will infer that you meet the needs of the person doing research on the subject concerned; you will therefore be privileged in the search results.

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Website Authority

The more backlinks a site has, the more "authority" it will have. Domain authority is a factor measured by search engines and is scaled on what is called the Authority Score. This score is a vital criteria in the positioning of your site in search results. The score is on a scale of 1 to 100, 100 being the perfect score.

It's important to understand that the authority score should be used as an analytical tool and not as a goal. Your score is a major and vital element for your web communication, but it cannot be a guarantee of success on its own. In addition, the success of your web marketing will probably not require a very high score for its success; your position in relation to your competition and your strategy will be decisive.

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Domain Authority : How It Works

Not all backlinks have the same value. The authority of the sites that refer you has a huge impact on your own score. On the other hand, you could find yourself penalized if you are referenced by sites with a bad reputation or if the backlinks are of a fraudulent nature, meaning created for the sole purpose of influencing the search engines. You need to make sure you are constantly on the lookout for backlinks to your site, whether it is to make sure they are still functional or to check their quality.

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Backlink Building

To acquire quality backlinks that will have impact, your success will depend on your content. The value of your products, your services, your expertise and your involvement in society are the key to your marketing strategy. Whether through journalists, your partners, influencers, or the charities you work for, look for the hot topics in demand that you know about and provide the information your audience is looking for.

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Backlinks To Avoid

There are several sources of backlinks that can be without impact or downright harmful to your SEO. Among other sources, you should generally avoid being referenced by:
- Paid Backlinks
- Reciprocal backlinks (ex: mutual referencing between friends)
- Backlinks of questionable origin (hacking site, pornography, etc.)
- Backlinks from a hacked site
- Backlinks provided by blog networks (PBN)
- Backlinks from spam platforms
- Backlinks located in an irrelevant context

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Backlink Structure

Backlinks will often take the form of anchor text. This text is an important factor in the value of your backlink. This text is analyzed to determine the essence of the content that is valued in the page the link directs the reader to. You must therefore make sure that the text used includes keywords that are relevant to your positioning strategy.

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Follow and NoFollow

The backlinks can take 2 forms: Follow and Nofollow. When the Nofollow attribute is given, the backlink will not be considered by search engines and your authority score will not be impacted, good or bad. Make sure to do this inspection during your analyzes, starting with the backlinks that you put your time and energy into.

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Social Media And NoFollow

Although social networks are tools that can greatly contribute to your web communication. They do not, however, impact your reputation to search engines for backlinks. Facebook and Twitter, for example, have a Nofollow policy. Be vigilant about the practices of the platforms on which you invest your time to acquire backlinks.

Keywords

''SEO keywords should be the foundation of your content to address and satisfy searchers' needs.''

Tylor Hermanson searchenginejournal.com

Whether keywords are second or third in importance, they are in the top 3 of your SEO priorities. They are the foundation of the communication between your website and the search engines to establish the nature of your content. Here we see what keywords are, how to choose keywords and how to use keywords in SEO.

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What Are Keywords?

Keywords are ... words. That are key. They are a crucial element and one of the foundations of SEO on search engines. They are the basis of your positioning and the focus of the link between your website and the user doing a search. Much of your SEO practice revolves around keywords and understanding how they work is imperative.

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Types Of Keywords

Keywords are categorized into 3 levels; single words, 2-3 word combinations, and long tail keywords. The competition in the 3 levels is generally much stronger for single keywords and becomes weaker and weaker depending on the tail length of the keywords. So you will have a lot (a LOT) of work to do to try to position yourself in search results for "shoes". It will probably be more achievable and logical to start by positioning oneself in searches for "adidas red running shoes", for example.

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How To Choose Keywords

To ensure you choose your keywords well, start by consulting the database that will be the most determining: Google. You can easily get inspired and see trends using Google's suggestions when you type a basic keyword into the search engine.

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Google Ads

To validate the keywords you have chosen, free tools are available to you in the services of Google Ads. With n obligation to carry out an advertising campaign, you will be able to validate the traffic and the level of competition associated with your keywords. A keyword research tool is also available to suggest keywords that are relevant and help you spot opportunities that you might not have thought of. By completing an advertising campaign plan (without buying it), forecast analytics will give you more refined data.

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Keywords Trends

Your web communication, like any marketing strategy, also depends on your vigilance on trends in your market. The same goes for keywords. Without a topic, product or service growing in demand, the keywords associated with it can evolve. Taking advantage of these trends can greatly influence your online reputation. To give an example, we could talk about the evolution of searches for "seadoo" which is now declining in favor of searches for "personal watercraft". Make sure you use the Google Trends tool in order to stay aware of these movements. This tool also allows you to plan your efforts for cyclical markets, such as an online store that might sell both winter coats and swimwear.

