Most businesses now market and advertise their products mainly through the Internet. Brands have moved from classical or traditional marketing to digital marketing nowadays.
So if you are involved in any business, you have undoubtedly heard of the term ‘SEO.’ You may have even heard that it would help your business grow rapidly. So what is SEO, and how does it help you and your business?
Wanna know in detail? Let’s Jump In!
Table of Contents
What is SEO?
Part of Digital Marketing, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of getting your website’s pages to rank higher in the search engines like Google, Bing, and gaining organic traffic to your website.
The main reason people get to know about your business is when you rank higher in these search engines. Whenever people search the terms related to your business, the search engines suggest them your website, resulting in increased traffic.
In simple terms, SEO is the science of optimizing your website to rank high in search engines and gain large numbers of traffic.
Importance of SEO
Now you know what Search Engine Optimization is, so why is it that important for the business?
Whenever people are trying to get some stuff for themselves, they research first. Most people search the product in the search engines to have some idea about the product.
- According to the Search Engine Journal, about 28.5% of people click on the first result. Similarly, 15.7% of people click on the second result that pops in the search engine result pages and so on. So you must take advantage of this kind of situation and use it to grow your business.
- People trust search engines and the results that they suggest. Also, people tend to buy from those companies that they have heard of or seen somewhere. In the 2020 Consumer Culture Report, it was said that about 71% of people buy from those companies which they recognize. So with SEO, it is about ranking higher and increasing your brand awareness.
- SEO increases the rank of your website and makes your website user-friendly. So when it happens, there is a maximum chance that customers spend their time on your website, which may make you more sales.
- Most businesses now perform different SEO techniques and even hire SEO experts to do their work. So if you are not doing it, you may be left out, and your business cannot grow as you expect it to grow.
Types of SEO
If you’ve read this far, it’s evident that you’re interested in SEO. Do not worry; we have everything that you want to know. Did you know there are different types of SEO? Did you know all these SEOs work to get your website’s page rank higher in search engines?
On-Page SEO
On-page means sticking to your website pages. Similarly, On-page SEO means optimizing the technical part of your site. It is the process of optimizing your website’s web pages for different keywords that rank higher in the search engines. With these keywords, your website visibility and traffic are increased.
Some of the other factors that you must optimize while performing On-page SEO are:
- Title Tag
It is the HTML tag that gives the title of the webpage and gives the information about the content to the readers. The length of the title tag must be between 50-60 characters only.When optimized, the title tag must consist of important keywords which is very important because it helps in ranking the content in the search engines. Similarly, the title tag must be unique and you must target long-tail keywords here.
- Meta Description
Meta description is the HTML tag where you can write in brief what the page is about. The length of the meta description can be between 155-160 characters.While optimizing meta description, you must use active voice and make it more actionable. As in the title, you must also include focus keywords here in the meta description.
- Image Files
Firstly, you must always write a proper and clear file name and that file must contain a focus keyword. While uploading an image, you must not upload a file with high quality as it may make the website slow. So while optimizing, the file size you must be targeting must be 70kb or less. - URL structures
URLs of the webpage must be simple and easy to read. It also must contain keywords that give the idea of the page. It must not contain unnecessary texts as it doesn’t make the website SEO-friendly.
For eg: https://www.abc.com/category/post-name
This is a perfect example of a simple and SEO-friendly URL. - Content
Whenever you write any content on your website, you must write it clearly which is easy to read. The content must contain different focus keywords which helps in ranking in the search engines. But, you should not include too many keywords, because it is considered as keyword stuffing, which will not help you in ranking.Similarly, the content you write must be relevant to the topic you are writing for and it should be well arranged with different heading and subheading. Similarly, you can use bullet points when listing the things in your content.Whenever you write an informational and well-arranged content, the readers are likely to stay on your page for a longer time, which hints the search engines that your webpage is good. As a result, the search engines then rank your website. - Alt tags
Those HTML tags which give context when the images do not load are called alt tags. The alt tags are very important in SEO because the search engines bot crawl the alt text and use it to index an image.Not writing any alt tags can have a crucial effect while ranking the webpage in the search engines.
