Search Engine Optimization, or "SEO" for short, is an important part of website design. It is the process of making sure that your site can be easily found by search engines like Google and Bing. When done correctly, SEO can help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This, in turn, can lead to more traffic and more customers for your business.
How Does SEO Work?
In order to understand how SEO works, you need to first understand how search engines work. When you type a query into a search engine like Google, the search engine looks through all of the websites in its database to find websites that are relevant to your query. It then ranks these websites according to its own algorithm, which takes factors like website content, website design, and user experience into account.
The goal of SEO is to improve your website so that it is more likely to rank highly in search engine results pages. This can be accomplished by improving factors like website content, site structure, and web page titles. In addition, you can use backlinks and keywords to help improve your website's ranking.
Say you own a small business and want to increase online traffic to your website so you invest in SEO. When someone uses a search engine like Google, they type or "search query" into the search bar. Google then looks at all of the websites that contain that keyword and puts them in order from most relevant to least relevant. This process of organization is called "ranking." There are three types of ranking: on-page, off-page, and technical.
* On-Page Ranking Factors
On-page ranking factors are elements that you have control over such as title tags, Meta descriptions, header tags, and keyword density.
* Off-Page Ranking Factors
Off-page ranking factors are elements that you do not have control over such as social media engagement, backlinks, and reviews.
* Technical Ranking Factors
Technical ranking factors are site speed, URL structure, mobile friendliness, and indexation.
To increase your website's ranking you want to focus on improving your on-page and off-page ranking factors.
Why Is SEO Important?
There are many benefits of SEO. Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that it can help increase traffic to your website. However, it also has other benefits like helping you build credibility and trust with potential customers, and improving the overall user experience of your website. In today's digital age, it is essential for businesses to have a strong online presence, and SEO is one of the best ways to achieve this.
SEO by the Numbers
The average person spends over 4 hours a day on their mobile device. With this increase in screen time, businesses are fighting for a piece of the pie and investing in digital marketing. Search Engine Optimization or "SEO" is a digital marketing strategy used to improve a websites ranking in search engine results pages (SERP). Let's go over how SEO works and the different metrics involved.
The Different Metrics Involved in SEO
There are two types of metrics involved in SEO: organic traffic and SERP position. Organic traffic is the number of visitors who land on your website after completing a search query. SERP position is your website's rank on the list of results pages. You can increase your organic traffic by improving your SERP position. You can improve your SERP position by optimizing your website for SEO. If you're just getting started with SEO, Moz has a great beginners guide. Now let's go over some frequently used terms associated with SEO so that you can be an informed user when talking to your digital marketing team.
Keywords
A keyword is a word or phrase that someone would use when searching for information related to your business. For example, if you own a dog grooming business, potential keywords could be "dog grooming," "pet salon," "animal spa," etc. It's important to use keywords throughout your website content as well as in other places such as title tags, headings, Meta descriptions, etc., so that Google can easily crawl your site and understand what it's about. You want to use keywords thoughtfully because if you stuff too many keywords into your content it will come across as spammy and turn potential customers away. In addition to using relevant keywords, you also want to make sure that they're being used in the right context so that Google understands their meaning and relevance. This process of figuring out which keywords to use is called "keyword research." Once you've figured out which keywords to use, it's important to track their progress so that you can see which ones are working and which ones need to be changed or removed altogether. This process is called "keyword tracking."
Bulk Uploading
Duplicate Content
Google Analytics
Header Tags
Image Alt Tags
Keyword Density
Keyword Research
Keyword Stuffing
Meta Descriptions
Mobile Friendliness
PageSpeed
InsightsRank Checker
SERP Standing
Title Tags
URL Structure
XML sitemaps
By improving factors like website content and structure, as well as using backlinks and keywords, you can help improve your website's ranking in search engine results pages. This will ultimately lead to more traffic and more customers for your business.
These are just some of the many terms associated with SEO but knowing these should help you feel more confident when talking about digital marketing strategies with your team! As always if there's something we didn't cover or if you have any questions please reach out in the comments below!
There's a lot that goes into Search Engine Optimization but hopefully after reading this post you feel more equipped with knowledge about how it works! If you're interested in learning more about digital marketing or honing your skills check out our previous blog post!
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