The advent of the internet and technology has grown the market of online business over the past few years. This has increased the competition among online businesses. And to remain competitive, businesses are making their digital presence more valuable, visible, and available to customers. That is why, business owners taking steps toward digital marketing and promoting their websites through various marketing channels.
In this blog, we will have a complete discussion on one of the digital marketing aspects called “SEO”. Now you might be thinking that What is SEO ?, How it can promote our online business? Read this article to the end.
By the end of this article, you will have a clear understanding of search engine optimization and how it can benefit your online business.
Here we will start with basic
What is SEO? And Why it is Important?
SEO Stands for “Search Engine Optimization” It is the process of ranking a website or a piece of content on the top of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The purpose of SEO is to drive more visitors to the company’s website and increase its chances of getting more conversions which yields more customers and leads.
For instance, if you are looking to buy sports shoes, then you will type “sports shoes” on the Google search bar. You will see the number of sites offering these services. But you will click only the first few pages and never go for the other pages. This is what SEO does, it will help the site to rank in the first positions.
Basically, it is all about fulfilling the user’s search needs by creating high-quality and relevant content and providing the best user experience.
SEO activities take place on two sites On-Page and Off-Page. The activity includes
- Content Optimizations
- Keyword Research
- Link Building
- Technical Optimizations
Why Search Engine Optimization is Important?
However, Paid advertising, Social media, can drive traffic to your website but the ultimate goal is still to generate organic traffic. Because paid traffic needs continuous funding while organic traffic can give you results without investing a single penny.
Organic results offer more visibility and provide more credibility to the searchers. It receives way more traffic, and clicks than paid advertisements. Search engine optimization has 20 times more traffic than PPC on mobiles and desktops.
So, who will invest in paid marketing, when organic results can give more output?
Hence, Organic results are only possible with SEO. It consists of multiple elements which make your online business more visible. And high visibility boosts high traffic and gives more opportunities to convert your prospects into customers.
The only phenomenon of SEO is
“Higher You Rank, the More Traffic Your Page will Get “
How Does SEO Work?
Search engine optimization is an element of search engines. Search engines are used by people whenever they are looking for an answer to their queries. SE relies on different computer algorithms. This algorithm helps determine which pages should rank for a given keyword whenever any query is fired.
However, before the search engine discovers the relevant content, it has to go through three steps: –
STEP 1: Crawling
The very first step is crawling. The web crawlers sometimes called “Robots” and “Spiders”, are sent to discover or re-discover new and existing pages on the web. The purpose of Crawler is to visit the pages and periodically check the content whether they have been changed or updated.
Crawlers visit the web pages by following the links they have already discovered. That is why backlinking and internal linking is essential for your SEO.
For instance, if you have a new article post, and it is linked from your homepage, then search engines will crawl your home page and then look for another link to follow and might follow the link to your new blog posts.
STEP 2: Indexing
The second step is Indexing. Here search engines decide whether or not to use the content that it has crawled. If the crawler finds the content appropriate, then it will be added to the index. And the crawled content will be stored in the database and later it will be retrieved whenever any relevant query occurs.
Mostly, the web pages which offer unique and relevant content are placed into the index. Web pages might not be in the index if
- the content is duplicate
- the content is low or spammy
- It is against the search engine guidelines
- the page or domain lacked in-bound links
STEP 3: Ranking
The last step is Ranking, which is the most important step. It is done after the completion of Crawling and Indexing. So, once a search engine has crawled and indexed your site, the site can be ranked.
The search engine uses more than 200 ranking factors to sort and rank the pages and they all come under the three pillars of SEO: technical optimization, On-page optimization, and off-page optimization. Some of its ranking signals are:
Speed
Backlink Profile
Use of Keywords
Responsiveness, etc
How Does Google Know How to Rank?
The main goal of a search engine is to provide relevant information to the users. Every time you use them, it uses its algorithm to find out the pages relevant to the user’s query and then rank them.
Search engine depends on two factors to deliver the right information
Relevancy – It looks at the relevancy between the search query and the content on the page. Search engine access it by various ranking factors like Keywords, titles, tags, etc.
Authority – It is measured by the website’s popularity on the internet. According to Google, the website which has more popular, its content is more valuable to its readers.
SE uses a complex algorithm to analyze these pieces of information. And search engine keeps their algorithm secret.
For determining authority and relevancy, an E-A-T framework can help tremendously. E-A-T in SEO indicates “Expertise”, Authoritivenss” and “Trustworthiness”. However, these are not direct ranking factors, but they could improve your SEO ranking factors which can impact direct ranking factors.
