What is SEO and how does it works?

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it describes the logic behind the ranking of websites when you perform a search on a particular search engine (such as Google).

In short, SEO can be defined as a digital marketing strategy that helps increase the quantity and quality of the traffic to your site.

The optimization part of SEO comprises a series of steps that you can take to rank higher on Google and thus get free organic traffic.

Notice that I said steps, meaning that as long as you follow each of the steps (and are patient) you will notice great results.

Although it may seem tedious and painful at the start, SEO can actually be rather fun and easy to implement.

The best way to understand SEO nowadays is to break down its meaning. In that manner, SEO is:

1. A marketing discipline – understanding SEO is crucial to all your marketing efforts because this way you will be able to drive traffic to your website and generate leads and conversions. You not only need to write content that Google likes but also content that will resonate with your audience.
2. A technical task – knowing the best practices to optimize your content and site is important if you are planning to compete for traffic. People that know the ins and outs of search engine optimization are highly sought after because the ROI they bring is high.
3. An exciting field – I don’t know about you but to me, creating dope content and generating leads for free is quite amazing. Also, I love the ever evolving nature of SEO and the fact that it requires marketers like me to constantly read up on new algorithm changes and more.

How does it Works?

SEO is an acronym that stands for search engine optimization, which is the process of optimizing your website to get organic, or un-paid, traffic from the search engine results page.

In other words, SEO involves making certain changes to your website design and content that make your site more attractive to a search engine. You do this in hopes that the search engine will display your website as a top result on the search engine results page.

Though search engine optimization can get quite complex when it comes to all the different factors that impact your ranking, the basic process is not as difficult to understand.

Search engines want to provide the best service for their users. This means delivering results on the search engine pages that are not only high quality but also relevant to what the searcher is looking for.

In order to do this, search engines will scan, or crawl, different websites to better understand what the site is about. This helps them deliver more relevant results to those who are searching for certain topics or keywords.

Similarly, the search engines will scan the site to determine how easy it is to navigate and read, rewarding user-friendly sites with higher rankings on the search engine results page.

SEO is the process that organizations go through to help make sure that their site ranks high in the search engines for relevant keywords and phrases. For instance, let’s say that you have an article about how to build a birdhouse.

In order to get your content in front of the right people, you want to try to optimize your this blog post so that it will show up as a top result for anyone who searches for the phrase “build a birdhouse.” 

There are many benefits of SEO for your business. By improving your SEO, you can work to expand your visibility on the search engines. This helps you reach and engage more potential customers. By creating more engaging and effective SEO-focused content, you can increase your chances of bringing in more targeted organic traffic.   

Factors that Impact SEO:

1. Content Marketing

Content is effective in both attracting the search engines and helping your organization make connections with site visitors.

The secret to creating content that is optimized for both the search engines and your human site visitors is to create a variety of different types of content pieces that are well-written and on topics that are most relevant to your audience.

2. On Page SEO

On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals.

3. Off Page SEO

Off page SEO refers to techniques you can use to improve the position of a web site in the search engine results page (SERPs). Many people associate off-page SEO with link building but it is not only that.

In general, off Page SEO has to do with promotion methods – beyond website design –for the purpose of ranking a website higher in the search results.

4. Social Media

Social media refers to websites and applications that are designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in real-time.

5. Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process by which you research popular search terms people type into search engines like Google, and include them strategically in your content so that your content appears higher on a search engine results page (SERP).

SEO is a never-ending, ever-evolving, multidimensional science. Every SEO would love to find the magic formula that could once and for all explain how SEO works, with specific rules and concrete equations on the table.

Unfortunately, SEO is too complex to fit into a template. Although it does evolve around principles and certain rules, its inner workings are all about analyzing and applying tactics that work and sifting out tactics that do not.

Bear this in mind, and keep a close eye on your competitors, and you will definitely succeed in search results. This is how SEO works, and will continue to work, until the process is completely outsourced to AI.