What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, it means the process of improving your site to increase
its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in Google, Bing, and other search
engines. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract
prospective and existing customers to your business. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving
the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.[1][2] SEO targets unpaid
traffic (known as "natural" or "organic" results) rather than direct traffic or paid traffic. Unpaid traffic may originate
from different kinds of searches, including image search, video search, academic search,[3] news search, and industry-
specific vertical search engines.

Benefits & importance of SEO

 Search engine optimization is an essential marketing activity to make a website or business visible on the web.
But it also provides several other benefits to companies.
 Builds trust and credibility : Sites that rank high on SERPs are considered to be of the highest quality and
most trustworthy. Results shown on the first page are the most relevant, resulting in more credibility for the
business or website. Having the right content on the site and a good user experience will help the website rank
higher.
 Provides a competitive advantage: When good SEO is deployed consistently, those that do it more and better
will outrank the competition. Many businesses feel they cannot afford to not be on the first page of a search
result. But if a team works toward that goal and shows ahead of the competition, they will have a competitive
edge.
 Reaches more people: SEO helps attract any user with intent at any time. It relies on keywords and phrases to
attract audiences to specific products and services. Businesses can create a list of keywords for which they
would like to rank, then build content around those keywords.
 Supports content marketing: By having a list of keywords to rank for and building content around those
keywords, users are more likely to find the information they seek. Content and SEO work in harmony with
each other. A site will rank better by creating useful, high-quality content that is optimized for those keywords.
Ensuring the keywords are present in headings, meta descriptions and the body of the content will improve
rankings for those terms.
 Ranks better in local searches: The use of local searches are becoming more common, with users looking for
products or services "near me." To improve listings in these searches, a company can create a Google My
Business account and optimize the listing for local searches. Along with that and the localized content on the
website, a user will be more likely to see local search results in their queries.
 Understand web environment: Users that stay up to date on the everchanging internet will be better able to
execute the ongoing SEO needs for a website. By staying up to date, businesses can better understand how
search works and make more informed decisions on how to change and adapt their strategies.
 Relatively inexpensive: To have an effective SEO strategy, companies need to invest in the time and resources
to be effective. There are companies that can be hired as SEO experts to manage the strategies, but companies
with the right team in place can do it themselves.
 Get quantifiable results:There are tools and analytics data that can be tapped into to measure the effectiveness
of SEO efforts. Google Analytics can provide comprehensive data around organic traffic. Data includes pages
that customers engaged with and keywords used in search. That data can then be cross-referenced with
intended actions taken to see how SEO played a role in customer engagement or acquisition.

 More website traffic: When your site is optimized for search engines, it gets more traffic which equates to
increased brand awareness, as well as…
 More customers: To get your site optimized, it has to target keywords—the terms your ideal customers/visitors
are searching—meaning you’ll get more relevant traffic.
 Better reputation: Ranking higher on Google builds instant credibility for your business. If Google trusts you,
then people trust you.
 Higher ROI: You put money into your website, and into the marketing campaigns that lead back to your
website pages. A top-performing site improves the fruits of those campaigns, making your investment worth it.
 Types of SEO/ The three pillars of SEO

The core three types of SEO are on-page, off-page, and technical SEO:
On-page SEO/ On-Page Optimization: On-Page Optimization is the process of ensuring the content on your site
is relevant and provides a great user experience. It includes targeting the right keywords within your content and
can be done through a content management system. Common examples of content management systems include
WordPress, Wix, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Shopify, and Expression Engine.
Off-page SEO/ Off-Page Optimization: Off-Page Optimization is the process of enhancing your site’s search engine
rankings through activities outside of the site. This is largely driven by backlinks, which help to build the
site’s reputation.
Technical SEO /Technical Optimization: Technical Optimization is the process of completing activities on your
site that are designed to improve SEO but are not related to content. It often happens behind the scenes.
Improving your site’s overall performance on search engines. Site security, UX, and structure are the key of
Technical SEO.
The above three types of SEO are used for websites and blogs, but they also apply to three subtypes of SEO:

Local SEO: Getting your business to rank as high as possible in Google Maps and on the local results of the
SERP(Search Engine Results Page ). Reviews, listings, and Google Business profile optimization are most
important here.
Image SEO: A mix of on-page and technical strategies to get images on your website pages to rank in Google image
search.
Video SEO: A mix of on-page, technical, and off-page strategies to get your videos to rank in YouTube or Google
video results.
While all three subtypes require all three core types of SEO, they do vary in how heavily they rely on each core type.