But, adding more content, optimizing images, and improving internal links can affect your rankings and search visibility both. Each of these actions improves the ranking factor.
What are the most Important SEO Ranking Factors?
Let’s have a look at some SEO ranking factors
Page Speed
Website speed is one of the major ranking factors. The search engine does not like the page which loads slowly. So, to get a higher ranking, this factor is a must to note down.
Keyword Optimization
The proper use of keywords helps search engines to know your website and present it before the user. So, you should be careful while choosing keywords.
Secure and Accessible websites
The website must be secure and it should be smoothly accessible to your users. It will help you to achieve a better ranking.
Mobile Friendliness
Today, most searches occur from mobile phones rather than desktops. So, the site should be responsive to all devices.
Optimized and Relevant Content
Make sure that your content is written in a way, that can reach a large and targeted audience. It includes the proper use of keywords, meta-titles, and tags.
Links (Internal and External)
Make proper use of links so that crawlers can crawl your site and enhances the authority of your sites
These are not enough ranking factors, there are way more than this, read SEO Ranking Factors that boost traffic to your site.
Three Pillars of SEO
SEO relies on these three pillars, On – page Optimization, Off-page Optimization, and Technical SEO. These are the three major types of SEO.
On-Page Optimization
As the name suggests, it is a process of optimizing elements on the page of your website. In other words, whatever you are doing to improve your site ranking directly on the site is called On-Page optimization. It ensures that the search engine understands the page topic and the keywords and can match it to the relevant searches.
Common On-Page Elements Include ➖
- Keywords Optimizations
- Meta Titles and Tags
- Content Optimizations
- Internal Linking
- Image File name and Alt Tag,
- Page Performance Optimization, and more
Off-Page Optimization
Off-page optimizations include the tactics you are applying outside of your website to improve its ranking. The goal of Off-page optimization is to get search engines to see your site as valuable and trustworthy.
Common Off-Page Elements Include ➖
- Link Building ( also called Backlink)
- Brand Awareness
- Guest Blogging
- Email Outreach
- Content Marketing
- Social Media, and more
Technical Optimization
Technical optimizations refer to the activities that directly impact how your search engine index and crawl. Making a website faster, easier to crawl, and more understandable for search engines are the three pillars of technical optimization.
CommonTechnical Optimization Elements include ➖
- Site loading Speed
- Structured Data
- XML sitemaps
- Canonicalization
- HrefLang, and more
SEO Specialities
Search engine optimization has different specialties, and each of these works differently than “Normal SEO”. Let’s have a look
E-commerce SEO
This is an optimization process for an online store. It includes optimizing category pages, product pages, internal linking structures, product images, schema, reviews, and more.
Enterprise SEO
Enterprise SEO works on a massive scale. It is the process of focusing on SEO strategy, that will improve organic visibility and leads the revenue for larger organizations. This SEO type deals with a site that has millions of pages. Doing enterprise SEO means dealing with multiple stakeholders.
Local SEO
The main aim of this type of SEO is to optimize a website for visibility in the local search results. Any business that has a physical location and serves in a geographical area can get the benefits of Local SEO.
International SEO
This type of SEO is performed for international businesses. It is the process of optimizing a website or a piece of content so that search engines can identify which countries you want to target and which language you should use in your business. It optimizes the websites for international search engines like Baidu and Naver.
News SEO
With News, Speed has significant importance. You need to make sure that you get into the Google index as quickly as possible and appear in the places such as Google Top Stories, Google Discover as well as Google News. Therefore, it requires having an understanding of SEO best practices for paywalls, section pages, news-specific structured data, and more.
SEO Strategies: White Hat vs Black Hat Techniques
SEO is the long-term way to go and it’s a game of patience. However, it is not the same case for everyone, because everyone chases quick gains and moves on to something else.
In Seach engine Optimizations, Quick gains mean “Black Hat Technique”. Say, it’s a shortcut to make your website higher in search results within a quick period of time. This technique works against search engine guidelines, therefore it is considered an unethical tactic that might make your website penalized. Then it may take a long time to recover from a penalty or might you can’t recover it permanently.
The techniques include Keyword stuffing, spammy links, duplicate content, SEO cloaking, poor link-building practices, and much more.
While, if we look at another side, there is one technique called the “White Hat Technique”. Like Black Hat, it won’t provide you quicker results, but it will give you the lifetime output. This technique works as per the search engine guidelines and it is considered the best tactic to use for optimization. As it does not violate any search engine guidelines, there is no fear of the site getting penalized.
