Do you want to learn what is SEO? Do you know how it works and how to do it, let’s start with the definition of SEO, and then we will discuss how SEO works.
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What is SEO?
SEO is a short form for “Search Engine Optimization”. It is a long-term marketing strategy employed in order to improve a website’s visibility and organic search results in google and other global search engines. SEO can be used on any website, no matter the size or age.
The ultimate goal of SEO is to improve ROI and generate a steady flow of quality traffic to the website. It is important to note that, SEO needs to be updated periodically in order to reflect current changes in Google algorithms and recommendations.
Elements of SEO: On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO
Let’s take a look at the elements of SEO.
On-Page SEO: This is simply optimizing your website for search engines, to rank your website at the top in relevant searches. Optimizing includes choosing the right keywords and meta tags, providing correct content, fixing site errors, etc.
Off-Page SEO: Off-page SEO is the process of optimizing your website through external measures. This includes link building, article submission, blog commenting, etc.
SEO Strategies: Black Hat Vs. White Hat SEO
There are two types of strategies when it comes to SEO: Black Hat and White Hat. The difference between the two is that a black hat involves unethical techniques that may be against search engines guidelines, which can get your website penalized or banned from search results. White Hat on the other hand is following organic and inbound rules and regulations set by the search engines, which will not get your website penalized.
Now that you know a little more about SEO, let me show you how it works.
There are three main steps in the SEO process: Research, Implementation, and Tracking.
1)Research: In this step, you will be researching what keywords and topics will appeal to your target market. For example, if you were targeting college students with a website about new music, you would conduct research by looking up keywords like “new music” or “jam bands” and study the competition and trends of what people in this niche are searching for.
2) Implementation: This is where you will be implementing the strategies you researched in step 1. This includes optimizing your website with the right keywords, creating optimized titles and descriptions, building links, etc.
3) Tracking: In this step, you will track your progress by using tools like Google Analytics to measure your website’s traffic and see how your SEO campaigns are performing.
SEO Tools: What are the best SEO tools?
There are tons of SEO tools you can use to improve your website ranking. Here are some useful tools I recommend.
Google Analytics- This is a free tool that tracks the traffic on your site and shows you where people are coming from, what pages they land on etc. Google Analytics is a great tool for tracking the performance of your SEO campaigns.
Google Keyword Planner- This tool will show you the keyword phrases that people are using in order to find websites like yours, and how competitive each search term is. You can use this information when choosing keywords for your SEO campaigns.
Google Webmaster Tool- This tool will give you website diagnostics, including crawling errors, indexing errors, page speed, etc. It will also show you the keywords that are helping your site rank and those that cause it to not be found in major search engines.
Ahrefs- This tool is great for backlink research and analysis. It shows you all the backlinks pointing to your website, which keywords they are using to link back to you, what countries they are coming from etc.
Why is SEO important?
According to “The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania”, there are over 3 trillion searches conducted on Google every year. That’s a lot of traffic that could potentially be directed to your website if you are found on the first page of Google search results.
Organic search results:
Search engine result pages are always filled with content based on the keywords you used in your search query. For example, if you type “New York Restaurants” in Google, you will see a list of websites that are relevant to your search. The first website listed is usually the website that is most relevant to your query and has the highest ranking for those keywords.
In order to appear on the first page of Google search results, your website needs to have good SEO. This means that your website needs to be optimized for specific keywords and phrases that are relevant to your business. SEO is a long-term strategy that takes time and effort to see results. However, if done correctly, SEO can help your website achieve high rankings in Google search results, which can result in more website traffic and increased sales.
Quality of organic traffic:
People tend to trust organic results more than sponsored links or advertisements that are shown on search result pages (SERPs). People also tend to click on the websites that are listed on the first page of Google more often than websites that are listed on the second or third page.
This is because people assume that the websites that are listed on the first page of Google are the most relevant to their query and have the highest ranking for those keywords. If your website is not ranked high in Google, you will miss out on valuable traffic.
Quantity of organic traffic:
The more traffic your website receives, the more sales you will make and the higher revenue you can generate from Google Adwords (or other types of online advertising).
How does SEO work?
Search engines utilize complex algorithms in order to determine how pages should rank in their results when particular keywords are searched. The algorithm; referred to as “Page Rank” is a numerical expression used to determine how important a site or web page is. A number of factors are taken into consideration in order to determine which sites will rank on the first pages of search results, including but not limited to the content, age, and quality of the website. In addition, backlinks play an important role in Google rankings. A backlink is defined as a link from another website pointing to your site.
Types of Backlinks:
There are two types of backlinks- “do-follow” and “no-follow”. A do-follow backlink is a link that tells Google that you should follow the link and crawl the website that it is linking to. A no-follow backlink is a link that tells Google not to follow the link and not to crawl the website that it is linking to.
Google takes into consideration a number of factors when determining the ranking of a website, including the number of dofollow and nofollow backlinks. However, Google has stated that they give more weight to dofollow backlinks. This means that if you want your website to rank higher in organic search results, you should try to get as many dofollow backlinks pointing to your website as possible.
Content Optimization -What is it?
Content optimization refers to the act of making sure your website’s content is well written, informative, relevant, and keyword-oriented. This means writing the most optimized content for your industry/niche in order to appeal to potential customers (or clients). The more effective your content is at appealing to people who are searching for topics related to your industry/niche, the more people will visit your site. This is because people tend to trust websites that contain relevant and informative content about topics that are relevant to their inquiry.
Final Note –
SEO is a long-term investment that takes time and effort to see results, but it is worth it in the end. If done correctly, SEO can help your website achieve high rankings in Google search results, which can result in more website traffic and increased sales.
Hope you now know what is SEO and how does it work? You can also read another interesting blog on What Are Backlinks in SEO & What Are The Advantages of Backlinks? and share your views with us. If still, you have any queries feel free to reach out using the comment box.