Image SEO relies heavily on technical and on-page optimizations while local SEO is more about off-page and on-
page optimizations.

How does SEO work?

Search engines are used by people when they have a query and are searching on the internet for the answer. Search
engine algorithms are computer programmes that look for clues to give searchers the exact results they are looking
for. Search engines rely on algorithms to find web pages and decide which ones to rank for any given keyword. There
are three steps to how search engines work: crawling, which is the discovery stage; indexing, which is the filing
stage; and ranking, which is the retrieval stage.

Step 1: Crawling

The first step is crawling. Search engines send out web crawlers to find new pages and record information about
them. We sometimes call these web crawlers ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’. Their purpose is to discover new web pages that
exist, and also to periodically check the content on pages they’ve previously visited to see whether they've changed
or been updated.

Search engines crawl web pages by following links they’ve already discovered. So if you have a blog post and it's
linked from your homepage, when a search engine crawls your homepage, it will then look for another link to follow
and may follow the link to your new blog post.

Step 2: Indexing

The second step is indexing. Indexing is when a search engine decides whether or not it is going to use the content
that it has crawled. If a crawled web page is deemed worthy by a search engine, it will be added to its index. This
index is used at the final ranking stage. When a web page or piece of content is indexed, it is filed and stored in a
 database where it can later be retrieved. Most web pages that offer unique and valuable content are placed into the
index. A web page might not be placed in the index if:

 Its content is considered duplicate

 Its content is considered low value or spammy
 It couldn’t be crawled
 The page or domain lacked inbound links

Step 3: Ranking

The third step is really the most important step, and that is ranking. Ranking can only happen after the crawling and
indexing steps are complete. So once a search engine has crawled and indexed your site, your site can be ranked.

There are more than 200 ranking signals that search engines use to sort and rank content, and they all fit under the
three pillars of SEO: technical optimization, on-page optimization, and off-page optimization. Some examples of
signals that search engines use to rank web pages are:

Keyword presence in title tag – Whether the keyword or a synonym was mentioned on the page and within the title
tag

Loading speed of web page – Whether the web page loads quickly and is mobile-friendly

Website reputation – Whether the web page and website is considered reputable for the topic being searched for
Ordering and ranking results

Google’s main search algorithm is called Google Hummingbird, and it is responsible for deciding how to order and
rank search engine results.

Remember, Google’s top three ranking factors are:

 Links - Links from other websites play a key role in determining the ranking of a site in Google and other search
engines. The reason being, a link can be seen as a vote of quality from other websites, since website owners are
unlikely to link to other sites that are of poor quality. Sites that acquire links from many other sites gain authority
(called "PageRank" in Google) in the eyes of search engines, especially if the sites that are linking to them are
themselves authoritative.
 Content - In addition to looking at links, search engines also analyze the content of a webpage to determine if it
would be relevant for any given search query. A large part of SEO is in creating content that is targeted towards the
keywords that search engines' users are searching for.
 Page structure - The third core component of SEO is page structure. Because webpages are written in HTML, how
the HTML code is structured can impact a search engine’s ability to evaluate a page. Including relevant keywords in
the title, URL, and headers of the page and making sure that a site is crawlable are actions that site owners can take to
improve the SEO of their site.

The search engine optimization process involves optimizing each of these core components of search engine
algorithms in order to rank higher in the search results.