The technique includes Quality content optimizations, Keywords Research, powerful link building, image optimizations, unique and relevant page titles, and much more.
| White-Hat Technique | Black-Hat Technique |
|---|---|
| It does not violate any search engine guidelines | It works against the search engine guidelines |
| It is the ethical way to use | It is an Unethical way to use |
| It is the way to build a sustainable online business | There is a possibility of getting the site penalized |
| Offers long-term results | Offers Quick – results |
Benefits of SEO
Your business can have different benefits of SEO if it is done correctly. Here we are mentioning some of its benefits.
High-Quality Website Traffic
SEO in business yields high-quality traffic to your website. Search engine optimization is hyper-targeted and customer-centric. An effective SEO strategy will make your website reach its potential customers and drive relevant traffic.
Credibility and Trust
Ranking on the first page boosts credibility and trust among potential customers. Google ranks websites based on various signals such as powerful content, website speed, and mobile usability. It aims to deliver relevant content to its users. Do you know? 75% of search engine users do not move to the second page
Therefore, trust is developed in search engine authority and products and services build customer credibility.
24/7 Promotion
Search engine optimization is not bounded by work hours. Like paid advertising, the content will not disappear after the budget runs out. Organic ranking achieves through SEO promotes your websites 24/7. It is different because it helps your business reach out to its customers while searching for it.
Reaches Your Entire Target Audience
SEO is not only for the organization targeting a single audience. It is effective for industries targeting multiple audiences.
For instance, a Pool installation company provides services for homeowners or commercial, i.e two different audiences. Similarly, SEO makes your businesses target multiple audiences with intent-driven keyword research.
Increases Your Brand – Awareness
If your business continues to appear in the search results, it increases the brand awareness of your products and services. It builds trust with your customers. With your SEO and content. Your content marketing and SEO strategy shows consumers that you’re more than just a supplier
The valuable resource of your industry information increases your value to the customers.
Improves User-Engagement Roles
A well-optimized site brings quality traffic. If your content is relevant to your searcher’s intent, then they will like to spend more time on your content which can ultimately lead you to generate more conversions and ROI. Customers who give more time to a website connect to the brand more. It can generate customer advocacy and long-term revenue.
For improving user engagement roles, use any one SEO audit tool and analyze your site and make improvements in titles and meta – descriptions. Also, make sure that you are providing safe and mobile-friendly websites to your users.
Makes Your Digital Marketing Strategy Stronger
When you apply digital marketing, SEO is the most probably part you are implementing. It leads you to enhance your digital marketing strategy in multiple ways plus strengthens your overall campaigns.
By building a stronger digital marketing strategy, you are increasing your competitiveness in an online marketplace.
Do’s and don’t of SEO
SEO is an ever-changing field, which is why some practices become antiquated over time. We have brought up some elements that you should keep in mind while applying your SEO strategy and consider the following up-to-date do’s and don’t of SEO
Don’t Stuff Your Keywords on One Page
Make sure that you are using specific and relevant keywords for each page. This will help you to prevent your own page from competing against each other. And it will make a clear understanding to the search engines and the visitors.
Do Add Relevant Keywords to the Page
Incorporate keywords that are relevant to your page content. Because search engine checks it consistently. Moreover, a backlink from another website will mark as a vote of confidence in your content.
Do Create Relevant Content
Focus on your relevant content, so that customers can enjoy reading your page. It increases the chances of moving up and brings more traffic to your site.
Don’t Ignore User Search Intent
Maintaining a user’s search intent is the ultimate goal of Google with search results. That is why, intent should not be avoided.
The intent is divided broadly into three categories Informational, navigational, and Commercial Intent search.
If your user wants information, then find keywords with the intent of information. If the user wants to buy, then point them to service/product pages. And, if you want to navigate a page through a specific page query, then make sure you own your own’s brand navigational query.
Don’t Engage in Keyword Stuffing and Natural Phising Process
Keywords should be naturally implemented in the content. If page content does not make sense to you, other users might feel the same and not like your content.
Do Make Your MetaData Representative to the Page
It is important to add the keywords in your metadata so that they will appear bolded in the related searches and grab the attention of the people.
Don’t Ignore Negative Reviews
It is important to respond to every comment, even if they seem old and untrue to you. Searchers don’t know the context, whether it is negative or positive they will only see how you handle your potential customers.
Do Refutes Poor Quality In-Bound Links
Third-party sites can hurt the success of your Website. If a poor-quality website has been linked to your site,
SEO Tools
Without data, you can’t get effective search engine optimization. Therefore for fetching data, you would require some SEO reporting tools. These tools will make your work easier and let you handle your tasks smoothly.
Although there are plenty of tools available in SEO, let’s check out some of them here.
