What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?
SEO is the practice of increasing organic traffic from the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). if you want to rank number one for any keywords, you need to apply SEO on your webpage to increasing your rank on search engine result pages.
To rank high on the SERP, you need to understand how search engines work. different types of SEO, and various SEO techniques you can use to improve your ranking on search engine.
How does SEO work?
Search engines use bots to crawl (scan) webpages on the internet, going from site to site for collecting information about those pages and putting them in a systemic order in search engine index.SEO Factors organized into 4 main categories and weights. For example, content quality and keyword research, crawlability and page speed are important factors.
The search engine algorithms are designed to surface relevant, authoritative pages and provide users with an efficient search experience.
Optimizing your site and content with these factors it will help to rank higher in the search engine. There are two common approaches to SEO:
1. White hat SEO techniques.
2. Black hat SEO techniques.
What Is Black Hat SEO?
Black hat SEO violate the search engines’ terms of service and guidelines.Black hat SEO refers to a set of practices that are used to increase the ranking of a webpage on search engine.
It will likely increase a page's ranking in a search engine result page (SERP) for some time but can result in getting banned from search engines or affiliate sites.
Some of the black hat SEO techniques or practices include·
2. Link Manipulation
3. Hidden Text or Links
4. Guest Posting Networks
Why Should You Avoid Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO tactics can get your website banned from Google and other search engines.Though there may be some short-term success through increased traffic to your site, Google penalties are getting more and more sophisticated and can have devastating effects on your rankings and traffic.
What is white hat SEO
White Hat SEO typically refers to SEO tactics that are in tandem and agreement with the terms and conditions of the search engines.White hat SEO is attributed to practices that increase a website’s search rankings on a search engine results page (SERP) without straying outside of Google’s guidelines.
White hat SEO is important because, without it, search engine results would be chaotic. Google makes sure its algorithms only rank great content that captures user intent for every keyword search because it encourages billions of internet users to use the search engine.
White hat SEO strategies may take time, but they produce long-term results.
1. Creating original quality content and services
2. Mobile-friendly website
3. Use of clear and keyword-rich meta tags
It will improve
your search rankings on a SERP, and also maintain the integrity of your
website.
Types
of SEO
1. On-page SEO
2. Off-page SEO
On-page SEO
On-page SEO (search engine
optimization) refers to the process of optimizing pages on your site to improve
rankings and user experience. On-page SEO is the process of optimizing
website elements.
Keyword Research
Before you do
anything with your website, the first thing you need to do is understand what
keywords you want to rank. To do this, you need to do keyword research. In
this process, you choose the primary and secondary keywords around which you
build meta tags and content.
The primary
components for keyword research are:
· Search volume
· Competition
· Relevancy
You can also use
keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs to
search for keywords. Once you choose the keywords, you can go ahead and start
optimizing your pages for those keywords.
· Title tags
· Internal links
· HTML code
· URL optimization
· On-page content
· On-page content
· Images
· User experience (UX)
Title Tag
The title tag is
a header title element displaying the summary of your website's content on the
search engine results page. It also influences CTR (click-through rates) and is
the most important factor of on-page SEO. Search engines display the first
50–60 characters of the title tag.
Meta Description
A meta
description is a brief description that summarizes the content of a webpage.
They are also displayed on the search engine page results. In comparison to the
title tag, a meta description gives users more details understanding of what
your webpage is about. Meta description also influences CTR (click-through
rates).
URL Structure
URL stands for
Uniform Resource Locator. The best practice is to use SEO-friendly URLs, as
they help to understand what the webpage is about. The poor URL structure is a
big issue in SEO, which may result in your website getting lower ranks on
search engine result page.
Header Tags
Header tags help to
identify the headings and subheadings of your content. The hierarchy of header
tags goes from H1 to H6. H1 is the main heading of a page, the H2 tag is a
subheading of H1, and so on. These tags help search engines to read and
understand the content better.
Internal Link
Internal links
are links that link a web pages together on your website. They allow users to
navigate through the website. They are also useful to spread link equity (value
passed from one website to another site).
Sitemaps
A sitemap is a
way of organizing a website to help both users and search engines understand
the structure of a website. There are two types of sitemaps:
· HTML
sitemaps: Designed
for humans
· XML
sitemaps: Designed for
crawlers
Now that you have a clear understanding of on-page SEO, let us discuss the off-page SEO section of the ‘What is SEO?’ article.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is
one of the essential parts of a successful SEO strategy.
Off-page SEO is
another process of improving your rank on the search engine results page. It
also helps to strengthen the credibility of your website and build a sense of
domain authority and trustworthiness. Other benefits of off-page SEO are an
increase in traffic, page rank, and brand awareness.
·
Link Building
·
Brand Building
·
Content Marketing
·
PR
·
Local SEO (GMB and Citations)
·
Social Media
·
Forums
·
Influencer Marketing
·
Events
·
Guest Posting
·
Podcasts
·
Reviews
Link Building
Link
building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites / webpage
to your site. This is also known as external link building. The key to link
building is always content. From an off-page SEO strategy, having high-quality
content enables other sites to link back to your site. Earning backlinks from
high-authority websites helps position your site as an authority. These high
authority links work like a "vote of trust" from one site to another.
Here are some
strategies for link building:
· High-quality
content creation -
Other sites will link back to yours if your content is original,
well-structured, and reads well.
· Off-site
engagement - Spend
a lot of time on other websites similar to yours. You can search for other
sites that have relevant content. You can share your content with them they can
share their content with you. You can also achieve off-site engagement through
social media and collaborating with bloggers.
When learning ‘What is SEO’ there are also some do’s and don’ts as well which you should be aware of.
Do's and Don'ts of SEO
Here are some important
points to keep in mind for SEO.
How Does Search Engine Rank Websites?
Websites are
ranked primarily based upon the competition between your web pages and other
web pages for a particular keyword. The web pages which follow the best
practices outrank every other web page in the competition and rank on top for those
keywords.
Search engines
like Google follow three basic steps to rank a website.
1.
Crawling
Search engines have spiders or bots which
scans websites copies the entire website's content, and stores it in the search
engine's index.
2.
Indexing
Indexing is the method of adding web
pages into Google search results. If your website is not in a search engine's
index, no one will be able to find your website.
3.
Ranking
When you type something in Google, the most relevant websites (from the index) will appear in the search results. These results are based on multiple factors like user location, language, experience, etc.
