What Is SEO/Search Engine Optimization?

How does SEO work?

SEO is the abbreviation of Search Engine Optimization. It can be defined as the science of getting your website pages higher ranks in the search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex etc. The search engine makes an important part of the internet platform, allowing users to discover different content, find a new information and access various other details. Thus, the higher the page is ranked on a search engine, the more chances to gain traffic to your website.

Besides, the simple science of SEO highlights that better visibility of a page in the search engine will lead to greater attention. Moreover, it will also help get more prospective customers to your business, thereby increasing the profits.

Google and many other search engines often feature ads that are paid ads at the top. It is later followed by organic search results, defined as the regular results that marketers search for. Herein, traffic that results through SEO is called Organic Search Traffic to make it easier for marketers to differentiate it from the paid search traffic. On the other hand, paid search is called Pay Per Click (PPC) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

How does SEO work?

Google and other search engines like Bing utilize bots for crawling pages on the website. These move across sites, collect details about the pages and then index them. For example, Imagine the index to resemble a giant library and the librarian helps you pull the book you are searching for (or a web page in the case of SEO). Herein, the search engine plays the same role as a librarian to find what you are looking for.

The next big factor is search engine algorithm. Here, the algorithms analyze the pages in the index after considering hundreds of ranking signals or factors. It thereby helps determine how pages shall appear in the search results when a query is raised. You can relate this to a library where the librarian is well abreast with every book placed in the library and knows exactly which one will answer your queries.

Thus, the factors leading the successful SEO can be considered as proxies based on the user experience. It mainly deals with how the search bots determine how a website or a website page can answer the queries raised by the searcher.

You cannot pay search engines to get a higher organic search rank compared to paid search ads. That means the SEO expert has to work hard to reach the page among the top searches.

The algorithms are designed to bring about relevant pages, authoritative pages that provide users with sufficient information and give an efficient experience. Thus, optimizing content and site based on these factors will assist you in getting higher search ranks and results for your website and pages.

Google as a search engine uses an algorithm or particular rules to determine which pages are relevant to answer a given query. These have, over the years, evolved to become more complex. Besides, they consider different factors for ranking their SERPs. However, the top three metrics which helps search engine evaluate the quality of the site and the way to rank it include:

• Links: Links play an important role in ranking a website on Google and other popular search engines. Particularly links from other websites lead to greater ranking. Herein, we can call a link a vote of quality acquired from other websites since the owners of the link are possibly never going to link to sites with poor quality. A website that acquire links from other websites tend to gain authority which is termed as Page Rank by Google. It is captured by the eyes of search engines, particularly if the websites linking to other sites are also authoritative.

• Content: Other than links, the search engine keeps a keen eye on the content. The web page’s content plays a very important role in determining if the information is relevant to answering the given query. Herein, a major part of SEO revolves around content creation comprising target keywords that the search engine captures for answering queries.
• Page structure: Last but not the least, an important SEO component is the page structure. As most pages are written in an HTML programming language, it is necessary to analyze how the HTML codes are structured. It will help understand the impact of search engines and their ability to evaluate the page. These include using relevant keywords in the title, header, and URL and ensuring the site is also crawlable as the site owners can take action to improvise the reach of the site.

The SEO process includes optimizing every component from links to content to page structure that makes a part of the search engine algorithms to ensure the page is ranked high in the search results.

What makes SEO an Important Part of Marketing?

SEO is an important part of the digital marketing platform as people tend to indulge in zillions of searches each year. If it is related to purchasing a product or service, SEO intends to make the user find a relevant website with detailed information. Searching can be defined as the primary source for gaining traffic for brands and also complements other forms of marketing channels. Herein, greater visibility and ranking on the search engine will ensure the competition is also at par.

However, the search engine has been evolving over the years to assist users in gaining direct answers and details that will not make them waver to other websites but keep them on the results page instead. Besides, features such as knowledge panels and rich results also increase the visibility, thereby providing users with proper information about the company.

Thus, we can conclude that SEO is the fundamental aspect of the holistic ecosystem of digital marketing. Understanding the want of your users and how you can go on to implement the knowledge using the features of campaigns, whether organic or paid as well as utilizing the social media components will help you gain higher results.

The Advantages of SEO

SEO plays an imperative role in the medium of online marketing as search is a primary way for users to navigate the web platform. With this, search results are provided in an ordered manner wherein the results at the top gain higher traffic than the lower ones. For example, for any particular search, the top result will gain over 40 to 60% of traffic, followed by the number two and three of the results. Besides, it is understood that only 2 to 3% of users go beyond the first page to search for more relevant information. Even a significant improvement in the ranking of a webpage on a search engine can assist the website in gaining better traffic and enhancing the business.

Thus, many businesses and owners of websites try manipulating the search results so that the site will help gain higher search (SERP) when compared to the competitors. It is where SEO makes its grand entry.

