Search engine optimization is the method of ranking a website up on the search results of a search engine such as Google. Search engine optimization has been around since the early days of premium search engine solutions such as Google and Bing. The importance of search engine seems to be increasing every year as more and more people are using these tools to search and acquire information. If we break search engine optimization in simple terms for you then it is nothing but the process of everything that you do to rank a website on the first page of Google. When you do your optimization to rank a website on Google which has the majority of market share throughout the world, you automatically get ranked on other search engines too as the process of SEO is more or less similar across all engines.
Why is SEO So Important To a Website?
Every day, millions of people search for information across the internet. Millennials and young adults now prefer search engine more than books and newspaper to find information and their usage ratio is increasing every single day. As more and more people are using the search engines, it is getting more important for companies to be present in front of their ideal customers all the time. The old marketing strategy tells us that you should always be present where your potential target customers are and if they are searching for information on the web, it is obvious that companies had to be present there.
That’s why the importance of search engine optimization keeps on increasing. There was once a time when you did not have to do much SEO to rank a website up on the search results. The competition was not as fierce at that time as it is now. There were less websites on the internet for every category which means that you had to spend less time to rank your website on Google. Also, search engines were not as smart as they are now with the invention of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
In earlier days, people used to manipulate search results by doing black hat techniques which were not recommended. For example, they used to build their own network of websites (known as private blog networks) which were then used to push the main website that they had. Search engines very quickly became smarter and caught on those shady activities which now makes it even more competitive as everyone is using different strategies to rank their website on search engine.
If we ask the question that why is SEO so important in today’s time, the answer would be fairly simple. SEO is important because when you do SEO to rank a website on Google, you are not only getting free traffic on the site, you are getting traffic who are actually interested about your product or services and that is why they have searched with keywords related to your topic on the first place. We call them warm leads in marketing terms. As the leads are warm, you will have more chances to be able to convert them into customers which you could not do with a television or newspaper advertisements.
Another reason why SEO is more important than you realize is the cost associated with it. Comparing to the traditional marketing channels, SEO is much cheaper where the profit and benefits are much higher than average. You would expect to get great returns on your investment if you do it right and if you are able to land on the first page for yourself or for a client.
How Can You Get Started With SEO
The biggest problem in the SEO industry is that you do not know who to trust and who you should stay away from. There are many self-proclaimed experts who know little to nothing about SEO but they are there trying to rank websites and failing every other day. This is a very noisy environment and when Google is changing their algorithm every other day, it gets even more confusing to be able to get started with SEO.
The question however is, how can you actually get started with SEO if you really want to. Isn’t there a place that you can trust to learn SEO?
The fact that SEO is a noisy business offers trouble but it has benefits too. There are thousands of free resources out there on the internet that you can use to start learning. Simply doing a google or a YouTube search will make you overwhelmed with information. Start by learning the basics and slowly start getting into the details.
The best idea about learning SEO is learning it in action instead of learning it by reading or watching a video or even a course. Try to build your own website and try to implement everything that you learn from those resources. After that, simply check what works for you and what does not. After you get your answers, keep doing the things that have been working for you ignoring the rest.
A Simple Introduction About SEO For Beginners
To make your life a bit easier, I will now be giving you a simple introduction about SEO which will help you to shape your SEO career in future.
We already know that search engine optimization is the art of ranking a website up on the search results. There are more than 200 ranking factors that Google uses to decide whether your website should get ranked on the first page or not. We will not get into the details of that. Rather, let me talk to you about two different branches of SEO which are on page and off page SEO.
On Page SEO
On page SEO is everything that you do within your website to improve the ranking of your website. Though it can be debated, it is said that on page represents more than 50% of the ranking signals to Google which means that on page SEO is more important than what people realize.
Now, the question that you should ask is what can you do to improve your on page SEO. Fortunately, you have the control of your own website which means that you can do everything that your competitor are doing without spending a lot of money or outreach investments. Though there are many different branches of on page SEO, I will tell you about the most important ones.
Mobile Readiness: Make sure that your website is mobile friendly and check if your website is mobile friendly or not from tools like GTMetrix and Google’s Mobile Readiness. This is important because Google said that they will never rank a website now if it is not optimized for mobile. This is logical too as the mobile users of internet are rising where the desktop users are not at the same pace.
SSL Certificate: The next thing that you should think about is the SSL certificate of your website. Once again, Google has said it publicly that SSL is a must for every website and if you don’t have it, you will expect to lose ranking positions.
Proper Keyword Optimization: Keyword optimization is a tricky business. You might overdo it and end up never getting ranked on your website or you might under-do it and lose the potential of ranking your website before anyone else.
What should you do?
The primary idea is to have the main keyword that you are trying to rank for inserted a couple of times within the article. You should also make sure that the keyword is there on your title, on headings and a few other important places. Make sure that you have enough images and visuals on site which all should represent the keyword or some variation of it.
Off Page SEO
Off Page SEO is more important than many people give the credit to it. Even today, off page SEO is what dictates whether your website will get ranked or not on Google. The main goal of off-page SEO is to get relevant backlinks on your website. It is tricky because getting backlink has never been easier and with more and more competition around us, it gets even more complex than usual.
To make sure that you are dominating on off-page SEO, you should first make sure that the on page SEO is right. There is no point going after off-page if you are not fine with your on-page. Remember, nobody gives out a link to a bad looking website. You will only receive a link if your website seems legit and that is when again the design part comes in.
You will very soon realize that everything that you do on and off your website are interconnected to make you succeed with the vast world of search engine optimization. It is not possible to go after one ignoring something else or vice-versa as the world of search engine optimization does not permit you to do so.
