Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the practice of driving high quantities of traffic to your website via organic search engine results. Not just the quantity, if you want to make a mark, you have to also take care of the quality of the incoming traffic.
In simple terms, an optimized article has more chances of showing up on a search engine’s first page if you follow SEO guidelines. They help the crawlers look for your site when an user poses a question. First page visibility means higher traffic, and that’s what you are aiming for.
So, how does it work? How can you use SEO to grow your blog/business? Well, there are a few things you have to keep in mind before you start optimizing your content.
Quality of Traffic: Your site is being accessed by a thousand people. But maybe those people are looking for apples to eat while you sell Apple computers. That is not going to help your business at the end of the day, right? This is why quality is as important as quantity when it comes to traffic. You have to attract users who can be prospective consumers of what you are selling.
Quantity of Traffic: When you start attracting the right kind of users, you have to find ways to increase their numbers.
Organic Results: Your consumers find you via SERPs or search engine results pages. Paid advertisements often cover a lot of the results on SERPS but that may not be feasible for everyone. The better way to drive traffic is via organic results, i.e. where you don’t have to pay to get traffic. This increases your visibility as well.
How Search Engine Optimization Works?
You have a query or are looking for something, you open your search engine, type a question and get thousands of links as replies within seconds. So how do Google and other search engines find those specific websites for you and why are some on the first page but not the others?
Well, search engines have crawlers that roam around looking for information to help you. They gather all the information and send to the search engine for indexing, much like a library of books. Then this index is put through an algorithm that figures out the information that is most relevant to your query.
Here is a visual representation of all the other factors that go into ranking those results:
Now for the optimization part. Content creators are guessing what are the most common queries and creating content to best serve those queries. But just the good quality of writing won’t get you to the first page. Factors like the quantity and quality of your keywords, links, tags, etc. are also important for SEO.
You have to aim for on-page and off-page optimization. It is important to categorise your content and have a simple structure for the site. You can insert your keyword in the title, meta description, and URL link to boost your on-page SEO.
Using the same keyword repeatedly throughout your content will alert the crawlers. You need to naturally integrate your keyword within the content along with some variations of those words. Content length, optimized images with alternative tags, outbound links also impact your ranking. The marketing part mostly covers your off-site SEO, along with guest posting and building your own links.
The most important thing you have to remember about SEO is that engines keep changing their tactics for crawling and ranking. The algorithms keep changing, and you will constantly need to be on the top of your SEO game in order to achieve consistent first page ranking. Focus on the quality of content you are offering your consumers but also make sure you take care of those crawlers. Together they will take you to new heights of success!