SEO ranking factors on Google

What are those requirements? What actually constitutes quality, targeted, EAT-friendly, and SEO-optimized
content? Well, there are hundreds of Google ranking factors, and Google is also constantly evolving and refining
its algorithm to continue providing the best experience possible, but there are 12 that should be prioritized.
According to FirstPageSage, these are the top Google ranking factors and how they are weighted:
1. Consistent publication of high-quality content (26%)

2. Keywords in meta title (17%)

3. Backlinks (15%)
 4. Niche expertise (13%)

5. User engagement (11%)

6. Internal links (5%)

7. Mobile-friendly/mobile-first (5%)

8. Page speed (2%)

9. Site security/SSL certificate (2%)

10. Schema markup/structured data (1%)

11. Keywords in URL (1%)

12. Keywords in H1 (1%)

“Other” factors, like unlinked mentions, social signals, domain history, outbound links, and site structure, carry
1% weight. But given that there are at least 200 Google ranking factors; that’s at least 189 “other” factors that
collectively make up that 1%. In other words, those seemingly small factors, like keywords in URL, that on their
own make up 1%, are not so small.

How to do SEO: On-page optimization

On-page SEO/ On-Page Optimization: On-Page Optimization is the process of ensuring the content on your site
is relevant and provides a great user experience. It includes targeting the right keywords within your content and
can be done through a content management system. Common examples of content management systems include
WordPress, Wix, Drupal, Joomla, Magento, Shopify, and Expression Engine.

Here are your on-page optimization steps:

1. Start with keyword research

2. Create quality content targeting those keywords

3. Place your keywords

4. Optimize your titles

5. Optimize your meta descriptions

6. Include and optimize images

7. Internal and external links

1. Keyword research - Keyword research is often the starting point for SEO and involves looking at what keywords
a site is already ranking for, what keywords competitors rank for, and what other keywords potential customers are
searching for. Identifying the terms that searchers use in Google search and other search engines provide direction
on what existing content can be optimized and what new content can be created.
How to do keyword research for SEO
These are your basic steps for finding the best keywords to target with your organic content:

Create your seed list: Start by listing out the words and phrases your ideal customers are typing into Google. Think
about their interests, desires, pain points, and goals, and think in terms of the language they’re using, which may
be different from what you (as the expert) use.

Plug them into a keyword research tool: Keyword research tools will give you data around these keywords so you
can see which terms you can conceivably rank for and where the best opportunities actually lie. Metrics
include:

Search volume: How many times that term is searched per month.

Competition: How difficult it is to rank for that keyword.

 Sort and prioritize: Put the resulting terms and data into a spreadsheet. Now you can group them into core themes
and also prioritize them.

2. Create quality content targeting those keywords

When the keyword strategy is in place, the content strategy follows. This can be updating existing content or
creating brand new pieces of content. Because Google and other search engines place a premium on high-quality
content, it's important to research what content is already out there and create a compelling piece of content that
provides a positive user experience and has a chance of ranking higher in the search engine results. Quality, SEO
content is:

Aligned with the keyword’s intent: Make sure your content provides the information people are seeking when
they search this keyword. This is why you should always search the keyword on Google first.

Provides a good experience: It’s free of overly aggressive pop-ups or other distracting elements; uses images to
depict concepts, and loads quickly and properly on all devices .

Reads naturally: Don’t keyword-stuff. Write like a human being speaking to your audience; not a content writer
trying to optimize for a search engine.

In-depth: Google isn’t interested in thin, duplicate, or low-value pages. This means 1,500-2,500 words of
accurate, up-to-date, information.

Organized: Use your heading tags to indicate the hierarchy of information on the page.

3. Place your keywords

In addition to naturally in the body of your content, you’ll want to place your keyword into specific spots on the page
to indicate to Google what you’re looking to rank for. This includes:
 SEO title (title tag)
 Page title (H1 tag)
 At least two H2 headings
 Image alt text
 Image file name
 Naturally in the body
 URL
 Meta description

4. Optimize your titles

For any page on your website, you actually have two titles. The title tag is the title that appears on the SERP and is
the single most impactful place you can put your keyword. The H1 tag is the title that appears on the page when you
click into it.