Google Analytics
This is the best tool for traffic analysis owned by Google itself. It is an easy and free-to-use tool. You can use it for measuring SEO metrics such as performance, traffic, time on page, page engagements, number of pages, and lots more.
Google Search Console
It is essential for technical SEO. It helps you to monitor, maintain and troubleshoot your site presence in Google search results. You can use it for getting the details of Core Web Vitals, granular query analysis, indexing, and many more.
Keywords Research Tools
You will need this tool to find out the relevant keywords and analyze their competition and search volume. There are various paid and premium keyword research tools are available. Keyword Planner is a free tool of Google and the other tools are SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz Pro, Ubersuggest, etc.
SEO Software
If you want to get detailed information about search engine optimizations, then you will need premium tools with more advanced keyword data. Some tools offer free trial versions for the first 500 links.
How Much Does SEO Cost?
SEO cost is not stable, it depends upon various factors. Some factors determining the price of SEO include the goal of your business, requirements, the timeline of the services, the pricing system of the company, and the tools they will require for carrying out the process.
For a small business, you can estimate the cost between $500 to $1000. And the timeline for the service is about 3 months with constant customer support.
Should I Hire an SEO Professional or an Agency?
Outsourcing an SEO agency could be cheaper than hiring an individual specialist. Because you get the support of the whole team with a low budget. While if you hire SEO Expert, you have to scale up their pay according to their demands and expectations.
After all, SEO is a long-term process, therefore, hiring an SEO agency helps your business to earn more by providing access to advanced digital marketing techniques, experienced SEO specialists, and more.
If you are wondering whether to choose an SEO agency or not, then book our free consultancy in UPSQODE – the leading SEO services, it will be our pleasure to guide you on the right path.
Conclusion
Hope you got the brief idea about search engine optimization, the above information is the best of our knowledge and experience. If you are a business owner and thinking to increase your digital presence in this virtual world. Then SEO is the only way to acquire your brand’s awareness.
But before hiring an SEO expert, be sure of your goals and understand all your project requirements. Because SEO is simple, but yet complex, if it is done correctly you can have a tremendous effect on your site and if it’s not properly done, it can even hurt your site.
FAQs
What is SEO?
SEO means search engine optimization, it is the process of optimizing a site to generate high traffic by making the sites appear on the top of search engines.
What are the 4 types of SEO?
The 4 types of SEO include On-page SEO, Off-page SEO, Local SEO, and Technical SEO.
On-Page SEO: Whatever activities you are performing directly on the page of your website is referred to as On-page SEO. it includes keyword optimization, content optimizations, Image optimizations, and many more.
Off-Page SEO: The activities you are performing outside of your page are referred to as Off-page SEO. It includes brand awareness, link-building, guest-post submission, social bookmarking, social media linking, etc.
Technical SEO – It looks after the technical aspects of your website like website speed, page user experience, responsiveness, and many more.
Local SEO – It is the process of optimizing a website to get a ranking in the local search results. Its main aim is to acquire local customers and get sales. Google My Business listing is an example of Local SEO.
What are SEO tactics?
The top 5 SEO tactics are
- Long-tail keyword integration
- Titles and meta-description
- Reputation backlinks
- Fast page speed
- Responsive designs
What are the 3c’s of SEO?
Content, Code, and Credibility are the 3 c’s of an SEO
Is it easy to learn SEO?
SEO is not hard to learn, it takes time, effort, and persistence. If you are a beginner with SEO, then you will feel this topic overwhelming. You will get a lot of things to learn so you have to keep trying.
What are the 3 cores of SEO?
The 3 cores of SEO include authority, relevance, and experience. Focussing on these three pillars will increase the opportunities of your content and make your link earning easier.
How much does SEO cost per month?
The pricing of SEO depends on several factors like the business complexity, requirements, and amount of competition they are having. Basically, businesses may cost between $1500 to $2000 per month for SEO. But with UPSQODE, you can avail of SEO services at affordable costs.
How long does it take for SEO to work?
Search engine optimization is not a fast-track process. One needs to be patient to getting SEO success. You need to have long-term SEO plans and it can take up to 6 months or a year to rank for the top-most keywords.
What is the most important factor in SEO marketing?
No one factor is important for SEO. All the elements of SEO have their own importance. But one thing you have to keep in mind is that you should be relevant to your content, you must choose relevant keywords and provide quality information to your clients. Because search engines love to rank only quality sites.
Why should we use SEO Tools?
You can’t get success without data in SEO. In search engine optimizations, you have to remain in continuous data analysis. And it is only possible through SEO tools. These tools provide data and alerts about the overall health and success of your website.
SEO tools help you to uncover the areas of opportunities and identify the weakness or issues that might prevent your site from search engine rankings.