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Competitive Analysis

Your competition's keywords are great clues for planning your strategy. You will be able to determine the keywords to use to appear among your most direct competitors, the keywords to use to differentiate yourself and the keywords neglected by the competition. There are many tools available to you to analyze your site's keywords and those of the competition, but these tools are not free. You will still be able to extract viable information using Wordtracker (free).

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Google's Take On Your Keywords

Google Search Console will also help you with your keyword efforts. This tool allows, among other things, to analyze your position on all the keywords that are included in your site. It's very likely that your site is ranking for keywords that you didn't know existed. Yet, you are referenced for them at some level. Be vigilant on these opportunities and opt for the creation of new content that will have a focus on these keywords. In general, developing content and maintaining your keywords should be part of your web communication hygiene.

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Keyword Repetition

The repetition of keywords in your content today has a limited impact on your ranking in search engines. Repeating profusely will not benefit you. Rather, your site will be analyzed on the content description (keywords in titles, image descriptions, URLs, etc.). In addition, search engines take for mission to meet the user's need for information first and foremost. With a wide array of factors analyzed, search engines can infer whether your content is relevant to the user or not and keywords will only carry so much weight.

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How To Use Keywords

Keywords should normally be present in all links that refer to a page on your site, whether it is an internal link or a backlink. To ensure you capitalize at all times, your URLs should ideally include keywords. Also, keep focus on your keywords in internal link anchor texts and backlinks as much as possible. Throughout the different sections of this guide, several keyword positioning opportunities will be outlined as they arise.

Mobile

`` ... our algorithms will primarily use the mobile version of a site's content to rank its pages, understand structured data, and display snippets from those pages in our results. ''

Google

The mobile version of your website is at the forefront of SEO today. People have changed their research habits and search engines are adapting. Therefore, this is a trend that you must follow in order to market your content. Learning SEO therefore requires knowing why mobile is important in SEO, how to adapt to mobile and how to assess your mobile SEO performance.

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Mobile

Websites traffic from a mobile phone now exceed traffic from a desktop computer. This is a reality that has taken hold over the past few years and research machinery has adapted to it. As mobile browsing is different, so are your site evaluation criteria. Since March 2021, Google has made a shift on the prioritization of evaluations for the sites presented to its users; the mobile version of your website will be the first to be indexed and considered even for desktop computer users. Do you really know how people view your site on their own device? You can use the LT Browser tool (free) for this matter.

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Responsive Design

To effectively serve your users on all platforms, it is strongly recommended to use a responsive design. In doing so, each page of your site will have the capacity to serve all of your users without the need to create additional pages for each platform. In addition, it dramatically decreases your marketing and maintenance efforts for your site.

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Mobile Analysis

The mobile version of your website is analyzed from several angles. These factors are directly related to the user experience. Among the most important are the speed of loading of the site, the presentation of the content (readability of the text and disposition), the presence of pop-ups (some are tolerated), the use of HTML5 and the visibility of the information sought in the first place.

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Google Mobile Analysis

Google Search Console est votre principal outil pour vous assurer que tout est en ordre. Il vous permet de faire une analyse de votre site et déceler les éléments qui pourraient compromettre l’expérience de vos visiteurs. Il va sans dire que se conformer aux recommandation fournies aura un impact positif sur votre positionnement dans les engins de recherche.Vous pouvez aussi consulter votre taux de conversion en clics d’utilisateurs mobiles, c’est-à-dire le pourcentage de fois que vous êtes choisis lorsque vous êtes vus dans les résultats de recherche. Ce ratio est hautement considéré dans votre positionnement. S’il est plus bas que votre taux de conversion sur ordinateur, cela indique que votre version mobile a des manques à gagner.

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Bounce Rate

Google Analytics vous offre aussi des informations vitales sur votre performance mobile. La plus importante sera le taux de rebond. Celui-ci donne la portion des utilisateurs qui ont visité une page de votre site, mais qui en sont ressortis rapidement. Ce facteur peut vous indiquer plusieurs choses, comme la non pertinence du contenu pour l’utilisateur, mais en comparant le taux de rebond d’une page pour les utilisateurs d’ordinateurs et celui des utilisateurs mobiles pour la même page, vous pourrez assurément conclure si la version mobile est optimale ou non. Le taux de rebond, en général, est un facteur vital dans votre positionnement.

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Title And Description

The presentation of your website in search results is different on mobile. Make sure it matches the image you want to display. To prevent your description from being cut off by 3 dots (...), it should not exceed 155 characters. As for the title, you have 78 characters to spare.