5. Optimize your meta descriptions

The meta description is the description that appears on the SERP below the title tag. Google doesn’t always show the
one you’ve provided in the SERP; it likes to build its own based on the query, but it’s still important to optimize for
SEO. Google reads this description when crawling the page to understand what it’s about.

To optimize your meta description:

Include the keyword and related keywords if you can do so in a natural and compelling way.
Keep it short: Ideal meta description length is 155-165 characters.
 6. Include and optimize images

Images are a key player in SEO optimization. They keep users engaged with your pages, enhance the quality of the
information, and provide opportunities for you to rank and generate traffic to their host pages through image results.
Plus, Google has increasingly been making the SERP more visual.

Here’s how to do SEO optimization for images:

File name: Save the file name with the keyword, with dashes instead of spaces.
Add alt text: Alt text stands for the text alternative of an image, and it’s how Google “sees” an image on a page and
detects its relevance to the keyword.
Compress: Large images can slow down the speed of your site. Compress them to reduce file size and properly size
them. You shouldn’t need images much wider than 1000px, but every site is different.

7. Internal and external links

When doing SEO for blog posts, you’ll want to add both internal and external links.

External links: Find 1-3 pages relevant to the topic you’re targeting, on other sites that have high domain authority,
and link to them in your post. This helps to build trust with Google.

Internal links: Link to other blog posts on your site in the content of the post you’re writing. Keep the links relevant
to the page and to the anchor text you use.

How to do SEO: Off-page optimization

All of the steps above are on-page SEO strategies. Off-page SEO, on the other hand, is what you do on other pages of
your website, other websites, and even other platforms to help your page to rank. Off-Page Optimization is the
process of enhancing your site’s search engine rankings through activities outside of the site. This is largely
driven by backlinks, which help to build the site’s reputation. Here are some off-page SEO tactics

8. Earn and reach out for backlinks

Backlink analysis tools - There are a number of link analysis tools out there, the two primary ones being AHREFs and
Majestic. Backlink analysis tools allow users to analyze which websites are linking to their own website, or the
websites of competitors, and can be used to find new links during link building.

 The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher you’ll rank.
How do you get more backlinks? There are several strategies, but a few include:
 Producing original, authentic content worthy of getting backlinks.

 Proactively reaching out to sites for which a link to your content would be a useful addition.

 Guest posting

9.Share your content on social media

In addition to linking to your homepage in social media profiles, you should also be regularly sharing your blog posts
with your feed. This earns you referral traffic, and the more eyes on a post, the higher the chances of generating
backlinks. Social media itself isn’t a direct google ranking factor, but your activity on the platforms and users’
engagement with your content there send social signals to Google that influence your ranking.

10. Build your brand reputation

When determining how high to rank a particular page on your site, Google doesn’t just look at that one page. It takes
into account your brand as a whole, which it does so by looking at other information about it across the web—
including reviews, ratings, listings, awards, and even unlinked brand mentions. As such, building your brand
reputation by optimizing your listings, gaining positive press, and asking for reviews is essential for SEO.

How to do SEO: Technical optimizations

Technical SEO optimizations are done on the back end of your website to make sure it meets Google’s site security
and user experience requirements, as well as to make it as easy as possible for Google to do its job on your site. Here
are some of the main technical optimizations to take care of:
Page speed: In addition to image sizes, the code behind your website content and the order in which it loads can
impact page speed. This where lazy loading and page speed optimizations come into play.
Security: Make sure your site is using HTTPS rather than HTTP.
Mobile-first: Being mobile-friendly doesn’t cut it anymore. Google’s indexing is now mobile-first, so your site
needs to be fully responsive.
Core Web Vitals: These three metrics are used to quantify a user’s experience with your page. You can learn how to
improve your Core Web Vitals here.
URL structure: An organized site structure, such as by using /blog, /landing page, /product buckets, makes it easier
for Google to crawl your site, for users to navigate it, and for you to segment data in reports.
Site architecture: Ideally, a user should be able to access any page on your site in three clicks or less. Internal
linking is key here.