Techniques used in Search Engine Optimization

Gaining a good understanding of how the search engine works can help you improvise the process for ranking your site in top searches. It also includes leveraging numerous SEO techniques for optimizing the site so that the users can find it among the top few searches. These include:

• Keyword research: It is the primary aspect of SEO and includes the process of finding relevant keywords from the site that is already ranked at the top. It also includes analyzing keywords that your competitors rank for and other keywords which the customers search. Identifying the relevant terms in the searches that are used widely in Google and other search engines will help gain a direction on which existing content can be further optimized and whether any new content needs to be developed.

• Content marketing: After sorting the potential keywords, the next thing that comes into the picture is content marketing. It includes updating the existing content or developing a brand using the content. It is because Google, including other search engines, uses premium or high-quality content. Thus, it is imperative to conduct a search for content that is already ranked at the top and create content that provides users some value and helps rank your page higher in the search engine. Besides, impactful content has more chances of attracting links from high authority websites and being shared on social media.
• Link building: External links, also known as backlinks, are core to the page’s rank on Google and other search engines. Herein obtaining good quality backlinks plays the role of a level for SEO. It includes promoting good content, building relationships with the webmaster, reaching other websites, submitting websites to web directories, and gaining the attention of the press to gain more links from other websites.
• On-page optimization: Apart from off-page, which includes links and improvising the page structure that has a myriad of advantages in the SEO field, it is one factor that is in control of the webmaster. On the other hand, on-page techniques include URL optimization for incorporating keywords, title update, title tag update using relevant key search terms, alt text for images, and updating the meta tags, including the meta description. Although these tags do not directly impact building the search rank, it helps increase the click-through rate from different SERPs.
• Site architecture optimization: Apart from external links, internal links that come from within the website are also to be considered. Thus, one way of improvising the SEO for the site is using a search engine optimizer using key pages linked to and adding anchor text that can utilize the links to improvise its relevance around specific terms. Herein, you can create an XML sitemap that makes it a relevant way for a search engine to discover larger pages and crawl all the pages on the site.
• Semantic markup: Another useful SEO strategy employed by SEO experts includes optimizing the website’s semantic markup. It is also called Schema Markup, which describes the meaning of the content on the webpage. It helps identify who has authored the content, the topic, and what type of content is used on the page. Herein, using semantic markup also assists in getting richer snippets that are displayed on the search pages. These include review stars, extra text, and even images. Besides, rich snippets in the SERPs do not impact search engine ranking but help improvise the CTR from the search, increasing the overall organic traffic to the site.

Best SEO Tools

In the technical stream, there are numerous tools and software that assist in making the process of SEO easier. It thereby helps in optimizing websites more possibly. Below are listed a few free and paid tools, which are as follows:

• Google Search Console: Also known as Google Webmaster Tools and presently changed to Google Search Console, is a free tool from Google. It is a standard tool that is included in the SEO toolkit. It provides users ranking and traffic reports for many top pages and keywords, thereby helping to identify as well as fix technical issues that crop up onsite.
• Google Ads Keyword Planner: Another useful tool by Google, Keyword Planner is a free tool that is also a part of Google Ads product. Although it is designed much like a paid search component, it is highly useful as it provides suggestions on keywords and the total volume of a keyword search that will make it easy to research keywords.
• Backlink analysis tools: There are plenty of link analysis tools, and the two most important ones include AHREFs and Majestic. Herein, the backlink analysis tools enable users to analyze which websites tend to indulge in the process of linking their website or that of competitors and how they can be used for finding newer links during the process of link building.
• SEO platforms: Numerous SEO platforms present many tools that are utilized for optimizing sites. Some of the popular ones include BrightEdge, Moz, Linkdex, and Searchmetrics. These help in tracking keyword ranks and assist in the process of keyword research, identifying on and off-page SEO opportunities, and other tasks related to the entire SEO process.
• Social media: Although social media sites do not directly impact SEO, the come across as good tools for building networks with other webmasters. Besides, it also helps build relationships leading to building links and posting guest posts.

Process of Search Traffic Optimizing: Transforming Clicks to Conversions

An accurate SEO practice can increase the overall traffic to the website. But the overall traffic from the search doesn’t determine the growth of your business unless the traffic is converted into paying customers. And here is where enters Conversion Rate Optimization. The practice includes employing methods like A/B testing that allows to make changes in the website and measure how it can help bring more conversion. A successful search of marketers helps that getting traffic on the site is insufficient, but the work after the traffic arrives is also equally important. Conversion Rate Optimization was once considered a technical process. Still, software like Optimizely helps run tests to improvise conversions of the site, making it easy to insert a single line of JavaScript. Thus, the visual editor feature of Optimizely also enables making changes to the site without the need to write even a single line of code.