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Social Media Presence

Although they do not have a direct influence on your positioning in search engines, social networks are still highly useful in propagating your image. If your content is meaningful, valuable, and of interest to a reader, it will be of interest to other potential readers. Using quick media share buttons on a valuable content page can go a long way in your web communication.

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Structured Data

La pratique de données structurées dans la programmation de votre site web a un impact majeur sur votre présentation dans les moteurs de recherche. La plus courante des méthodes est probablement celle des vocabulaires de Schema.org. En bref, il s’agit de structurer le codage de votre site afin que les moteurs de recherches puissent comprendre et afficher le contenu de votre site. Cette pratique vous permet d’être affiché avec images, évaluation, prix, etc. et a un grand impact sur la réussite de votre communication web, notamment auprès des utilisateurs mobiles. La version gratuite de Yoast, par exemple, peut vous aider à structure vos données sans avoir à entrer dans le code de votre site.

Local SEO

'' 76% of people who are looking for something nearby on their smartphone visit a business during the day. ''

Think With Google

Local SEO is no longer optional if you have a physical premises where clients come in. Indeed, 28% of people who search for something nearby on their device will make a purchase, and you owe it to yourself to be present in the results. This section describes what is local SEO, how to do local SEO and how to assess local SEO.

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Qu'est-ce que le référencement local?

Performing SEO for a local business wishing to be positioned in a specific geographic area needs a different approach. Adapting to local SEO is crucial considering that almost half of all searches on the web today are with an intention to find something nearby. Search engines take this into great consideration. In addition, about a third of the search results displayed by Google today now have a "local package" like those below.

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Importance Of Google My Business

Your Google My Business account is essential. Make sure it's complete, up-to-date and in your image. Your profile completion percentage shown in your account should be near perfect if it is not 100%. This is a great place to help with keyword positioning. To increase your success, a focus on your keywords combined with the name of the targeted geographic area allows you to target a more precise and less competitive segment on the results. For example, a pizzeria in Montreal will benefit from positioning itself for "Montreal pizza" rather than just "pizza". This focus should apply to your keyword strategy in general.

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Localization Impact

Search results presented to users are heavily based on user location. If you were to try, while downtown, to do the same search over for a nearby service after moving around a few street corners, the results you will be presented with will most likely be different. You must therefore use high-precision geographic analysis tools if you want to analyze your local positioning. Local Falcon (free trial) is an example of the services available to you among several alternatives.

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Social Backlinks

Backlinks are counted in a completely different way in local positioning. Rather than quality, quantity will become beneficial as long as the geographical area is respected. The watchword is implication; promote with the business next door, volunteer at the local church, sponsor an event in your neighborhood. Any backlinks you can get, regardless of the authority of the site they come from, will have a desirable impact on your SEO.

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NAP Citations

NAP (acronym for Name-Address-Phone) citations add to your SEO strategy if you have a local focus. We are talking about mentions of your contact details on the web in general. These mentions will act in the same way as your backlinks and will benefit your SEO. To get the benefits, be sure to observe strict consistency of structure in the quotes you are given. Let those who cite you be aware if there is any error or if information is missing. Citations should be a copy/paste of the information in your Google My Business and Yelp accounts. This important checkup is part of your SEO hygiene. Tools for this purpose, such as White Spark, are available to you.

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Keyword Opportunities

Your local keyword SEO can also benefit from Yelp. Research your services and analyze the results. You may be introduced to companies that do not use the keywords you requested; you will surely find opportunities to seize. Use it the same way you would use Google Suggest to find keyword suggestions. For new keyword opportunities with local impact, don't forget to start with Google Keyword Planner.

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Ratings

Your reviews (1 to 5 stars) also carry a lot of weight in local SEO. The database used by Google is the one of Yelp; make sure you are present and check all activities regularly. Negative reviews can penalize you. It is important to answer them and manage each case that may compromise you. In addition, public management of negative reviews tends to generate confidence and attract more positive reviews. On the other hand, push spam, paid reviews and the like to generate an increase of positive reviews can lead to SEO penalties. Better to stay away from this kind of practice if your website is aimed at the long term perspective. Take a proactive approach to getting people to complete a review on your service by making it as easy as possible for them. You can create a link in your Google My Business account for this purpose. Be creative and go get your reviews; yellow stars are gold for SEO.

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Differences Of Local SEO

In general, when you read on local SEO information just as you are doing now, the information presented to you is for the purpose of explaining the differences from non-local SEO. SEO techniques that are not mentioned are still very relevant.

