What is SEO?

SEO is an undying buzzword in the online world, and this is for the best reason. So, what is SEO?

SEO is extremely important right now with almost all pieces of available content online. If you don’t manage and design your online presence properly, you might soon find yourself getting drowned in the overwhelming flood of hundreds and thousands of other websites. If you don’t have the slightest idea of how you can start optimizing your website or what it means in the first place, don’t worry. Today, you will learn about the basics of SEO. 

SEO – A Quick Definition 

SEO or search engine optimization is the process of coming up with regular website improvements to get better and higher rankings in search engine results pages or SERPs. 

There are different types of strategies and techniques involved in SEO that you can use for website optimization to boost the amount of traffic that it gets. Traffic that comes from search engines, also called organic traffic, is valuable since visitors actually look for your offers. It is far more likely for them to convert to customers more often no matter what your goals might be. 

It may be a bit of a challenge to try to outrank your competitors and this is where SEO comes in handy. If Google and the rest of the major search engines find it easy to understand and read your content, they will put you on a higher rank in their search results. 

How SEO Works 

SEO optimizes your site in order for people to find it easily with the use of certain keywords. 

The optimization can offer benefits by:

  • Making the search engines more reliable 
  • Providing relevant information to the people
  • Driving better and more organic traffic 

Even though search results show up right away, there is actually a rather complex process happening in the search engine. In fact, the process begins way before you type your keywords on that search bar and click on enter. 

For you to have a clear perspective, first, you should get some insights into how search engines work. 

A search engine performs three primary tasks for every search that you make:

  1. Crawling – It is the process that takes place during the earlier stages. This is all about gathering information from thousands and millions of websites from all over the world, including all pages and links therein. 
  2. Indexing – Once information is collected, the web crawlers are going to store these pieces of information in the entry list known as an index. 
  3. Ranking – Results are going to be shown in proper order according to the ones that best match the keyword being searched for. 

To guarantee the results’ quality, search engines are using an algorithm, which is basically a set of rules. 

These search engine algorithms help ensure that people are going to get information that is most relevant to their search that comes from the most trusted and reliable sources. 

The most famous search engine, Google, has its own dedicated team that works on their algorithm. This team is in charge of the improvement of the quality of the experience of users every time they use Google. 

There are instances when Google uses a special name for algorithm changes they use. A good example is Panda. This was the algorithm change that targeted to rewarding, penalizing, and screening content. Penguin, on the other hand, is the algorithm change that prevents spamdexing. A hummingbird was later made to improve both.  

You can easily see that the top priority of Google is great website content. 

The Importance of SEO for Businesses 

When your website is better optimized, it is more likely for it to rank higher in search engine results pages. If the rank is higher, more people are going to see and click on your site. Every time you search for a term in Google, you surely don’t click through all the pages just to find the answer to your question. Instead, you just click on those results you see on the first page. When your website is closer to the top and easier to find, users will find it more convenient to look for your business. SEO also brings more qualified website traffic that means more leads, more sales, and more profits for your business.