What is SEO? A Complete SEO Guide For Beginners

Author: Mount Web Tech
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process by when the website gets optimized so that traffic increases on it. This is primarily done by making appropriate changes to the content and the design of the website so that the website becomes alot more engaging to hold the traffic on a search engine. All the activities that are involved in SEO are done in the aspiration that website gets displayed at the top of the search engine result page. In this article, we will be providing a beginner’s guide to SEO that will help you understand the concept better.

SEO or search engine optimization is the principal source of generating high website traffic. It is an important process through which is the search visibility of the ranking improves. Almost 90% of users begin their online experience with popular search engines. High-quality SEO services mean high quality and targeted leads. If the rank of the website is better than it automatically means higher traffic. Increased traffic corresponds to better leads and if these leads convert into business then the business is bound to be successful.

Although this is an in-depth topic that has many type of complexities added to it when we talk about the differentiating factors that improve the ranking but the fundamental process if not that difficult to comprehend. You can get a fair understanding of SEO for beginners below:

HOW DOES SEO WORK?

Search engines are always looking to offer the best results to the users. This only means that search engines work on algorithms that are not just based on producing high quality results but they are also relevant according to what the users might be looking for. Search engines have a way of scanning the different kinds of website to understand what they are about. This helps them in delivering relevant results to all the people who are searching for different topics or keywords.

Essentially, the search engines scan the website to find out how simple it can be to navigate and read so that all the user-friendly websites can be rewarded with the prize of high rankings on the result pages.

SEO marketing is the method that all organizations adopt to ensure that their website ranks high in the search engine for appropriate keywords. For example; if you have article on the relevance of digital marketing. Now, in order to make sure that this article reaches the right people, you will try to optimize the blog post in a way that your blog post shows up at the top for anyone who searches the"relevance of digital marketing."

If done right then search engine optimization services can be very beneficial for the business. The improvement of SEO can lead to expanding the visibility on the search engines. This helps in reaching and engaging all the potential customers. With the creation of interesting and effective SEO based content, the organic traffic coming down to a website can be increased very easily making the organic search engine optimization very easy.

Search Engine Optimization Techniques That Works

Now that we have understood what is search engine optimization and how does it work, let us now take a look at some of the search engine optimization strategies that impact that ranking. The algorithms by the search engine rulers like Google will never come out in the open.

However, due to a comprehensive analysis, there has been a pretty good understanding of all the factors that are used in impacting the search engine result pages rankings. Given below is an explanation of all those topics.

  1. CONTENT MARKETING/DISTRIBUTION:

    2. Quite similar to broadcasting in the earlier days, content is one of the major players that can help businesses make real money in the modern era. Two of the best methods used by marketers to generate leads are good content marketing and blogging.

    Digital marketers use content marketing to let their customers know what their brand is all about. Additionally, it also lets the customers know all that a particular business can offer. Visual and engaging content mediums are quickly gaining popularity as an effective way of content marketing.

    More than 50% of CMOs of leading companies spend a significant amount of time in creating a good content marketing strategy. If content marketing is good then it proves to be of huge help for the sales team as well. Gathering leads becomes easier because the target audience has suitable prior knowledge about the products and services provided by a business.

  2. ON-PAGE SEO:

    3. All those elements that happen on the website are known as on-page SEO. They can be controlled completely which means that work can be done to improve the on-page SEO factors with time by following the best practices for SEO. The on–page SEO goes beyond the content marketing and ranges to the deeper levels of a website’s HTML.

    The on-page SEO must be done in a way that users read, view and navigate through the website easily on their mobile device. Not only does this help in improving the user experience but it can also positively affect the SEO. Some of the elements that can improve the SEO ranking are

    • TITLE TAGS: The title tags can be best compared to the headlines. These tags are precisely what turn up in the browser when any new page is opened.

    • META DESCRIPTION: Meta descriptions show up in the form of an excerpt when Google displays a page in the result of the searches. Meta descriptions clarify the quality of SEO work.

    • INTERNAL LINKS: Internal linking done right can become one of the major standpoints of better results on the browser.

    • SUBHEADINGS:The subheadings make the on page content attractive, readable while also helping in getting better ranking.

    • IMAGE NAME:Giving names to the images helps in better results.

    • ALT TAGS:Using the ALT tags allow to add alternative information for an image for the users to view it. This helps search engines gain a better understanding about the page.

  3. OFF-PAGE SEO:

    4. In addition to the on-page SEO that an organization has control over, there are many off-page SEO elements that can help in improving the ranking. Although it is not possible to have direct control on all these elements, they can be manipulated in a way that the rankings ion off-pages improve.

    Some of the elements included in off page SEO that can improve the SEO ranking are:

    • BUILDING TRUST:Trust is getting more and more important and the recent updates released by Google make it evident that building trust is very important.

    • BACKLINKS: One of the most proven ways for building trust is by including high quality backlinks from popular authoritative websites.

      • There are three main types of links, defined by how they were earned: natural links, manually built links, or self-created links.

      1. Natural Links are editorially given without any action on the part of a page owner. For example, a food blogger adding a link to a post that points toward their favorite produce farms is a natural link.
      2. Manually Built Links are acquired through deliberate link-building activities. This includes things like getting customers to link to your website or asking influencers to share your content.
      3. Self-Created Links are created by practices such as adding a backlink in an online directory, forum, blog comment signature, or a press release with optimized anchor text.
  • TECHNICAL SEO:

    • Although many fundamentals of SEO keep changing but the technical SEO remains the same. There are many mistakes in the field of technical SEO but can be avoided. Some of the important aspects of technical SEO are:

    • PAGE SPEED: Since the users do not wait on a website for long, websites must load within 3-5 seconds.

    • MOBILE-FRIENDLINESS: The websites must be functional on all the digital devices, specifically mobiles.

    • COPIED CONTENT: The content must always be original. There is no scope of using any duplicate content.

    • XML SITEMAP: This can help search engines understand the site better and finding all its content. Do not include pages that are not useful for the website as it can affect the rankings.

    CONCLUSION:

    Subsequent to understanding the meaning of SEO and how it works, the website owners can start working to change their website so that SEO improves. This will not just boost the rankings on the search engine result page but it will also help in building the brand identity.

    There are multiple factors that end up affecting the SEO ranking but one of the most important things that must be considered is whether the content is fresh and valuable or not. It must make sense for the kind of audience that a website is trying to target. It is important to keep in mind that search engine optimization takes time to work and the benefits do not come up in one day. The key is to stay consistent with the hard work so that the results can show up quickly.

    It is best to hire professional SEO services to get the best results because these services will ensure that you get the results that you are looking for in a short span of time.