Speed

''Speed is now a landing page factor for Google''

Addy Osmani Directeur Développement WEB chez Google

The speed of a website contributes a lot to the user experience. This experience is a founding pillar of what search engines evaluate. Here we see why speed is important for SEO and how to speed up your site for SEO.

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Why Is Speed Important In SEO?

The loading speed of your website is important for two main reasons. The first is user experience. Loading a page too long has a direct impact on the bounce rate of your visits, meaning the proportion of users who immediately exit the page viewed. Search engines evaluate this bounce rate to rank you in search results and will also take into consideration the load time required. The second reason is in terms of indexation. When a search engine inspects your website to understand its nature and present it to its users when relevant, its time is calculated. Indexing sites is an expensive process and if the crawled page takes too long to load, the search engine will ignore it and move on to the next one.

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Compression

Compression is useful for decreasing the transfer of data between your server and the user and therefore reducing load time. The most used compression for websites is the Gzip format for your programming. It is very likely that you are already using it without knowing it, but it is important to verify it and put the odds in your favor. Do not use this compression for your images; it does not do resolution quality retention.

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Code Reading Time

Reading the site's coding is evidently a critical process. Simple, structured code greatly reduces the time to display content to the user. To limit your site code to the essentials (without compromise) and reduce crawl time for browsers to a minimum, you can opt for CSS, JavaScript and HTML minification. Rest assured, free tools, like W3 Total Cache, allow you to perform this task without programming knowledge. Be careful with this kind of tool, however, and test before deploying.

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Redirects

Redirects are not your friends when it comes to the performance of your website. It's a world where every fraction of a second counts and a redirect will cost you several. Make sure to limit the use of redirects to a strict minimum.

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What Is Cache And How To Use It?

Good cache management is beneficial, especially for the experience of your valuable recurring visitors. The cache represents the information that will be stored in the user's browser files. This information has an expiration date and it is this delay that you must manage. A user who already has the information required to view your site will not experience the download delay and the browser will only update if necessary. The W3 Total Cache tool is one of the many tools that can help you with this management.

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Server Response Time

The response time of your server is also involved. Please do not hesitate to contact your contact person for this purpose. Make sure that the traffic management is correctly configured as well as for your database. Communicate your needs to ensure optimal response time for your users. This person will most likely be happy to assist you!

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Image Compression

Compressing images makes all the difference. Images are the heaviest part of downloading a web page most of the time. There is a variety of tools available to you, such as 11zon, to do compression while keeping resolution compromises to a minimum. It is often possible to reduce the original size of an image by 80% while still maintaining a resolution that is acceptable for its purpose. Never forget this step when adding new content to your website.

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What Is A CDN (Content Delivery Network)?

The geographic distance between your server and the user obviously has an impact on data transferring speeds. Also, your server might be performing several tasks other than managing your website. To remedy these situations, a content delivery network (CDN) will be of great benefit. Its name describes its function. This is a service that will distribute your site on a network of servers located in strategic geographical points in order to quickly serve your users no matter where they are from. This type of service often kills two birds with one stone, giving you the security you need against external attacks. Some providers offer free plans, such as Cloudflare.

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Testing And Maintenance

The maintenance of your site is essential. Stay on top of your performance and audit accordingly. There are many free tools available to do this, including GT MetrixYou will be able to draw reports indicating precisely the elements that slow you down and have recommendations accordingly. You don't have to be on a mission to achieve a perfect score for your SEO success; a loading time that is below 3 seconds can usually be enough to keep you out of harm's way when it comes to SEO.

Internal Linking

''Google finds your posts and pages best when they’re linked to from somewhere on the web. Internal links also connect your content and give Google an idea of the structure of your website.''

Yoast

Guiding your readers and being understood by search engines is the basis of SEO. Internal links are an essential pillar to achieve this. This section explains what internal links are and how internal links work.

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What Is Internal Linking?

Internal links are simply hyperlinks that lead from one page on your site to another page on your site. The most common example is the links you see in the navigation menu on top of the home page of a website. The primary function of internal links is to make it easier for your readers to navigate through the content you provide them, but they also act as an information tool about your site's structure and a channel for distributing your site's notoriety. Search engines will read and analyse these last two elements.

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Internal Linking Structure

With an established structure, search engines will be able to determine the most relevant search results for your readers. With anchor text for each of your links (eg ’Services’ ’below, instead of www.site.com/services), you will indicate the nature of the content of the relevant page. In this case, we're making it easy for the reader to quickly find out about your A-B-C services when starting from a blank Google page. The road will be paved and your Services page will gain notoriety more easily for this purpose.

