SEO Tips and Tricks with Nick Pustay
Utilizing the capabilities of search engine optimization (SEO) can assist you in raising brand awareness, increasing your audience reach, and accomplishing your business objectives. Understanding what SEO is and how you can use it can be difficult. LáLew brought in SEO expert, Nick Pustay, to answer some questions on how SEO can be used and why it is important for businesses and brands.
LáLew: What is search engine optimization, and why is it important for websites?
Pustay: Search Engine Optimization is a complex collection of tactics and strategies that are used throughout the digital properties of many organizations. It isn't a specific marketing channel but a collection of efforts that make your site more user-friendly, easier to navigate, and helpful to the right user base.
LáLew: How do search engines decide which websites to show first in search results?
Pustay: That can depend on who you ask. A lot of SEO experts and other knowledgeable people in this space have decided that 220 or so (plus or minus) ranking factors exist. It is usually what is most useful and informative that gets the top search result. With the recent proliferation of AI, I expect it will be about data points and how much influence and clout you bring as an author that drives the top positions. Humans can't be replaced with ChatGPT and other AI. No matter what, users will use their best judgment.
LáLew: What are some common mistakes people make when trying to optimize their website for search engines, and how can we avoid making those mistakes?
Pustay: The best things I could recommend would be:
Focus on quick keyword research with some specific goals, why are you doing this?
Not all websites need a blog, it is fine to have other kinds of pages to give information about your industry and knowledge in that space. Be creative with the presentation.
If it has been done, it is online. A lot of learning about SEO is spending time looking at other sites and starting to understand what is making them successful. I often watch recipe sites since it is so competitive.
Don't spend all your time on link building. Digital PR is a better option in most cases. The standard outreach methods are not as necessary anymore since it really takes something noteworthy to build links anyway.
LáLew: How important are backlinks in improving search engine rankings, and what are some effective strategies for building high-quality backlinks?
Pustay: If you are doing something truly interesting and have content that is actually helpful, the links will find your site.. High-quality backlinks are highly subjective and most of the tools that give those quality factors are not telling you what is in their secret sauce. A quality link on one platform is not going to look the same everywhere and the effects of that additional link are never specific and clear as to the impact on traffic. I instead look for links that drive traffic and are useful.
LáLew: How can we optimize our website's content to ensure that it is both search-engine friendly and engaging for our target audience?
Pustay: This is the classic SEO answer: it depends. Knowing what your audience is searching for and how they are searching is the key step. SEO can be enormously hindered when things are done "just for SEO.” I always encourage people attempting SEO tactics and strategies to remember that whatever is easiest, clearest and most helpful to a user would be good for a search engine. That includes accessibility and other adaptive browsing features on the Internet.