SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. It is the process of optimizing your content to such a level that, with the right keyword, search engines will show your content at the top of the ranking, thereby creating organic traffic to your website.
This essential marketing tool was created in the ’90s when the first search engines arrived. It is important to note that SEO results are different from paid results. Check US-Reviews for tips and opinions on the differences between SEO and PPC (Pay-per-click).
SEO is a long-term investment, unlike social media or paid ads that bring traffic to your website for as long as you can afford to pay for it. SEO, overtime, brings in traffic to your website at an exponential rate. It is, however, important to say that if you want huge traffic on your website, you must have a good web host. There are a lot of good web hosts when you go to online hosting service reviews.
For beginners, these are the following things you should know about SEO.
1. Basic SEO Terminologies:
There are some basic terminologies that you have to familiarize yourself with as a beginner. These terminologies include;
- On–Page SEO: This is everything that involves both the technical and the optimization aspects that you do on your website.
- Off–Page SEO: This involves getting backlinks from other websites with authority.
- White-Hat SEO: This is SEO done in the right manner and its rewards are long-term.
- Black-Hat SEO: This is the use of unethical practices. At best, its rewards are short-term.
2. Working Principles of Search Engines:
Search engines have bots that crawl into pages to check how relevant they are to the keywords searched. The bots then index them based on how relevant they are. The most relevant are displayed on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). To rank each web page, there are rank factors and these are the most important factors.
- Dwell time
- Total number of backlinks
- Content quality
- Referring domains
- Domain relevance
- Mobile usability
- Domain authority
3. Keywords:
Google autocomplete is a classic way to search for keywords. This is because the suggested keywords provided by Google are words that other people are searching for. There are also websites like Facebook or YouTube that can help you in finding new keyword ideas.
4. Link Building:
This is when you get links for other websites to increase the authority of your website. It is a very important factor in search engine optimization for bloggers. Imagine that your website is going or contesting for an office and those links are votes, which means that the more you get votes, the better the chances of you getting elected. Backlinks are one of the top three factors that Google uses to rank websites.
5. Content Quality:
No matter the niche you are going into, it is already oversaturated. Surviving in the global economy is now harder than it has ever been, so to succeed, you have to be 10 times better than everyone in terms of your contents and designs. Let your contents be thorough, up-to-date, unique, and original.
SEO is the way to increase traffic on your website. Proper utilization of the steps explained above will grant you a smooth entry into the SEO realm as a beginner.