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User Retention

You will not gain notoriety by creating a multitude of internal links as if they were backlinks. However, an internal linking strategy with thoughtful anchor texts allows you to showcase your content. The more internal links there are, the more likely you will be to draw a reader to a topic that interests them but would not otherwise have viewed. It could simply be a link to the definition of an unusual term, keeping your reader on your site instead of going outside to find out.

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Benefits

By making it easier for your readers to view your website, your traffic and awareness for your high-value content (which may not be what you think it is) will be increased. You will be able to measure the impact of all of your content and adapt your marketing strategy accordingly. You are not limited in the use of internal links and the search engines will have no difficulty crawling your site no matter how many, but keep the most important in mind; their primary purpose is to make it easier for the reader to navigate to valuable content. Don't over do it!

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Readability For Search Engines

Make sure to keep your internal links readable for the search engines. Keep the structure simple with well-chosen anchor text (your keywords will be key). Internal links by the JavaScript or Flash, internal links (like everything else) found in privileged content for members, links only accessible through a search box on your site and links over 150 on a single page will mostly be ignored or invisible.

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Opportunities

The opportunities to be seized with internal links are hidden in the keyword positioning of the pages of your site. If a page ranks for the keyword "shoe", you will benefit from capitalizing on internal links that have "shoe" anchor text that lead to that page. These links should be located throughout the content of your site where it is relevant to mention them. Tools to analyze your site's keyword positioning are available, including SEMRush (free version).

Title Tags

''Title tags are major factors in helping search engines understand what your page is about, and they are the first impressions many people get when they discover your page via organic search.''

Moz

Title tagging gives you control over your first impression to internet users and allows the nature of your content to be declared to search engines. Title markup is an SEO essential. Here we see what title markup is, how title markup works, and why title markup is important in SEO.

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What Is A Title Tag?

Title tags in your code are used to tell search engines and browsers the title of the web page that is being viewed. This title is the one that is displayed on your snippet (the information section about your site) in search results or on your browser tab. It is therefore an integral part of your display and your marketing. Its content is also analyzed and therefore has a weight in your SEO. To avoid confusion, here is a tagged title in a snippet and on a tab.

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Display

Several sites and social media (eg Facebook) will also use your title tags if a page on your site is shared. Make sure you capitalize on this display and that your page title is an effective representation of your content. If your company has a brand name recognized in your field, capitalize by including it in your title tags to attract your customers.

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Keywords

Again, your keywords are key here and should be used properly. There is no point in making inconsistent lists of them, and may even find yourself penalized by the search engines by doing so. Additionally, use keywords that are strictly relevant to the content of the page in question. Too much keyword use will not be to your advantage; the focus should be on the content of the page in question and not on the whole site.

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Structure

As for the structure of your title, the keywords should be located at the beginning of your title as much as possible. The total title length should normally be under 60 characters, but your limit is in pixels, which means you can use the letter '' i '' more times than the letter '' W '' before your title is cut out by 3 dots (...) in the search results. The presence of capital letters should therefore be limited to what is strictly necessary.

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For The Reader

The title of your page as to be unique and must not be used for 2 different pages in your site or other site. This job requires more attention if you have a transactional website with several similar products. It should represent what the reader should expect to find in it and be clear. Without requiring the use of a full sentence, it should be written with the reader in mind; if they click on your page link after reading your headline, will they be greeted with the content they expect?

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Opportunities

Your titles may not appear as desired in search results. Perform tests to confirm that everything is in order. If not, the cause is most likely related to the length, keyword overuse, or perceived relevance of your title to its content. If you have created alternative titles, they may be used as a replacement. It is also possible that a title is created from scratch by the search engine. In any case, this indicates that your title presents opportunities to be seized.

Redirects

''It’s very easy to lose site integrity, SERPs ranking, even customers through bad user experience, by simply having URLs that don’t connect the dots or lead to that quarrelsome 404.''

State Of Digital

Redirects are an indispensable tool in preserving all of your SEO efforts. So we'll see what redirects are, how redirects work and why redirects are important to SEO.

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Redirects

Your website is an ongoing job. Its pages and content can and certainly will change over time. A change of domain name or brand could also occur. However, the notoriety you gain on search engines is associated with specific and unique URLs. If you change these URLs, even while keeping the exact same content, your page will be seen as a brand new page with no brand awareness. This is where redirects become vital in preserving your work.

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What Are Redirects?

Redirects are used to redirect the user to the content they are looking for when they click on a link that is indexed in search engines when this link is no longer valid due to a change on your part. This is to prevent the user from encountering a 404 or 410 error indicating that the content could not be found. You should avoid this kind of mistake, especially if the content that was there is still valid and available elsewhere. If the search engines come across this error, the page and its acquired notoriety will be deleted from their index. The related backlinks will also lose all of their value.

