Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search Engine Optimisation, also referred to as SEO, helps search engines understand the content of your webpage and will display pages that are relevant based on users’ search queries. The purpose of SEO is to rank pages first on the search engine results page (SERPs), driving traffic to your site.
SEO is a component of digital marketing and can be used by any website. It helps to enhance a site’s visibility on search engines like Google or Bing. If your site sells products, services, or simply provides information on a specific topic, SEO can drive traffic and increase online visibility. The more online presence you have, the higher the chances of you being discovered.
Benefits and importance of SEO
SEO is a crucial element when it comes to marketing. It helps sites appear in the search results page.
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- Increase in customers: SEO involves the use of target keywords, i.e. words your potential customers are using, resulting in relevant traffic.
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- Website traffic: Optimised sites get more traffic which helps increase brand awareness.
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- ROI: Putting money into marketing campaigns and websites, if your site performs well, you reap the benefits of your investment.
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- Reputation: Ranking on top spot improves trustworthiness of your site, so people trust you.
How does SEO work?
How does google figure out what pages to place in the search engine results page (SERP) for any search query? How does this drive traffic?
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- Search engines crawl the web for any relevant page to the query, and store it which is the index. When a search is made, Google pulls a page from the index.
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- Google’s algorithm uses ranking factors like quality of the content, relevance, and website it belongs to, etc.
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- When people interact with the pages, Google then identifies needs that are being met and not being met, and stores it in the algorithm.
You need to make sure your content is high-quality and satisfies Google’s experience, expertise, authority, and trust requirements (E-E-A-T).
SEO Best Practices
- Good quality: Google search engines ensure they pick out the best content that is out there. So, you should always ensure to produce useful and credible content.
- Keyword: Make sure you keep keyword intent in mind, while trying to figure out what words users may use to search a query.
- Patience: SEO takes time. It may take a lot of time for you to see the results of your SEO efforts, so be patient and don’t give up.
- Measure: Track and measure your performance using various tools to see how your strategies are doing.
- Maintain content: Ensure to produce relevant and fresh content regularly, – which is crucial for Google’s ranking factor , as well as make sure to continually update your existing content to preserve SEO value and drive consistent traffic.