What is Search Engine Optimization?
SEO stands for 'search engine optimization.' It means making your website better so it shows up more often in search engines like Google and Bing. This helps people find your site when they look for:
- The products you sell
- The services you offer
- Information on topics you know a lot about
The more visible your pages are in search results, the more likely people are to visit them. The main goal of SEO is to attract visitors to your website, turning them into customers, clients, or regular readers.
Why is SEO Important?
SEO is an important marketing channel because organic search accounts for 53% of all website traffic. This is a key reason why the global SEO industry is expected to reach $122.11 billion by 2028. SEO helps businesses of all sizes achieve real results.
Whenever people want to go somewhere, learn something, or buy a product or service, they usually start with a search. However, search is now very fragmented. Users might search on traditional search engines like Google or Bing, social platforms like YouTube or TikTok, or retail sites like Amazon.
In fact, 61% of U.S. online shoppers begin their product search on Amazon, while 49% start on a search engine like Google. Another important point from the same research is:
- 32% start on Walmart.com
- 20% on YouTube
- 19% on Facebook
- 15% on Instagram
- 11% on TikTok.
With trillions of searches happening each year, search is often the main source of website traffic. This makes it important to be "search engine friendly" on any platform where people might search for your brand or business. In simple terms, making your website more visible and ranking higher than your competitors in search results can greatly help your business.
What are the Three Pillars of SEO?
As a digital marketer, it's essential to know how to make your brand, website, or company easily discoverable by searchers. Understanding how SEO is evolving will help you stay ahead. While SEO often sees minor changes, its fundamental principles remain consistent. These principles can be divided into three core components or pillars, which should be regularly addressed:
- Technical Optimization: This involves tasks aimed at improving your site's SEO that don't relate directly to content. These activities often happen behind the scenes. A basic example is submitting your sitemap to Google, which helps search engines understand the structure of your site.
- On-Page Optimization: This focuses on making sure the content on your site is relevant and offers a good user experience. It includes optimizing your content with the right keywords through on page SEO services, which can be done using content management systems like WordPress, Wix, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, or Shopify.
- Off-Page Optimization: This involves activities outside of your website that can improve its search engine rankings. The most significant aspect of off-page optimization is building high-quality backlinks, which enhance your site's reputation and authority.
How Do Search Engines Actually Work?
Search engines are tools people use to find answers online when they have a question or query. These engines use algorithms, which are computer programs designed to find the most relevant web pages for a given keyword, enhancing search engines visibility for users. It's important to remember that social media platforms also use algorithms for search purposes.
There are three main steps in how search engines work: crawling, indexing, and ranking.
1. Crawling
Crawling is the first step in the process. Search engines send out web crawlers, also known as spiders, robots, or Googlebots, to discover new web pages and gather information about them. These crawlers explore the internet by following links from previously discovered pages.
For example, if you have a blog linked from your homepage, the crawler will follow that link to your blog post when it visits your homepage.
2. Indexing
Indexing is the next step. This is where the search engine decides to store the content it has found. If a page is considered valuable, it will be added to the search engine's index, a database of stored web pages.
Not all pages are indexed; pages may be excluded if they contain duplicate content, are considered low-quality or spammy, couldn't be crawled, or lack inbound links. You can check which pages are indexed by typing ‘site:yourdomain.com’ into a search engine or using tools like Google Search Console's 'Index Coverage report'.
3. Ranking
Ranking is the final step and the most important. Once a site is crawled and indexed, it can be ranked. Search engines use over 200 ranking factors to determine the order in which pages appear in search results. These factors include technical optimization, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization.
Examples of ranking factors include:
- Keyword in Title Tag: If the keyword or a related term appears in the page's title tag.
- Loading Speed: How quickly the page loads and if it's mobile-friendly.
- Website Reputation: The credibility of the website and its content.
- Backlinks: The number and quality of links from other sites to the page.
- Content Quality and Relevance: If the content is valuable and relevant to the intended audience.
- Mobile Friendliness: If the site is optimized for mobile devices.
5 Key Components of SEO
1. Content
SEO content includes text, videos, images, and audio published on your website. It's a key part of an SEO strategy that helps increase your website's visibility and traffic. Without creating relevant content for your audience, search engines can't index your site or help it appear in search results. Depending on your niche, you can create content like video tutorials, blogs, case studies, whitepapers, e-books, and podcasts.
Since search engines like Google aim to provide users with high-quality and relevant results, your website content must be relevant to your audience. Optimizing your content helps improve its visibility in search results, making it more likely to reach your target audience. When producing written content, consider factors like length, readability, formatting, and linking to ensure it's high quality.
2. Keywords
Optimizing your content with important and relevant keywords is another vital part of an SEO strategy. These keywords are the terms your target audience uses when searching for information. Using the right keywords can significantly increase traffic to your website.
Keyword research helps you find out what your audience is looking for online. This information can enhance your website's SEO by using the right keywords to gain more visibility and attract more visitors.
3. Technical SEO
Technical SEO involves optimizing the structure of your website so search engines can easily find, index, and rank your pages. This includes managing aspects like page speed, sitemaps, URL structure, and site navigation. Though it might seem complex, technical SEO is important for making your website functional, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.
Without technical SEO, your website may have slow load times, leading to less traffic and revenue. A well-optimized website, on the other hand, can improve visibility, attract organic traffic, and build a good reputation.
4. On-Page SEO
On-page SEO, also known as on-site SEO, is about improving parts of a webpage to help it rank higher in search results and attract more visitors naturally. This includes posting relevant content and optimizing URLs, images, internal links, meta descriptions, title tags, and heading tags.
On-page SEO helps search engines like Google understand your site's relevance to a user's search query. The more relevant your content is, the higher it is likely to rank in search results.
5. Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO focuses on activities outside your website that improve your site's ranking on search engine results pages. This includes social media shares, attracting quality backlinks, and mentions across the internet. Off-page SEO helps build your site's relevance, credibility, and domain authority.
Off-page SEO is important because search engines also gather information about your site from outside sources. You can use blogger outreach services to gain good backlinks and support your SEO efforts.
Final Thoughts
SEO is an essential tool for enhancing your online presence and attracting the right audience to your content. But with constant changes in search algorithms and evolving user behaviors, the landscape of SEO is ever-shifting.
In the future, we might see even greater emphasis on voice search, AI-driven personalization, and local SEO. To stay ahead, it's important to continually refine your SEO strategies. Ignoring these trends could mean falling behind your competitors. Ultimately, SEO is more than just a technical task; it's a commitment to providing value to your audience.
FAQs
What does SEO do in digital marketing?
The main purpose of SEO is to increase a website's search visibility on search engines. This helps more people find the site when they search for related topics or keywords.
Can I do SEO myself?
Yes, you can definitely do SEO on your own without hiring a professional or agency. All you need is the willingness to learn and a website to practice on.
How do I start learning SEO?
This guide is a good starting point for learning SEO. If you want to learn more or prefer videos, check out Semrush Academy. They offer many free online courses taught by top experts like Eric Enge, Brian Dean, and Nathan Gotch.
Do I need an SEO tool?
To make informed decisions, you need accurate data. If your website earns money, investing in a complete SEO toolset is essential. It will cover all your SEO needs and is worth the cost.