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301 Redirect

The 301 redirect is probably the most common redirect. It redirects the user to the new location of the content they are looking for and declares the page permanently moved. This will help search engines understand that this is a URL change and, as long as the new page has the same content as the original, everything should stay the course. The notoriety of the original page and the value of its acquired backlinks will be transferred to the new page.

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302 Redirect

The 302 redirect has the same functionality as the 301 redirect, but its functionality is for temporary changes. It is therefore useful if the original page will be put back in place and search engines will temporarily attribute the page's notoriety to the original and temporary address at the same time. The choice between redirection 301 and 302 must be an informed one; the 301 redirect is a permanent abandonment of the original page while the 302 redirect means you will take action in the near future. After a while, search engines will consider a 302 redirect to be a 301 redirect if no action is taken.

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307 and 308 Redirects

The 307 and 308 redirects are equivalent to the 301 and 302 redirects in the meaning that the content has been moved either temporarily or permanently. However, these redirects do not transfer any notoriety credit from the original page. Avoid these redirects as much as possible in your SEO efforts.

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SEO Notoriety Transfer

We mentioned that notoriety transfer is conditional on the content of the new page being the same. This factor is of great importance. Although the page does not have to be completely identical, your new page will not benefitif from the notoriety of the original page if the user's intention is not met as it used to be. More so, the original page will be considered a 404 error. Also, make sure you don't do a redirect string; the user should be transferred from A to C and not from A to B to C. Finally, internal redirects should not exist; keep your internal links up to date.

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Opportunities

Analyzing your redirects and 404 error checks is part of good SEO hygiene, but it also presents opportunities. There are tools available to you, such as Screaming Frog (free version), to perform link audits leading to 404 errors. Go analyze the websites of your competition and companies that have links with your market; backlinks leading to 404 errors are easy to seize opportunities to increase your brand awareness.

Schema Markup

''It’s no coincidence that schema.org, the community behind the markup, was created a year before Google’s Knowledge Graph—a knowledge base of entities and the relationships between them—came to life.''

Ahrefs

Schema markup, with proper positioning, becomes almost free display advertising if your competition isn't using it. This section explains what schema markup is, how schema markup works, and why schema markup is important in SEO.

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Schema Markup

Schema.org markup (known as schema markup) is a practice of including indicators in your site code to identify specific elements of your content. In practical terms, this is what lets search engines know what element of your site is the name of the company, the product, the price, the availability, the rating, etc. For example, when you search for a book, your search results will be peppered with more targeted, engaging, and informative suggestions. These presentations (as in the example) are given for sites which have indicated to search engines, by markup, the elements relevant to the user who is searching for the book concerned.

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What Is Schema.org?

Schema.org is a community suggesting a set of markup vocabularies that has been developed by Google, Yahoo !, Bing, and Yandex for this specific purpose. Obviously, this is the best structure to adopt when communicating with these search engines. The schema markup does not only apply to consumer products as in the example given. It can be applied in search results for events, books, people, organizations, places and more.

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How To Use Schema Markup

You will be referred to Google's tagging helper to generate the lines of code that need to be added to your site in order to mark it up. The tool will also give you hints to include these lines of code in the right places. However, this involves entering the world of coding. An SEO management tool like Yoast (free), on the other hand, will give you the help you need to get the job done (automatically or manually) without having to mess with your site code.

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Benefits

Schema Markup benefits your web marketing, but its effect on your ranking in search results is indirect. Having an optimized display helps increase your visibility and you will have a positive impact on your click conversion rate. This conversion rate will have a direct effect on your SEO and ranking. Keep in mind that markup is not enough to instantly move up a position on Google.

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Strategic Use of Schema Markup

Your markup should be part of your strategic marketing thinking. This is not an 'all or nothing'. Analyze which data is relevant to tag or not and which display will work best. You will clearly have an advantage in being rated 4.8 out of 5 for a quality product with a lifetime warranty description, but maybe it will be better not to disclose its more expensive price before getting the user's complete focus. Keep an analytical mind and do some testing.

Images

''Whether you’re a blogger or write articles for an online magazine or newspaper, chances are you’ll find yourself asking whether your article needs an image or not. The answer is always “Yes”.''

Yoast

The images have nothing to prove for your marketing; they are beneficial. SEO images will be just as beneficial if you put them to good use. This section explains what images are for SEO, how to use images for SEO, and why images are important for SEO.

