What Is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is a set of processes aimed at improving a website’s visibility in search engines, like Google, with the goal of getting more organic traffic. SEO is about fulfilling users’ search needs by creating relevant, high-quality content and providing the best possible user experience
SEO activities can take place both on-site and off-site. That’s why you may often see SEO divided into “on-page” and ”off-page” categories.
SEO typically involves:
- Keyword research
- Content creation and optimization
- Technical optimization
- Link building
why seo important ??
Google users conduct billions of searches for information and products. It’s no surprise that search engines are usually one of the biggest traffic sources to websites.
To harness this traffic source’s potential, you need to appear in the top search results for your target keywords.
The correlation is very simple—the higher you rank, the more people will visit your page.
The No. 1 organic result is 10x more likely to receive a click than a page ranking in position No. 10.
Search engine optimization plays a key role in improving your ranking positions. Better rankings mean more traffic. And more traffic means new customers and more brand awareness.
In other words, neglecting SEO would mean neglecting one of the most important traffic channels—leaving that space completely to your competitors.
SEO vs PPC
Most search engine results pages (SERPs) contain two main types of results:
- Paid results: You have to pay to be here, through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
- Organic results: You must “earn” your rankings here, trough seo
Yes, SEO takes more time, effort, and—although it focuses on “free” organic traffic—resources.
But once you rank for your target keywords, you can reach more people and generate “passive” traffic that doesn’t disappear the moment you stop
how seo works
The ultimate goal of any search engine is to make searchers happy with the results they find.
To achieve this, search engines need to find the best pages. And serve them as the top search results.
Note: Google is not the only search engine. But it is by far the most popular one. That’s why we refer to Google most times we talk about search engines. Besides, SEO fundamentals are fairly similar across most search engines.
Google uses the following stages to find and rank content:
- Crawling: Google uses “bots,” or computer programs, to crawl the web and look for new or updated pages. In order for Google to find a page, the page should have at least one link pointing to it.
- Indexing: Next, Google analyzes each page and tries to make sense of what the page is about. Then, it may store this information in the Google Index—a huge database of webpages.
- Serving results: When a user enters a query, Google determines which pages are the best, in terms of both quality and relevance, and ranks them in the SERP.
7 Truths About SEO
So that’s what SEO means in practice.
But here are seven truths you should take to heart before embarking on your SEO journey:
- SEO is not about cheating Google. Instead, think of it as convincing Google to rank your page by showing the value you provide for users.
- SEO is not about hacks. Don’t get caught in a loop of looking for cool new SEO tricks or hacks. Usually, all you need is to do the SEO basics really well really consistently.
- SEO is a long-term game. SEO results usually don’t appear immediately, although there are exceptions—for example, when you fix some serious issue. In general, think in months instead of days.
- SEO is more than just installing an SEO plugin. SEO plugins are useful tools. But the mere fact that you set one up does not mean your website is suddenly “SEO-friendly.”
- You’re never “done” with SEO. Search engine optimization is a continuous process. Even if you rank No. 1 for all your keywords, you always need to keep improving. The competition never sleeps.
- Knowing your audience is key. The more you understand your target audience (customers, readers, subscribers), the easier it is to create an effective SEO strategy.
- SEO is just one part of the puzzle. No amount of optimization will help you if you neglect to work on the core of your business—your product or service.