Learning Basic Concept of SEO

SEO ( Search Engine Optimization)

 

What is SEO?

SEO means Search Engine Optimization and is the process used to optimize a website's technical configuration, content relevance and link popularity so its pages can become easily findable, more relevant and popular towards user search queries, and as a consequence, search engines rank them better.

How does it works?

SEO works by optimizing a website's content, conducting keyword research, and earning inbound links to increase that content's ranking and the website's visibility.

Why we need SEO? 

SEO is important for brands as it's a highly effective way to improve your brand's visibility through search, drive more traffic to your website, establish your brand as a trusted authority in your industry, sustainably and reliably grow your business, and much more.

 

What are benefits of SEO?

Top 8 SEO Benefits

• SEO Benefit 1: Brings Organic Search Traffic to your Website.
• SEO Benefit 2: Generates Leads Cost-Effectively.
• SEO Benefit 3: Increases Brand Awareness.
• SEO Benefit 4: Gets You Ahead of the Competition.
• SEO Benefit 5: Optimizes Your Website for Mobile Users.
• SEO Benefit 6: Builds Trust. 

 

When to use SEO?

1.    Your marketing budget is low.

2.    You want to build your brand authority.

3.    You're looking to maximize your long-term return-on-investment (ROI).

4.    You want to create content that reaches your audience at different stages of the sales funnel.

 What is the type of SEO? 

Three main types of SEO are:

1.    On-page SEO: Anything you do with website content to improve rankings, such as using relevant keywords

2.    Off-page SEO: Anything you do outside of your website to improve rankings, such as building backlinks

3.    Technical SEO: Anything you do on the technical side of things, such as improving page speed

  

On-page SEO: Deals with the content on your website. In order to rank on search engines and acquire traffic, your website needs to have content that can be easily found and understood. On top of that, Google stresses that it prefers content that is helpful. 

These services could look like:

·   Assigning a target keyword to each important webpage on a site

·   Optimizing page titles to target those specific keywords

·   Updating item descriptions of an online store

·   Adding fresh content to a blog 

·   Updating the structure of an old article or service page

·   Adding structure to content through the right HTML tags 

·   Coming up with a content plan for each stage of a customer journey 

If the content of your website isn’t targeting keywords or is generally unhelpful, you might need better on-page SEO.

Off-Page SEO 

Off-page SEO is exactly what it sounds like. It’s all the factors happening off your website and on other parts of the Internet that could influence your site’s rankings. 

One major aspect of off-page SEO is having high-quality. 

Here’s an example of how you can build up your brand’s off-page SEO.

First, you conduct research and publish an informative article about cat allergies on your website. Then, another website cites your article in their own study about common allergies with household pets. They refer to you as a source with a link to your website. 

That link would become your backlink and could boost your SEO. Search engines, like Google, see them as a good sign, especially if they’re from reputable sites. 

Off-page SEO is more than just getting backlinks. It also could look like: 

·   Managing your social media presence 

·   Conducting outreach and digital PR

·   Creating content for other platforms, like YouTube 

·   Managing reviews 

·   Keeping an eye out for spammy backlinks that could hurt your SEO 

If nobody is visiting your website because nobody is talking about it, then you might need better off-page SEO.

Technical SEO 

focuses on backend factors on your site that impact crawlability, user experience (UX), and site speed. Good technical SEO lets search engines and people easily understand and navigate your site. 

Slow-loading pages, broken images, or difficult navigation, on the other hand, hurt the user experience and are considered “bad technical SEO.”

Some facets of technical SEO include:

·   Conducting a technical site audit

·   Finding and fixing duplicate content

·   Using robots.txt file to tell Google how to crawl your site

·   Having a clear sitemap

·   Optimizing code and file size to encourage fast-loading pages

·   Managing a crawl budget

·   Migrating a website

·   Making the site mobile-friendly

A key to technical SEO is making sure your site is comfortable for both people and search engines. If a human can’t navigate to your site’s most important pages, search engines can’t either.

So, something such as having a clear and useful site architecture is an example of a technical SEO factor that helps humans and search engines.

Why SEO Is Important:

1. Organic Search Is a Good Source of Website Traffic

Organic search is often one of the highest sources of traffic for companies. And sometimes, SEO traffic is the primary source. 

This chart from Google Analytics shows a website heavily invested in organic search traffic:

The sheer number of search queries relevant to your business every day is likely much higher than the number of clicks you can generate through channels like social media. 

And it would take a substantial investment to reach that number of clicks through paid ads.

Focusing on organic search gives you the potential to attract even more traffic over time if you're able to increase your rankings. Because (as our State of Search report shows) there's a clear correlation between high rankings and high click-through rates.

2. SEO Is Cost-Effective

SEO is usually a more cost-effective way to drive traffic compared to channels like paid social.  

Paid acquisition requires extensive spending for creative, design, copywriting, landing pages, and experimentation. Plus, the amount you have to pay to run the ads themselves. 

With SEO, you have to spend on your website and on content production. But you don’t have to buy an ad placement. 