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Images

Images are an integral part of all valuable content and your marketing uses them every day. You must therefore ensure that their use in your website is optimized. We do discuss their compression so as not to compromise the speed of your website (see section on speed), but here we talk about their technical use in order to maximize their impact for your SEO. To do this, we'll cover the concept of Alt-text.

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Alt text

Alt-text is simply a field that contains a description of your image. Its meaning is alternative text. Its function is to display instead of your image if for some reason your image cannot be displayed to the user. Although this is replacement text and may never be seen, it is analyzed by search engines and helps identify your content.

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Opportunity

Alt text is an opportunity to describe what the image communicates in terms of content. Although image recognition is very advanced today (not to say scary), search engines definitely do not have an interpretation as relevant as that of the human eye to interpret the association of your image with your content. Be clear and descriptive.

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Keywords

The use of keywords is advisable in your Alt-text, while respecting the rules of the art as always. Do not write a list of keywords without meaning. The approach to be taken here will be to compose a description which, for a person not seeing the photo, provides a clear mental picture of what the photo might be. The description should be very specific without being too long; Don’t hesitate to use between 5 and 10 words, but don’t go too long. No need to include in your text that this is a photo / image.

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Usage Of Alt Text

Alt text is an attribute that applies to all of your images, not just your photos, charts, tables, etc. Try to cover your entire site by including your logos, button images, icons of all kinds and anything that has the option of including Alt text. If you need to write a long description, make sure you don't exceed 100 characters. It is possible to use longer description attributes, but you may encounter compatibility issues for your mobile users.

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Limitations

Alt text should be seen as a tool of structure and not of content. Your images and alt-text cannot be used as a substitute for text content. If your text content loses its meaning or richness without an image, consider your text to be incomplete. From a technical point of view, text included within an image should not be considered text content. There is a huge chance that it will not be considered during an indexing of your site. However, a block of text superimposed on an image is fine.

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User In Mind

Ultimately, images in general are an important asset in content creation, but they must be used for their true value. Remember that the success of your website depends on meeting the user's need for information. However, it is highly unlikely that the information sought will be entirely in your images. Make sure that your presentation of information, especially to your mobile users, is not compromised by your images. The visibility of your valuable content is crucial and should not be affected by an image that takes its space. We're talking about a direct impact on your conversion rate, no matter which one. Stay creative, relevant and straight to the point.

URLs

''The URL is a humble and somewhat overlooked part of the SEO equation but it can contribute a great deal to helping your pages rank well.''

Roger Montti Search Engine Journal

Simplicity and clarity contribute to the user experience. So, learning SEO requires mastering URLs. Find out here what URLs are for SEO, how URLs work and why URLs are important to SEO.

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URLs

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a unique address that tells a browser where the information is located and you probably already know that. The first element to address in the structure of your URLs will be the communication protocol. The most common is the http (hypertext transfer protocol). Without going into technical details, this communication protocol is now often endowed with a security certificate called SSL (security sockets layer) which has the function of encrypting and securing the communication between the user and a website. The URL will therefore not start with http, but with https.

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SSL Certificate

From an SEO standpoint, you need to equip yourself with this ‘’ S ’’. The SSL certificate is now practically a standard, but many sites do not use it today. Since 2014, https is officially a positioning factor on Google. You won't be penalized immensely without https, but you will definitely lose out in a tiebreaker with a competitor. Additionally, https is generally faster and will improve your loading speed, which has a direct impact on your SEO.

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Impact On Your Image

Https also demonstrate a legitimate image regarding security of information. It is no hard task to find studies showing that consumers tend to show significantly more trust in a secure site for their online transactions. In addition, some browsers (like Chrome) prominently display that the connection is not secure when no SSL certificate can be validated. Contact your mandated personnel for this if you still do not have a certificate. You only have to do this once and you will skip a lot of hassle for your SEO and your users.

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URL Structure

The structure of your URLs is also important in its readability. For users as well as for search engines, a readable and descriptive URL allows you to understand where you are on the site and how it is structured. On the one hand, you will help search engines to validate and demonstrate the correct structure of your site and, on the other hand, you will be providing localization of information and a better experience for your users. A structured URL has a multitude of benefits which, when added up, have a positive impact on your SEO.

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Keywords

Your URLs are another opportunity to promote your keywords. Remember to follow the rules of the art; do not senselessly start listing keywords. This is a great place to slip in a few because not only will your SEO (somewhat) benefit from it in general, but the presence of keywords in your URLs has a direct impact on getting your audience's attention.

