What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Understanding Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an aspect of online marketing that centers around growing the visibility of a website in none-paid search engine results. It helps businesses rank more highly on Google. This in turn drives more visitors to their website, and increases their chances to acquire new clients or customers..

Google doesn’t list all the factors that make up the Google algorithm. Because of this, SEO professionals make it a point to do research and testing to identify how best to tweak a website, so it improves in the rankings. SEO gurus have been able to discover a variety of factors that seem to impact the ranking of sites. The factors have been classified as either on-page or off-page SEO. An efficiently developed on-going SEO strategy will include both on-page and off-page SEO.

What is On-Page SEO

The on-page SEO strategy involves producing content related to Search Engine Optimization Milton FL. As an example, this particular blog post is targeting the high-value keyword of "Search Engine Optimization." We consider this to be a high value keyword because many of our clients hire us to help with search engine optimization. We have created this blog post to help us rank with this keyword, and as a result, this blog post is part of an on-page SEO strategy. Of course, we are also using this blog post to inform you of what exactly search engine optimization is.

Once a keyword targeted blog post, or page, is created, the content is then optimized by properly crafting meta description, alt tags, title tags, keyword placement and URL. This will ensure the search engine spiders know what the content pertains to. We will go into greater detail on these other elements of on-page SEO in a future posts.

What is Off-Page SEO?

When it comes to off-page SEO, more focus is given to content that exists on other blogs and websites. It’s important to leverage the popularity of other websites, to positively influence traffic to your own website. The more you can get other websites to link to your website, the better. There are caveats to that statement, but for the most part, it’s accurate.

For example, we recently wrote another blog post about search engine optimization. Then, we submitted it to be published on a third-party website. In that post, we created a link that points back to this website. As a result, we are impacting our performance on Google by making changes, or creating links, on another website. This is a prime example of off-page SEO. However, there are many other ways to implement off-page SEO. The example I just gave is only one way.

Why Does SEO Matter?

It is believed that websites found on the first page of Google get approximately 96% of clicks for any given Google search. Additionally, the results that appear higher on the first page of Google generate more clicks than those on the lower half of the first page. One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is through search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. If you website hasn’t been optimized for search engines then the chances of your website rankings on the first page are not necessarily good. Just having a website doesn’t mean it will show up well in search engines. But, with a properly optimized website, you can see a great deal of new traffic to your website on a daily basis. SEO matters because it’s the means by which your websites gains exposure.

Quality and Quantity of Traffic

Imagine you’re a motivational speaker known as John Baker. You have a website, but the majority of people who click on your website were actually looking for "how to be a good baker." The traffic you acquire in this situation is not quality traffic. You should be able to attract visitors genuinely interested in what you offer or do. With the right people clicking through from the search engine results pages, more traffic is better. And it’s important that your traffic is quality. This is something and SEO professional can help you with.

Organic Traffic and Search Queries

"Organic traffic" is a term used when speaking about any traffic that comes from a search engine (like Google) that is NOT paid for. Ads make up about 20% of the results on a Google search.. The words an internet user feeds into the search box are very important. Research has shown that search engine traffic has the potential to make or break an Organization. SEO not only provides traffic that improves publicity and exposure but can consequently increase an Organization’s revenue. You could say that SEO servers as both a branding strategy and a way to generate revenue.

Additional Insights on SEO

The road to understanding SEO, doesn’t end here. There are plenty of best practices to influence search engines to boost your website to the top of the first page. This can be achieved by implementing dozens, or even possibly hundreds, of SEO tactics. If done correctly, these tactics can make an incredible impact on your website traffic and revenue generated. Again, this is something an SEO professional can help you with.

To see how Joshua Lyons Marketing can help you with your search engine optimization, please complete the form on our contact page.

We wish you the best success with your online marketing!

Sincerely,

Joshua Lyons Marketing

“Organic traffic” is a term used when speaking about any traffic that comes from a search engine (like Google) that is Not paid for.