What is search engine optimization (SEO)?

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is a term used in digital marketing that refers to as the process of optimizing your website or e-commerce platform that allows search engines to automatically make your website appear on top search results whenever a query related to your niche occurs.

For instance, let’s just say you have a jewelry-making business, you sell products and provide information related to Jewelry. So whenever a web user searches about jewelry, your website appears in search results if your website is optimized.

The core elements of SEO that work together to optimize platform

Search engine optimization has various elements that use core elements together to make SEO work for optimized results. Search engine optimization elements or types:

On-page SEO – On-page SEO also called on-site search engine optimization is a technique of SEO that involves all the elements of a website that are visible and can be handled by the marketer or website owner. Various on-page factors determine the website rankings on search results. On-page aspects deal with SEO elements that directly make interaction with customers.

On-page SEO works with technical SEO that helps improve rankings, but what is technical SEO, and why it’s important.

Technical SEO as the name suggests will improve the technical aspects of websites that help improve rankings and provide a better user experience. Technical SEO is part of on-page SEO that makes users’ website experience easier and more optimized. Various factors that determine on-page and technical SEO are:

• Keywords: Keywords are the key phrases or words used by web users for search queries. Incorporating these keywords into website content helps you to reach your customers when they are searching for you. Keywords target a specific audience to attract to your website through various on-page factors such as title tags, meta tags, meta description, and heading. Use targeted keywords in these factors and website content for higher SEO rankings.
• Page loading speed: It is part of the technical SEO that should be optimized for a better user experience. When a web page takes more time to load, customers get frustrated, and they are more likely to switch to other websites.
• Mobile-friendliness: Most users now use mobile devices to visit websites, your website should be optimized for all devices for the best user experience. It should provide a similar interface and interaction on any device.
• Link building: Links are the main source for crawlers to navigate from one webpage to another. If you want your website to be indexed and rank better, make sure you use quality external and internal links. Links are considered as one of the top three factors for ranking.
• Core Web Vitals: For a successful SEO strategy, the Core Web Vitals of your website should be checked regularly. Core Web Vitals are performance metrics of websites that help you improve your website for higher rankings.
• SSL certification: SSL certification is additional security provided on the websites to users for safe surfing. Websites having SSL certification are considered more credible and secure by search engine crawlers that help your website for higher rankings.

Off-page SEO – off-page or also called off-site search engine optimization that promotes your website across the search engine. These aspects of SEO are generally out of reach of website owners, so SEO experts can handle off-Page SEO better. Off-page SEO is an external factor that helps improve SEO rankings. Various off-page factors that contribute to SEO are:

• Reviews: Positive and strong reviews act as recommendations for customers and give a strong signal to search engines about the credibility and authority of your platform.

• Off-site references: The external factors such as social media marketing, influencer marketing that drive more customers to your platform are off-site references.

• Citations and My business listing: They use your business name, address, and phone number to improve website visibility for local search queries. If your business has a physical presence, these factors play a crucial role in traffic.

These are some of the common on-page, off-page, and technical SEO factors that determine search rankings.

Both on-page and Off-page SEO factors work together to optimize the website for higher rankings. When search engine crawlers crawl your website and algorithms determine your rankings, they consider over factors. However, a few factors weigh more than the others, if you work on them properly, you can improve your website rankings and maintain higher rankings for the long term.

How does SEO work?

Search engine Google uses more than 200 factors to determine the rankings of websites. When people have a query, they are searching on a search engine, the search engine crawlers find the best possible results through SEO algorithms. Search engines like Google rely on algorithms that help to find websites providing solutions to search queries and ranking websites based on these algorithms.

Search engines use crawlers to find new web pages, they are also called web spiders or robots to discover new webpages or revisit existing websites to understand if they updated new content. Search crawlers use links to crawl from one website to another. These crawlers index these web pages based on your website content. Crawlers cannot index your website if you are using duplicate content, lack internal or inbound links or your content seems spammy. The indexing of websites is essential for website rankings because when a search query occurs, these indexed websites are ranked on search results based on ranking factors. Non-indexed websites will not be able to find rankings. Google uses 200 ranking factors to rank websites on search results. SEO helps your website to optimize based on these factors to improve your website rankings. These rankings are determined by three core SEO elements – On-page, off-page, and technical.

SEO helps your website for a better position, what is website positioning, and why do you need it?

Website position refers to the type of methods used for your website to rank on search results or search engines to achieve more organic and paid traffic. These methods improve website visibility on search engines that Ultimately help to drive more traffic.

Website positioning is crucial for any business to improve its rankings and growth using various SEO techniques, strategies. The methods used for website positioning are SEO strategies or elements that contribute to better ranking.

Why do you require Search Engine Optimization?

According to a Google Survey, 75% of web users click on the top three search results, and the rest click on search results on the first page. If they do not find answers to their query, they are more likely to change search keywords rather than opting for other websites because they find top-ranking websites more trustworthy and reliable. That showcases how important it is to rank on top search results. Google uses 200 ranking factors that determine where your website will rank on top or not. SEO is not only beneficial for better rankings but also:

To bring organic search: To drive more organic customers to your platform, SEO can play an important role. Unlike other digital marketing strategies or techniques, you do not need to pay to drive more traffic and your traffic will not stop once your budget gets exhausted.

To build trust and credibility: Web users find three ranked websites more trustworthy and credible than other websites, it’s slightly helpful to form a foundation of trust for new customers with a higher ranking. New customers will only click on your website if they find it more credible than others.

To understand customer needs: SEO can help you find what they want, what kind of content they are looking for, and why, where they are looking. Such information helps you improve your products and services for business growth.

To improve chances of high conversion rates: Websites that drive high organic traffic have chances of converting more leads through on-page optimization. When a user finds your website good and has a better user experience, they are more likely to visit you again. You can convert your visitor into a customer and a customer into a loyal customer.

To build a strong long-term marketing strategy: Unlike other digital marketing techniques, SEO will not wipe out when you run out of budget. For instance, when you run other digital marketing campaigns, you require a budget to reach customers, when the budget gets exhausted your campaign stops. However, SEO is a long-term strategy that can help your website’s visibility for the long term.

SEO is a dynamic process, search engines keep on changing and updating algorithms for providing web users the best results. Therefore, websites need to constantly keep a check on the latest updates and trends to alter their SEO strategies for optimized results.

This guide clearly helps you understand deep insights into What is SEO and how it can help you.

Are you looking for an SEO expert? If yes, then this is your cue. They can help you reach higher rankings through effective SEO strategies and tactics with optimized results.