SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential practice for any website looking to improve its visibility and attract more organic traffic. In today’s digital age, most users rely on search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo to find information, products, and services they need. Therefore, optimizing a website for search engines is crucial to ensure it ranks higher in search results, attracting more clicks, and generating more leads.
In this article, we will cover the basics of SEO, including on-page and off-page optimization techniques that can help your website rank better on search engines.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of orienting your website to rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP) so that you receive more traffic. The aim is typically to rank on the first page of Google results for search terms that mean the most to your target audience. So, SEO is as much about understanding the wants and needs of your audience as it is about the technical nature of how to configure your website.
SEO vs. SEM
SEO vs. SEM
SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing, which is just another way of saying search marketing. It’s a broad term that includes both SEO and PPC, all aiming to drive traffic to your site through organic (unpaid) and paid efforts. In simple terms, search marketing is about getting visibility and traffic from search engines using both paid and unpaid strategies.
So, what’s the difference between SEO and SEM? Technically, SEM encompasses SEO.
- SEO: Focuses on driving organic traffic from search engines.
- SEM: Involves driving both organic and paid traffic from search engines.
Things can get a bit confusing because many people today use SEM interchangeably with PPC. This can make it seem like SEO is being left out, but that’s not the case.
The benefits of SEO
Search engine optimization is a key part of online marketing because search is one of the primary ways that users navigate the web.
Search results are presented in an ordered list, and the higher up on that list a site can get, the more traffic the site will tend to receive. For example, for a typical search query, the number one result will receive 40-60% of the total traffic for that query, with the number two and three results receiving significantly less traffic. Only 2-3% of searchers click beyond the first page of search results. Thus, even a small improvement in search engine rankings can result in a website receiving more traffic and potentially business.
How SEO works
Search engines such as Google use an algorithm or set of rules to determine what pages to show for any given query. These algorithms have evolved to be extremely complex, and take into account hundreds or even thousands of different ranking factors to determine the rankings of their SERPs. However, there are three core metrics that search engines evaluate to determine the quality of a site and how it should rank:
1.Links
Links from other websites play a key role in determining the ranking of a site in Google and other search engines. The reason being, a link can be seen as a vote of quality from other websites, since website owners are unlikely to link to other sites that are of poor quality. Sites that acquire links from many other sites gain authority (called “PageRank” in Google) in the eyes of search engines, especially if the sites that are linking to them are themselves authoritative.
2.Content
In addition to looking at links, search engines also analyze the content of a webpage to determine if it would be relevant for any given search query. A large part of SEO is in creating content that is targeted towards the keywords that search engines’ users are searching for.
3.Page structure
The third core component of SEO is page structure. Because webpages are written in HTML, how the HTML code is structured can impact a search engine’s ability to evaluate a page. Including relevant keywords in the title, URL, and headers of the page and making sure that a site is crawlable are actions that site owners can take to improve the SEO of their site.
Top SEO tools
As a fairly technical discipline, there are many tools and software that SEO relies on to help with optimizing websites. Below are some commonly used free and paid tools:.
1.Google Ads Keyword Planner
Keyword Planner is another free tool provided by Google, as part of their Google Ads product. Even though it is designed for paid search, it can be a great tool to use for SEO since it provides keyword suggestions and keyword search volume, which can be helpful when doing keyword research.
2.Backlink analysis tools
There are a number of link analysis tools out there, the two primary ones being Ahrefs and Majestic. Backlink analysis tools allow users to analyze which websites are linking to their own website, or the websites of competitors, and can be used to find new links during link building.
3.SEO platforms
There are many different SEO platforms that bring together many of the tools that SEO needs to optimize sites. Some of the most popular include Siteimprove, Moz, BrightEdge, Searchmetrics and Linkdex. These platforms track keyword rankings, help with keyword research, identify on-page and off-page SEO opportunities, and many other tasks related to SEO.
4.Social media
Most social media sites don’t have a direct impact on SEO, but they can be a good tool for networking with other webmasters and building relationships that can lead to link building and guest posting opportunities.