“Today, it’s not about ‘get the traffic’—it’s about ‘get the targeted and relevant traffic.”
— Adam Audette
In this digitally thriving world, there’s no way that you want to know about a topic, product, or service, and it’s not present on the Google, right? Hence, given the fact that everything is now just a click away from you, there’s something that makes it easier for you by giving you the best possible results to start with. That’s where the role of SEO comes in! Now what is SEO? You might have come across this term earlier but here we are going to make it simpler for you. Let’s explore some important stuff about SEO!
What Is SEO?
To begin with, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Briefly, SEO is the set of technical and content practices aimed at the optimization of a website to increase its rank in the search engine results pages (SERPs).In other words, it is a process of aligning a web page with a search engine ranking algorithm so that I can be easily found, crawled, indexed, and surfaced in SERPs for relevant queries.
SEO involves improving a website’s structure, visibility, and content so that its pages can be discovered by the people searching for what you have to offer, through search engines. These are the practices that are often followed by an individual or a business to get more organic traffic through search engines like Google, Bing, etc.
Goal Of SEO
The ultimate goal of SEO is to drive organic traffic to your website by attracting visitors on your website who will then become your potential customers, clients, or an audience that keeps coming back. Hence, the better the visibility in search engine results the more likely you are to be found and clicked on.
Basic Factors In SEO
Since in the world of digital era, SEO has changed drastically changed over the last couple of decades, it can now be done in several ways. Although it has different branches but all of them share a common goal that is to help you engage with your targeted audience. It is all about fulfilling the search needs of your users by creating content that is relevant and has high-quality and that provides best possible user experience.
In practice, SEO typically involves following key factors;
- Keywords research
- Content creation and optimization
- Technical optimization
- Link building
Types Of SEO
While deeming a content as worth and ranking it on top, Google and other search engines take several factors into account and as such, SEO has many facets. Mainly, the core and macro three types of SEO are;
On-page SEO
It involves the optimization of content on websites for the users and search engines, including website design, site structure, keywords density, etc. The key players in on-page SEO are the content quality, keywords, and HTML tags.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is the practice of building back links to a website in order to improve its ranking in search results. This type of SEO can be done by internal linking, guest blogging, directory submission, and social media. It mainly involves getting other sites and other pages on your site so as to link to the page that you’re trying to optimize.
Technical SEO
This type of SEO focuses on optimizing the technical aspects of a website to improve your site’s overall performance on search engines. SSL certificates, UX, and structure are key factors in technical SEO.
Although the above three types are used for websites and blogs, but these can also be applied to three subtypes of SEO which are as follows;
Local SEO
This subtype of SEO aims at ranking your business as high as possible in Google Maps as well as on the local search of the SERPs. The optimization of Google Business Profile, listings, and reviews, are the important keys here.
Image SEO
It aims at ranking your web pages through the use of images that rank and appear in Google image search. It combines on-page and technical strategies to achieve this type of image ranking
Video SEO
It combines on-page, off-page and technical strategies to make your videos rank in YouTube or Google video results.
Where all the subtypes require all the three macro types, but they do vary in now heavily each of them relies on each core type.
Tools For SEO
SEO mainly relies on datasets to work effectively. And for getting your hands on that data, you must need some tools to carry out your SEO. Here are some of the best tools for optimal SEO;
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Keyword Research Tools
- SEO Software
- Website Graders
Most of them are free to use, go and grab one to kick start your SEO game!
Key Facts About SEO
Before getting started with SEO, here are some important facts that you must keep in mind while doing your SEO;
- SEO is not about hacks, you need to know the basics to begin with, there’s no short-cut.
- SEO is not about cheating Google rather it is about convincing Google that your content is valuable.
- SEO is a long-term game, you can’t enjoy its results immediately, it rather demands patience.
- SEO is more than simply installing an SEO plugin.
- SEO is a never-ending process, you’re never done with it. It continues to process as per the demand of competition
- Knowing about your intended audience is the main key, explore more and more.
- SEO is just a single piece of puzzle in the whole frame, there are other factors that are equally important.
How To Start With SEO?
Here are some simple tips to follow which will ensure that you start on the right foot;
- Search keywords extensively
- Be patient for achieving results
- Focus on quality
- Maintain your content
- Track and measure your performance
Why Is SEO Important?
Did you know? The top three organic results get more than 50% of all the click! Yes, that’s where the power of SEO takes the charge.
Search engines are one of the biggest sources of driving traffic and in order to leverage this source’s full potential, you need to appear in top search results with effective targeted keywords. An SEO done in the right way can improve your ranking positions in the search engine results pages. If you’re neglecting the SEO, that means you’re neglecting the most important traffic channels, giving that chance to your competitors. The four set of treasures that closely interlinked with each other and that SEO unlocks for you are;
- More website traffic
- More customers
- Better reputation
- Higher return on investment (ROI).
Now that you know the importance of SEO as well, learn more about it in order to ace your SEO game for an increased website ranking and performance. Best of luck for your SEO journey!