How does SEO optimization work? An SEO basics guide

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If you want a high-ranking website in search results from potential customers, then you must know the SEO basics. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s essential for reaching your target audience, no matter what industry you are in or the size of your organization.

Online Visibility

Unfortunately, it’s not just a one-step process to increase your brand’s visibility online. Indeed, brand success doesn’t just happen overnight with so many competitors in the digital space.

Creating a unique name is a great way to start to differentiate yourself from the pack, but then what? With new companies emerging every day and building websites to showcase their offerings, how do you connect with your target audience? How do you ensure they choose your business over another one?

An essential part of a solid marketing strategy in today’s world must include SEO. And a fundamental part of this term is optimization.

What does Optimize Mean?

To “optimize” an online article, blog post, or webpage means that it has the greatest opportunity to drive traffic back to your platform. Whether you’re a growing business or a solo entrepreneur, SEO is what will get more people looking at your products and services online, which will, in turn, boost the opportunities for sales.

An SEO optimized site is one that users can find on their own, gets new visitors each day, has a strong brand, and is distinguishable from the competition. Below are essentials for achieving this type of website.

Indexing

Essentially, it would help if you underwent Search Engine Optimization, or the optimization of that written content, to make your web page easier for indexing by popular search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

When it is strong in SEO, content is crawlable by search engine software and gets indexed so that it can then appear in results pages. In addition to indexing the content on your site’s pages and posts, also update your business listings and ensure you’re on Google Maps.

Use of Keywords

Ranking highly in searches involves strategic use of specific keywords and providing top-notch, relevant information for your audience in your unique web page. Keywords refer to terms that your audience is searching for, and you want to dominate in the ones that are buy-related to encourage sales.

Keyword ranking is essential to getting eyes on your website. If you don’t rank for what users are searching for on their phones, tablets, laptops, or desktops, then you’re not going to get seen in the vast online world.

And if that’s the case, then it doesn’t matter how good the latest article you’ve written is, unfortunately, because it won’t get read. It pays to do keyword research before publishing a page or post, literally!

The End Goals

This strategy will go far toward your web pages and your site as a whole, showing up in search results and hopefully rise in results page ranking with time to even get to the first page of SERPs (search engine results pages). Put in the effort and search volume can increase significantly.

Now you’re learning the basics of SEO, including SERPs, crawling, indexing, and keywords. But keep in mind that online visibility is always changing; you must regularly invest time and resources in updating the website to continue to meet customer demands and stay relevant in search rankings.

Can you believe there’s more to SEO than only that? It’s true.

SEO is More than Just the Content

There’s also more to consider than only keyword research in your content for good SEO. Your entire website needs consideration.

Mobile-friendly

Your site and each of its pages and articles or blogs must be mobile-friendly. That phrase means it’s fast to load on that smartphones and tablets that many people use to search the web.

Not sure where to start? Use a menu on your mobile version of the site that differs from the desktop version.

Yes, that’s right, you’ll want to have two different versions of your website to make sure it looks the best and is the fastest for the user, whether they’re on their phone or PC.

This type of design is what you’ve likely heard described as “responsive.” A responsive design is what Google prefers for SEO; a mobile-friendly structure has been a ranking factor since 2015.

The main reason why the search giant prizes mobile-friendly design is that it makes the search experience easier for users. Basically, the site shrinks and grows depending on what device it’s viewed all, all while maintaining the same URL and HTML structure.

On a related note, make sure it’s apparent to the user how to get around the site. Otherwise, they won’t go looking through your webpages looking for a specific product or service of yours to solve their problem (the reason why they came to your website in the first place).

Internal and External Links

Also, consider link quality both from and to your website, including the backlinks on your website. Ask yourself how many other sites are linking back to yours and whether they are of high value, as this quality is part of what many search engines use to decide SERP rankings.

Internal or inbound links refer to links within your website. Meanwhile, outbound or external links are links to outside sources (other platforms than yours) that provide added value, such as a research study to back up what you’re saying in your article.

Ensure you use both inbound and outbound links. That way, Google can cache pages that are indexed.

Keep in mind that Google crawls both internal and external links, so you’ll want to make sure that you don’t link to spammy or low-quality sites. Also, fix broken links when you have the chance; they can hinder your SEO, not to mention annoying readers who click on them only to get a dead end. Those users may never return to your site after the poor experience, which means you’ve lost a potential customer.

Other Parts of SEO

Other areas of SEO to focus on are providing value with what you write to position yourself as an authority in your niche, optimized page titles and meta descriptions, testimonials, and local SEO.

The word “authority” is a buzzword in SEO right now, and for a good reason. Search engines, such as Google, value authority, and rank pages highly that have lots of it.

It’s not a fast strategy by any means, but it’s a quality one that can make you a clear leader in your industry. To get to authority status, you’ll have to do several things, including:

·         Create a content strategy, including scheduling unique posts that publish regularly

·         Share your tips to solve user problems

·         Take part in online forums, Facebook groups, and other discussion platforms

·         Focus on specific topics to grow yourself as an expert in those areas

·         See what the competition is doing right and how you can customize it to achieve success like them

Be consistent in your approach, rather than following these tips for a month or two only. Over time you can win at getting higher SERPs and attracting your target audience to your website.

Build trust, and your company’s reputation will increase at the same time.

Final Words on SEO Optimization

While it might sound overwhelming, tackling the fundamentals is easier with the help of an SEO company to craft an SEO strategy that increases your brand’s online visibility to bring more people to your website. There is a lot you can do to boost SEO with an experienced marketer at your side while you focus on running the daily operations of the company.