Canonical URLs: A canonical URL is the URL that you want to represent a set of duplicate pages. Google will do
its best to identify the canonical URL for any given set of duplicates, but you can also indicate this to Google through
canonical tags or 301 redirects. For example, we have:

 http://wordstream.com

 http://wordstream.com/

 https://wordstream.com

 https://wordstream.com/

 https://www.wordstream.com/
All redirecting to this one canonical URL:

 https://www.wordstream.com
Crawlability/indexability: Your sitemap and robots.txt together tell Google what you do and don’t want Google to
crawl and index.
Schema markup: Schema markup helps Google (and other search engines) understand the types of content you
have, allowing it to display rich results when applicable. For example, sitelink schema can give you more real estate
on the SERP: While review schema can give you more appeal:
 Search engine optimization techniques
Understanding how search engines work is only the first step of the process in improving a site's search rankings.
Actually improving a site's rank involves leveraging various SEO techniques to optimize the site for search:

Keyword research - Keyword research is often the starting point for SEO and involves looking at what keywords a
site is already ranking for, what keywords competitors rank for, and what other keywords potential customers are
searching for. Identifying the terms that searchers use in Google search and other search engines provide direction on
what existing content can be optimized and what new content can be created.

Content marketing - Once potential keywords are identified, content marketing comes into play. This can be
updating existing content or creating brand new pieces of content. Because Google and other search engines place a
premium on high-quality content, it's important to research what content is already out there and create a compelling
piece of content that provides a positive user experience and has a chance of ranking higher in the search engine
results. Good content also has a greater chance of being shared on social media and attracting links.
Link building - Because links from external websites (called "backlinks" in SEO parlance) are one of the core
ranking factors in Google and other major search engines, obtaining high-quality backlinks is one of the main levers
that SEO has. This can involve promoting good content, reaching out to other websites and building relationships
with webmasters, submitting websites to relevant web directories, and getting press to attract links from other
websites.
On-page optimization - In addition to off-page factors such as links, improving the actual structure of the page can
have tremendous benefits for SEO, and is a factor that is entirely in the control of the webmaster. Common on-page
optimization techniques include optimizing the URL of the page to incorporate keywords, updating the title tag of the
page to use relevant search terms, and using the alt attribute to describe images.
Site architecture optimization - External links are not the only thing that matters for SEO, internal links (the links
within one's own website) play a large role in SEO as well. Thus a search engine optimizer can improve a site's SEO
by making sure key pages are being linked to and that relevant anchor text is being used in those links to help
improve a page's relevance for specific terms.
Semantic markup - Another SEO strategy that SEO experts utilize is optimizing a website's semantic markup.
Semantic markup (such as Schema.org) is used to describe the meaning behind the content on a page, such as helping
to identify who the author of a piece of content is or the topic and type of content on a page. Using semantic markup
can help with getting rich snippets displayed in the search results page, such as extra text, review stars and even
images.

Develop unique page titles and meta descriptions. Page titles should include the page's focus keyword. And meta
descriptions should be brief summaries of what a user should expect to learn on the page. These elements are
displayed in SERPs and will likely be what people use to inform their clicks.

Use pay per click to supplement organic traffic. Paid advertising can help improve organic click-through rates by
giving marketers an outlet to test title tags and meta descriptions that are shown in SERPs. Ensuring a first-page
placement, these ads mimic organic search results to see what copy entices users to click. That can be used to adjust
page titles and meta descriptions with organic results.

Use alt text with images. Alt text is used to describe an image on a webpage. This is critical for bots crawling the
site to understand what the image represents. It also verbally describes what the image is to people who are visually
impaired. This is also another opportunity to input keywords.

