SEO Triangle: The 3 Most Important Aspects of Search Engine Optimisation
Is your SEO strategy triangular? The SEO Triangle is a concept which links together the three key elements of search engine optimisation. They are:
In this article we’ll pull apart each of these three elements. By digging deeper into the SEO Triangle we hope you’ll be able to better understand why each aspect is vital.
Content SEO
The first element in our SEO Triangle is content. When it comes to the internet, and particularly to SEO, content is king. Content takes various forms.
Headings
Headings are really important when it comes to SEO. Google and other search engines use bots called crawlers to gather information about web pages. The information is then interpreted and various ranking factors are consider by the search engine’s algorithms.
Headings are important because they are a primary source of information about the topic of a page. As such, headings need to be:
- Concise
- Specific
- Keyword-rich
Headings don’t just appear at the top of the page either. Sub-headings are an integral part of your SEO. Make sure all your headings contribute to a clear message. When writing content for your website, ensure you pay close attention to your headings.
Images
Images are a different kind of content altogether. Unlike text-based content, search engine crawlers find it more difficult to make sense of the images within your website. Of course, with the advent of AI, search engines are smarter than ever and will be able ‘see’ your image. But for many years, the ALT tag was the only information a search engine may have about an image. And ALT tags are still important. This is because they’re not only a way of describing an image for a search engine. They’re vital for visitors to your website who are visually impared, and accessibility is an important aspect of SEO. Google and other search engines will prioritise websites which provide a good experience to all visitors. Make sure you write accurate and relevant ALT tags for your images.
Lists
Lists are helpful because they allow content to become ‘scannable’. Humans are lazy. We want access to key information, quickly. Lists help us achieve this. Search engines also know that lists are helpful. They’re often keyword-dense, because of a lack of conjunctions.
Lists which contain links to page sections are also a great way of optimising your page for SEO. Just as we’ve done here. Links to sections of pages help users navigate a website more quickly, without having to read so much.
Next time you’re writing some content consider whether you could make better user of lists.
Human First
Content should be written for humans first. Search engines have become incredibly sophisticated. They used to be simpler and various SEO practices developed centred around ‘keyword stuffing’. For a while this was a sure fire way of generating a good search ranking. Not any more.
Writing for humans means writing clearly, using natural language. Don’t try and include too many keywords, as this becomes unnatural, making a page difficult to read. Don’t forget to proof read your content too. It can be tempting to knock out a quick post and hit publish, without checking for silly errors.
Questions and Answers
The internet is full of answers to questions. If you think about it, almost every search query is really a question, even if the question mark is missing! Think about what questions your content is answering.
You may wish to write your headings in the form of questions. This can be a great way to draw traffic to your site for specific queries. A fantastic resource for generating ideas for content based on questions is alsoasked.com. It’s a website which produces ‘trees’ of questions asked of Google, related to specific keywords or phrases. If you’re struggling for ideas of what to write about it’s a great place to start.
EEAT
Google wants to see content which demonstrates:
- Experience
- Expertise
- Authoritativeness
- Trustworthiness
When writing content for your website, consider how your article might support one of more of these SEO objectives. Here are a few ideas for how you might communicate EEAT within your website content:
- Experience: Demonstrate that your content is created by people who really know about the subject. Consider including author biographies at the end of blog posts, or by referencing personal experiences.
- Expertise: Link to relevant articles from reputable sources, as evidence of your expertise.
- Authoritativeness: Build your authority on a topic by regularly publishing high quality content on a particular topic(s). Back-links from other websites adds to this, as it demonstrates your content is worth linking to.
- Trustworthiness: Be honest and open about who is behind your content. Publish clear contact details and customer service information where appropriate and follow ethical content practices.
Technical SEO
The second element in the SEO Triangle is technical aspects of SEO. These often go unseen, but they can have a major impact on user experience and search engine ranking. Here are a few of the technical aspects of SEO which are worth investing time and effort into:
Page Titles
Just as with headings, page titles are a key factor when it comes to page ranking. Page titles will be re-written by search engines it they’re not descriptive enough, too short or too long. It’s important to pay close attention to your page titles, and ensure that they’re:
- Concise (50 – 60 characters in length)
- Specific
- Keyword-rich
Plugins like Yoast can be really helpful when it comes to writing effective page titles. Make sure you consider these carefully when publishing new blog posts or pages on your website.
Meta Descriptions
As with page titles, meta descriptions are a long-standing ranking factor for search engines. They should briefly and accurately describe what your page is all about. It’s a good idea to try and keep seperate topics on different pages. Can you explain what your page is all about in around 150 characters? If not, consider splitting your content across more pages.
Most website platforms make it relatively easy to add and edit meta descriptions. Pay careful attention when writing them to ensure they accurately reflect the main theme of your page.
Page Speed
This is all about ensuring your website is a delight to visit. A slow website can be infuriating, meaning your visitors close the tab and move elsewhere. Google wants to ensure that it sends users to websites which are going to give them a good overall experience.
When creating content consider what multimedia elements are important. Do you really need to include that massive photo? Or all those embedded videos? Or those annoying pop-ups? What about the tracking scripts?
Every element on the page, seen and unseen, has an impact on page speed. Think carefully before adding more bloat to your website. It might look great on your massive wide screen monitor via a full fibre broadband connection. But is it going to work as well for someone on a low powered smartphone over a dodgy mobile network?
Accessibility
Accessibility is all-to-often forgotten about when it comes to SEO. Accessbility is all about ensuring a good experience for every visitor to your website. But many accessibility improvements benefit every visitor, not just those relying on screen readers or other similar technology.
Pay close attention to accessibility guidelines, such as colour contrast and text size. Your design might look super sharp on your 27″ iMac, but on a cheaper, smaller or older device the colours might look less distinct. Same with font sizes and typefaces. Choose carefully to ensure your website is legible at all screen sizes.
Semantic HTML
Some elements of HTML are not semantic (i.e. they don’t inherently state what kind of element they are). Other elements are semantic and should be used as such.