Search engine optimization is the method of ranking a website up on the search results of a search engine such as Google. Search engine optimization has been around since the early days of premium search engine solutions such as Google and Bing. The importance of search engine seems to be increasing every year as more and more people are using these tools to search and acquire information. If we break search engine optimization in simple terms for you then it is nothing but the process of everything that you do to rank a website on the first page of Google. When you do your optimization to rank a website on Google which has the majority of market share throughout the world, you automatically get ranked on other search engines too as the process of SEO is more or less similar across all engines.
Why is SEO So Important To a Website?
Every day, millions of people search for information across the internet. Millennials and young adults now prefer search engine more than books and newspaper to find information and their usage ratio is increasing every single day. As more and more people are using the search engines, it is getting more important for companies to be present in front of their ideal customers all the time. The old marketing strategy tells us that you should always be present where your potential target customers are and if they are searching for information on the web, it is obvious that companies had to be present there.
That’s why the importance of search engine optimization keeps on increasing. There was once a time when you did not have to do much SEO to rank a website up on the search results. The competition was not as fierce at that time as it is now. There were less websites on the internet for every category which means that you had to spend less time to rank your website on Google. Also, search engines were not as smart as they are now with the invention of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
In earlier days, people used to manipulate search results by doing black hat techniques which were not recommended. For example, they used to build their own network of websites (known as private blog networks) which were then used to push the main website that they had. Search engines very quickly became smarter and caught on those shady activities which now makes it even more competitive as everyone is using different strategies to rank their website on search engine.
If we ask the question that why is SEO so important in today’s time, the answer would be fairly simple. SEO is important because when you do SEO to rank a website on Google, you are not only getting free traffic on the site, you are getting traffic who are actually interested about your product or services and that is why they have searched with keywords related to your topic on the first place. We call them warm leads in marketing terms. As the leads are warm, you will have more chances to be able to convert them into customers which you could not do with a television or newspaper advertisements.
Another reason why SEO is more important than you realize is the cost associated with it. Comparing to the traditional marketing channels, SEO is much cheaper where the profit and benefits are much higher than average. You would expect to get great returns on your investment if you do it right and if you are able to land on the first page for yourself or for a client.
How Can You Get Started With SEO
The biggest problem in the SEO industry is that you do not know who to trust and who you should stay away from. There are many self-proclaimed experts who know little to nothing about SEO but they are there trying to rank websites and failing every other day. This is a very noisy environment and when Google is changing their algorithm every other day, it gets even more confusing to be able to get started with SEO.
The question however is, how can you actually get started with SEO if you really want to. Isn’t there a place that you can trust to learn SEO?
The fact that SEO is a noisy business offers trouble but it has benefits too. There are thousands of free resources out there on the internet that you can use to start learning. Simply doing a google or a YouTube search will make you overwhelmed with information. Start by learning the basics and slowly start getting into the details.
The best idea about learning SEO is learning it in action instead of learning it by reading or watching a video or even a course. Try to build your own website and try to implement everything that you learn from those resources. After that, simply check what works for you and what does not. After you get your answers, keep doing the things that have been working for you ignoring the rest.
A Simple Introduction About SEO For Beginners
To make your life a bit easier, I will now be giving you a simple introduction about SEO which will help you to shape your SEO career in future.
We already know that search engine optimization is the art of ranking a website up on the search results. There are more than 200 ranking factors that Google uses to decide whether your website should get ranked on the first page or not. We will not get into the details of that. Rather, let me talk to you about two different branches of SEO which are on page and off page SEO.
On Page SEO
On page SEO is everything that you do within your website to improve the ranking of your website. Though it can be debated, it is said that on page represents more than 50% of the ranking signals to Google which means that on page SEO is more important than what people realize.
Now, the question that you should ask is what can you do to improve your on page SEO. Fortunately, you have the control of your own website which means that you can do everything that your competitor are doing without spending a lot of money or outreach investments. Though there are many different branches of on page SEO, I will tell you about the most important ones.
Mobile Readiness: Make sure that your website is mobile friendly and check if your website is mobile friendly or not from tools like GTMetrix and Google’s Mobile Readiness. This is important because Google said that they will never rank a website now if it is not optimized for mobile. This is logical too as the mobile users of internet are rising where the desktop users are not at the same pace.
SSL Certificate: The next thing that you should think about is the SSL certificate of your website. Once again, Google has said it publicly that SSL is a must for every website and if you don’t have it, you will expect to lose ranking positions.
Proper Keyword Optimization: Keyword optimization is a tricky business. You might overdo it and end up never getting ranked on your website or you might under-do it and lose the potential of ranking your website before anyone else.
What should you do?
The primary idea is to have the main keyword that you are trying to rank for inserted a couple of times within the article. You should also make sure that the keyword is there on your title, on headings and a few other important places. Make sure that you have enough images and visuals on site which all should represent the keyword or some variation of it.
Off Page SEO
Off Page SEO is more important than many people give the credit to it. Even today, off page SEO is what dictates whether your website will get ranked or not on Google. The main goal of off-page SEO is to get relevant backlinks on your website. It is tricky because getting backlink has never been easier and with more and more competition around us, it gets even more complex than usual.
To make sure that you are dominating on off-page SEO, you should first make sure that the on page SEO is right. There is no point going after off-page if you are not fine with your on-page. Remember, nobody gives out a link to a bad looking website. You will only receive a link if your website seems legit and that is when again the design part comes in.
You will very soon realize that everything that you do on and off your website are interconnected to make you succeed with the vast world of search engine optimization. It is not possible to go after one ignoring something else or vice-versa as the world of search engine optimization does not permit you to do so.