SEO tools
You can’t carry out effective search engine optimization without data, and to get data, you need tools. Luckily, most
of them are free. The best SEO tools for an optimal SEO strategy are:

 Google Analytics: This is the gold standard for website traffic analytics, and it’s free. Use it for any and all SEO
metrics to measure your performance, such as traffic, time on page, engagement with page, number of pages per
session, and (lots) more.
 Google Search Console - Google Search Console (formerly known as "Google Webmaster Tools") is a free tool
provided by Google, and is a standard tool in the SEO's toolkit. GSC provides rankings and traffic reports for top
keywords and pages, and can help identify and fix on-site technical issues.
 Google Ads Keyword Planner - Keyword Planner is another free tool provided by Google, as part of their Google
Ads product. Even though it is designed for paid search, it can be a great tool to use for SEO since it provides
keyword suggestions and keyword search volume, which can be helpful when doing keyword research.
 Backlink analysis tools - There are a number of link analysis tools out there, the two primary ones being AHREFs
and Majestic. Backlink analysis tools allow users to analyze which websites are linking to their own website, or the
websites of competitors, and can be used to find new links during link building.
Bing Webmaster. This tool enables marketers to see backlink profiles and keyword research. It also has a built-in
site scanning feature.
 Keyword research tools: As mentioned above, you’ll need these so you can find keywords that are realistic for you
to target in terms of search volume and competition. Use my roundup of the best paid and free keyword research
tools to find the right one for you.
 SEO software: If you’re going to look at deeper SEO metrics like backlinks, competitive information, and more
advanced keyword data, you’ll need a paid SEO tool like Ahrefs, Moz Pro, Screaming Frog, SEMrush, etc. Some of
these offer free trial versions or free services for the first 500 (or something) links.
 Semrush. This platform is used for keyword research and online ranking data. It gives marketers insight into
developing and maintaining keyword strategies. Semrush also can be used to measure SEO performance over time.
 Ahrefs. This tool is used to audit websites and provide keyword, link and ranking profiles. It can also identify
which pages perform the best and which ones need improvement.
 SEO platforms - There are many different SEO platforms that bring together many of the tools that SEO needs to
optimize sites. Some of the most popular include Siteimprove, Moz, BrightEdge, Searchmetrics and Linkdex. These
platforms track keyword rankings, help with keyword research, identify on-page and off-page SEO opportunities,
and many other tasks related to SEO.
 Social media - Most social media sites don't have a direct impact on SEO, but they can be a good tool for
networking with other webmasters and building relationships that can lead to link building and guest posting
opportunities.
 Yoast SEO. For websites using WordPress as their CMS, Yoast SEO is a plugin used to improve on-page
optimization. Users can define the URL slug, meta description and page title. They can also see how the content on
their page may perform in searches. A checklist of items is available so users can ensure their page is as optimized
as possible.
 SpyFu. This is a competitor keyword research tool for Google Ads. In addition to the keyword research and data it
can produce, it gives detailed insight into competitor SEO and pay per click data.

SEO strategies and best practices

Let’s finish off with some SEO strategies, best practices, and tips to help you get the most out of your time.

Always always search the keyword: What you think users are looking for when they perform a particular search in
Google may not be what they’re actually looking for. Keyword intent matters, so always search the keywords you’re
trying to target to make sure you have an intent match.

Be patient: SEO takes time. Like, a lot of time. It can take a few months before you really start to see the fruit of your
efforts, but once you start seeing the impact, the benefits compound over time—so don’t give up prematurely!
Focus on quality: Google is always updating its algorithm and coming out with new SERP features, but at the end of
the day, it’s all designed to surface the best content out there. So your focus should always remain on creating useful,
trustworthy content consistently. That is the best SEO strategy above all else.
Maintain your content: While the consistent publication of quality content is the top Google ranking factor, this
should not be at the expense of letting old content go stale. Regularly refresh your evergreen pages to preserve their
SEO value and get consistent traffic growth over time.
Track and measure: Report on your traffic and site data regularly so you can see what topics resonate most with your
audience, detect issues, and set goals for traffic growth.