What is Search Engine Optimization? A Simplified Version for Beginners

Search engine optimization is the art of getting your website at the top. Search engine is sometimes confused with getting more website traffic. It is true that the end goal of SEO is to get more website traffic but if a website is already getting millions of views every month that doesn't necessarily means the website is optimized effectively. Today in this article, you will learn what SEO is and why is it important for your business?

Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay 

In very simple terms, search engine optimization is the process of getting your website on top of SERP. For those of your who are new to search engine optimization, SERP stands for "Search Engine Results Page". 

The goal of every website is to rank higher on search engines but only a few make it to the top. A major reason behind this is that these websites are well-planned. SEO is not only limited to the work that you do on your website, it also includes your mindset and your willingness to succeed. 

SEO Tips 

To become a good SEO expert, you must be willing to learn. SEO is a very detailed subject that cannot be learned in a few days. Here are some tips that you can use to understand and implement SEO on your websites:

1. Think as your audience: A very important part of SEO is to think exactly the way your target audience would be thinking when they will search for your content. For example, if my target audience is searching for this blog post they will have SEO in mind definitely. But what will they write in the Google search bar?

"What is search engine optimization?", "Tips on SEO", "learn SEO"

These are a few key phrases that my target audience might use to search for this content. It is important to make a combination of these keywords and use it in your article in different places like title, paragraph, description etc. 

2. Plan your keywords: To plan keywords you can use multiple software but as a beginner I will recommend you to simply use different search engines. If you're writing an article about SEO, type in potential phrases in different search engines and see what ranks high and what ranks low.

Keyword research is very important when it comes to search engine optimization. Once your research is complete, create a list of the best keywords and phrases that you found and use the combination to create a unique title for your blog post. 

3. Use social media for promotion: A good way to rank on top is to gain organic traffic from as many sources as possible. You can use your social media accounts to share your published content and attract new visitors to your website. If your article is receiving good quality traffic and is retaining users, search engines will use this factor to rank you higher!

4. Create backlinks: The concept of backlinks is outdated according to some experts but sharing my experience I can tell that backlinks can turn out to be very effective. A backlink is simply a link to your content on another platform. You can share your links on social media networks, other websites and even forums to generate traffic. 

In fact, another very important use of backlinks is tracking. Search engines have bots that crawl URLs of a website and then add it to their directory. If a URL is present on multiple websites, it can indicate that the shared website is providing quality to visitors.

This can also help you in ranking higher on search engines. However, it is important to note that sharing links too much can backfire and sometimes cause search engines to block you!

5. Use long-tail keywords: Long tail keywords are sentences that users type in the search bar to find relevant content. Consider the following example: 

How can I learn SEO and gain 100,000 visitors a month?

The phrase above can be considered as a long tail keyword and even though this keyword might not be used very commonly but having said that, users might search for similar phrases helping your content to be highlighted and discovered more compared to your competitors. This is also an important part of SEO, to understand what exactly are your users looking for?

Search engine optimization is a crucial part of every website's success. Whether you own a product that you're selling online or you are a service provider looking for more conversions, SEO can help you increase your sales without even spending a penny on advertising!

If you're looking for some great SEO services, you can visit us here. We provide solutions to businesses of all sizes according to their needs. Until next time!