What is SEO & How does it work?
Definition of SEO
SEO stands Search Engine Optimization. That describes the process of improving your website’s ranking in search results. The goal of search engine optimization is to boost traffic to your website.
This is done through creating quality content, and building authority in your niche in the eyes of search algorithms. Through using the right SEO company, you can be sure to grow your business’ organic search traffic.
SEO has in recent years turned into a huge industry. The value of SEO for online business, and in person business is increasingly large due to the rise of technology. Everyone looks for products, services and people online. Being at the top of google searches is a huge benefit for any business.
The SEO industry is forecast to reach $122.11 billion by 2028. That is why there are so many SEO companies chasing your business. I’m sure you’ve received the emails from SEO specialists promising to take your web pages up the search rankings.
In this article we will cover how search engine optimization works, and how to get started on your own SEO.
Importance of SEO
Benefits of SEO
A good SEO strategy is designed to build organic search traffic to your website. That means, no continuous investment in ads, or paid search traffic. By ranking highly on google search, your business will passively bring in potential leads from your website.
By catering your SEO strategy to search intent, meaning the intent of the person searching, you can effectively target your desired audiences. That would be, potential clients, customers or patients.
The benefits don’t stop there. With increased organic traffic, also comes increased online visibility. The more people finding you online, the more people that know your business. It is then your job to ensure your products and services are good enough to convert these to recurring visitors/customers.
Thus continuous the cycle. New customers finding you online, turning into repeat visitors, meaning a compounding increase in traffic to your web pages.
How Search Engines Work
Understanding Search Engines
Search engines are always developing their algorithms. Google implements constant updates to their ranking factors. But to break down the way that these work is to consider two key things. Your websites relevance to a search term, and your digital authority.
Keyword relevance
Keyword relevance is essentially the measure of how appropriate your website is for a particular search term. This will be a key factor in establishing your ranking in search results. Google is looking for informative high quality content. So how do we establish ourselves as having high quality content for google search engine optimization?
Investigate search intent: If a particular keyword, for example “How does SEO work?” your web page selling your SEO services may not fit the intent. The searcher is looking for an answer to a question, rather than looking to buy a service.
Note: However it may still be useful to write an article answering that question, as the traffic coming from that may convert into potential sales in future.
Research the topic: Writing high quality and informative content relies on deep knowledge on the subject. Make sure you check out the top ranking search results. Note their structure, word count, and common key points.
Use content writing tools: Yoast has a free real time content marketing checker. It evaluates the readability and the way it is written for SEO optimization. Things like using an active voice, transition words, and using clear concise language.
Niche Authority
Search engines ranking your authority based off backlinks. This is a crucial part of providing any SEO services. Link building with other websites in your niche shows search engine algorithms that you are a credible source of information.
For example, if you are a medical practice, any information, studies or blog posts you write, if referred to by other websites in the medical industry, will boost your niche authority.
This is the most difficult part of search engine optimization. It is really what differentiates good SEO companies from bad ones.
Building your niche authority, and having good, optimized content marketing will guarantee you increased ranking in search results.
Search Engine Ranking
Google, the leading search engine, has hundreds of ranking factors. But an important thing to consider here is, how does google know?
In short google has crawlers that go through websites and evaluate them for search rankings. So why does this matter to us? It matters because our goal, alongside the keyword relevance and niche authority, is to make sure it is as easy as possible for the crawlers to navigate our site.
So having a well created site structure is also an important factor in getting indexed by google. Your site should be easy to navigate, and no content should take more than 3 clicks to reach.
By understanding how the search engines work, we are getting more prepared to consider how to actually do your website’s SEO.
Next Steps
Now you should have a slightly better understanding of what search engine algorithms are looking for. The next thing to consider is how to actually get to that stage. How to most efficiently cover the three main topics discussed. Keyword relevance, Niche authority, and Crawlability.
That is really now getting into the nitty gritty of SEO processes and you can continue reading for step by step guidance in this article.