For eg:
Bad way of writing alt text: Football player
Good way of writing alt text: A football player running with the ball
Off-Page SEO
In like manner, off-page means outside your website. Like On-page SEO, Off-page SEO is also used to increase the site’s search engine rankings.
Most people say that Off-page SEO is all about link building, but it is more than that. Different Off-page SEO involves building backlinks, increasing involvement and shares through social media platforms, and encouraging branded searches.
Off-page and building links play a vital role in the Google rankings because backlinks are one of the important factors that Google looks upon. Backlinks mean trust, and Google ranks those websites that have gained these backlinks from leading websites.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is part of On-page SEO because it improves your website’s technical aspects like making your website speed fast, understandable for search engines, and making search engines crawl quickly.
Why is technical SEO important? First let’s understand, how does Google take your website’s information? Google sends bots so that they can crawl through your website. After crawling, the crawled information is stored as an index in databases. And, whenever people search for terms that are related to your business, Google suggests your website.
So if your website is appropriately arranged, then the Google bot can crawl through your website quickly and gain a lot of information in a short time, resulting in a higher chance of increasing your website’s visibility.
Local SEO
Using SEO techniques to attract local customers is called Local SEO. According to Forbes, 95% of people use their smartphones for local searches.
Now we understand, why local customers are vital to your business? Because high volume of local searches on Google and easier to attract. Also, they are highly likely to suggest your company to other people.
To perform Local SEO, first thing is to target location based keywords to increase your local rankings. Next step is, creating a strong Google My Business profile and optimizing GMB profile. Finally, you can create content targeting local customers and acquiring backlinks from websites based in your city such as directory listings etc.
Wrong SEO Practices
Performing SEO against search engine guidelines, to get higher site ranking in search results. These are unethical tactics don’t solve for the searcher and often end in a penalty from search engines. These are divided into two broad groups.
Black Hat SEO
Performing SEO techniques outside the search engine’s rules and regulations is Black Hat SEO. The keyword stuffing, buying links, poor quality content, cloaking, etc., fall in Black Hat SEO.
We encourage you not to perform these kinds of SEO techniques because these techniques bring you short-term results, but they may harm you heavily in the long term. If the search engines find out about these techniques, they may ban your website forever, which may be a waste of time.
So instead of using these shady techniques, you must perform only recommended SEO techniques and build a high-quality reputation that lasts forever.
Grey Hat SEO
You may be confused; White Hat SEO is that SEO that is done sitting inside rules and regulations of search engines, and similarly, Black Hat SEO is the vice-versa of that. So what is Grey Hat SEO?
You get a Grey Hat SEO by combining both White Hat and Black Hat. It is a mix of both SEO, and ultimately, it is not legal because it involves some Black Hat SEO, and it is very risky even with Grey Hat SEO.
Some of the techniques that Grey Hat SEO uses are:
- Buying Expired Domains is one of the most common Grey Hat techniques one can use. If an owner of the website lets the website expire, it still has authority with it. Then someone may pay the owner for their domain.
- Buying or Trading Links – As I said earlier, backlinks play a vital role in ranking websites in search engines. So in this technique, you pay other website owners for backlinks or trade something like content, guest articles, and many more.
- Creating Duplicate Content – Another common Grey Hat SEO is duplicating content or copying the significant content from other websites. It may help you rank on search engines. But in case Google, if they don’t find out, you may face the consequences.
Final Words
I hope you found this post beneficial to know what SEO is and how you can use it to grow your business. In this modern time, all companies of any size must perform SEO techniques.
Most people have smartphones and other devices to surf the Internet. So you must take this as a chance to gain a lot of traffic and increase your business sales.