And when you start to see results from SEO, they can continue coming in. Even if you stop or reduce spending. 

That’s not true for ads. This chart from Domain Overview shows just how volatile traffic from paid can be:

Companies that invest in SEO tend to maintain or grow their results over time, even with reduced effort. But paid channels require continued ad spend to remain competitive. 

3. SEO Complements Paid Marketing Efforts

There’s clearly a connection between PPC and SEO. 

This could be because you simply occupy more real estate on SERPs. 

For example, Monday.com bids on the keyword “CRM for small business.”

They also rank organically for the same keyword. 

Occupying that much SERP real estate, they increase their chances of getting clicks to their site. 

And the increased brand visibility from being seen twice on the same page may also have a positive impact. Due to the mere-exposure effect, a phenomenon where people develop a preference for things because they’re familiar.  

4. SEO Builds Trust, Credibility, and Brand Recognition

Appearing in search results frequently creates the perception that your brand is a trusted and credible source of information.

Think of it this way:

The SERPs are like a highway. And the pages that rank are effectively billboards. 

The more searches you appear for, the more brand awareness you’ll begin to build. This brand awareness leads to a higher probability of someone choosing to do business with you over lesser known competitors. 

Google also values experience and expertise. These are large components of E-E-A-T, search quality rater guidelines that stand for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

5. SEO Connects You with Customers Throughout the Buyer’s Journey

You can connect with prospective customers multiple times throughout their journeys as their searches evolve over time.

Imagine a CMO figuring out next year’s marketing strategy. They begin researching account-based marketing (ABM) by searching “what is ABM?” and “ABM examples.”

Later on, they start comparing solutions with keywords like “best ABM platforms” and “[brand] reviews.” 

You can find these types of keywords that relevant audiences are searching for by doing keyword research. Or by seeing which keywords your competitors are targeting using Keyword Gap.

Open the tool and enter your domain and up to four competitors’ domains. And click “Compare.”

In the “Overview” report, scroll down to the table. And select “Missing” to see keywords your competitors rank for but you don’t. 

You can also filter by search intent, keyword difficulty, monthly search volume, and more to find good keyword opportunities at every stage. 

6. SEO Is a Scalable Growth Channel 

SEO is one of the few truly scalable customer acquisition channels. 

Think of SEO as a continuous cycle where your action (creating content) drives an output (rankings, traffic, and customer acquisition). 

And the revenue from these efforts can be reinvested back into creating more content that generates more rankings, traffic, and customers. 

This concept is known as a growth loop.

Scalable channels tend to generate incremental output that you can invest back into the channel.

For example, if you can invest $100 in paid ads and make $150, you can put the initial $100 back into the channel as well as the incremental $50. Which starts to compound. 

SEO is the same way with one exceptional benefit: When you stop investing, the returns tend to continue (at least for a certain amount of time before algorithm changes or competition factor in). 

7. SEO Best Practices Help Your Overall Marketing Performance

SEO best practices (such as great website UX, high-quality content, and aligning with search intent) will help improve your general marketing performance.

If you just made a website with a great user experience and tons of helpful content, that would be beneficial even if you don’t get organic traffic from search results. 

8. SEO Reflects Consumer Behaviour Changes

Optimizing for search means you'll stay on top of trends and consumer behaviour changes.

Because keyword research shows you rising and declining trends if you do it right. 

For example, the keto diet seems to have peaked a few years ago based on data from Google Trends. And it’s experienced a steady decline since 2019 (with a few spikes around the new year). 

Or consider a rising trend nearly nonexistent a few years ago: generative AI. 

Take a look at how that term has taken off recently:

The bottom line?

SEOs are on the front lines of consumer trends. 

9. SEO Results Are Quantifiable

SEO results are easy to measure. So, you can gauge how you’re performing and whether you need to make adjustments.

Using Google Analytics or an alternative website analytics platform, you can track organic traffic in relation to other channels. And you can attribute conversions to SEO and even to specific pages or blog posts. 

And you can track keyword rankings and position changes over time using the Position Tracking tool.

To get started, click the “+ Create project” button, enter your domain name, and click “Create project.”

Set up your project according to our configuration instructions. And click “Start Tracking.”

This shows your overall visibility in search results, estimated traffic from those rankings, and the average position (plus changes over time). 

Click the “Overview” tab to see a detailed list of your specific keyword rankings. And how they’ve changed. 

10. SEO Holds Your Competitive Edge

Investing in SEO helps you maintain your competitive edge. 

Because SEO is a must if you want to keep up with and eventually surpass your competition in the search results. Which is often key for outcompeting them as a business. 

If your competitors rank for search terms but you don’t, that’s a missed opportunity. 

You can find these terms using Keyword Gap.

Enter your domain and the domains for up to four competitors. And click “Compare.”

Scroll down to “All keyword details for:” and make sure your domain is selected.

Then, click the “Missing” tab to find keywords all competitors rank for but you don’t.

This can help you identify new topics to create content around. And help you stay visible in your industry.