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Benefits Of Well Structure URLs

Descriptive and well-structured URLs also give you the advantage of being able to be shared and understood. You will probably never be in complete control of who shares your URLs and how. In addition, you will probably not have the resources to start requesting the use of relevant anchor texts for shares on social networks that do not even give you tangible notoriety in SEO. Better to have pre-structured URLs that self-demonstrate their destination to the user.

Meta Descriptions

''Research has shown that having the keyword in the body of the meta description is a relevancy signal for search engines that can help your rankings.''

Luke Harsel Semrush

The meta description is a major part of your first impression on your readers and is a tool that directly contributes to your SEO. Here you will see what is a meta description, how to use meta description for SEO.

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What is a Meta Description?

The meta description is a short description that search engines frequently display in search results. This description comes from the website and is another opportunity to seize in your web marketing efforts. To explain and simplify the term "meta" , it refers to any element that is used to describe your website content but is not displayed to your readers. These elements are hidden in the code of your site, but are taken into consideration by search engines.

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Impact

The meta description is not considered as valuable content by search engines. Nevertheless, you will benefit from working on your keywords here. Also, it is more often than not the first message that will be conveyed to your potential readers. It is crucial that this message be concise and attractive. The ultimate goal is to attract your customers and influence your conversion by clicks in search results. This conversion, for its part, has a major and direct impact on your SEO.

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Meta Description Writing

The meta description is limited to around 160 characters before Google cuts it with 3 dots (..). Experiment with the platforms on which you invest your marketing efforts so that your display is optimal. When framing your description, avoid anything that could amount to misleading advertising and try to find the quintessential message that will intelligently appeal to your readers. See this post as your most profitable advertising space in your web marketing strategy. If your keywords naturally fit in, you are probably on the right track.

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How To Edit A Meta Description?

As mentioned earlier, everything that is "meta" is hidden within the code of your site. There are a lot of content elements there, but the meta description is arguably the most important and one of the few that is displayed to your readers. To modify it and work on it as you wish in your SEO efforts, several tools are available to you including Yoast (free version), for example. These tools will take the worry out of entering the world of coding.

Duplicate Content

''Avoid creating duplicate content''

Google

The message is clear. It should be understood, however, that duplicate content is often unintentional and therefore care should be taken. This section explains why duplicate content is important, how to avoid duplicate content, and how to check for duplicate content.

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Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is probably one of the most important parts of good SEO hygiene. The notoriety of your online content is mathematically calculated by search engine algorithms and when 2 URLs containing the same content are found, then the valuable merit you are working for will be diluted between those URLs. However, duplicate content is still very common on the web in general, unbeknownst to the owners of the affected websites.

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HTTP Duplicates

Did you migrate from HTTP to HTTPS? If so, it is possible that the content of your website is available on both protocols. This therefore implies the existence of two URLs for each page of your website and, consequently, an undesirable distribution of your notoriety between each URL. For this purpose, you will need to make use of 301 redirects on duplicates in order to redirect readers and notoriety attribution to the page that should be viewed by default.

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User Accounts Duplicates

Websites with subscriptions and personal account creation features often create duplicate content. Indeed, you will find that when you log into your account on a website, the latter tends to make you visit URLs unique to your account for the pages you visit. These unique URLs are intended to provide you with privileged or personalized content for your specific account. However, pages with standard content for all users will be seen as duplicates.

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Canonical URLs

To remedy this situation, it is suggested to use canonical URLs. A canonical URL is simply a URL that is given a redistribution of merit for its content. You must therefore specify the URL to which the merit should be given and you will be able to eliminate the dilution of your efforts. Be proactive in using canonical URLs; when relevant, they are a founding pillar in making your web marketing work.

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E-commerce Duplicates

Online businesses are also generators of duplicate content. When the inventory is large or the items have several versions (the same sweater available in several colors, for example), it is easy to end up with copies of descriptions of products or services. However, this dubbing of content must be avoided. To do so, it is always better to take the time to create unique content. See it as an opportunity to test your marketing strategy; explore the best conversion rates that are due to one description over another and capitalize!

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Structure Consistency

Be consistent when practicing redistribution of merit in general. Canonical URL attribution must be structured and not alternate between addresses with a www and addresses without a www; you will distribute the merit on two different pages. You can use Google Search Console if you wish to be crawled on either of these formats beforehand. Be careful, because other search engines won't necessarily do it the same way.

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Maintenance And Opportunities

Regularly check for the presence of duplicates on your site. Duplicate content is unwanted and can be located on your site as well as on external sites. Plagiarism cases can exist and be turned into a referral and backlink opportunity to increase your notoriety instead of decreasing it. There are many free tools available look for duplicates, such as Siteliner. For the management of canonical URLs, free tools are also available, such as Yoast (free version).