What is SEO: A Beginner’s Guide to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

If you own a website or you have friend who is digital marketer then you may have already heard about Search Engine Optimization or SEO marketing. If you’re wondering what is SEO, it is a process of improving a website’s visibility in the organic results on search engines and increasing overall traffic on site. Even though SEO may seem like a complicated procedure, it is actually a simple one if you know how SEO works. Many people unnecessarily over complicate the process and eventually pay the price. This article helps you understand the process in a simpler way.

Today, search engine optimization or SEO is a major part of the digital marketing spectrum. In fact, search engines contribute to the major chunk of the web traffic thus SEO becomes undeniable part of the overall digital marketing efforts. If you want to increase your website’s popularity, this is the way to go.

source: velocityconsultancy

Every day, millions of articles and blog posts are published. But only a few of them get ranked on the first page of the search engines. You may ask why! The answer is simply the better website optimization of the webpage and its content.

The significant aspects that contribute to a better SEO score are:

• On-page optimization that’s really on point.
• The quality of content, which is one of the deciding factors.
• Better implementation of keywords throughout your content or keyword optimization.
• Link Building, which can help your website get authority.

White Hat, Grey Hat, and Black Hat – What is SEO?

Back in the days, pretty much every way worked for the webmasters. But that’s not the case anymore. Search Engines have revolutionized their algorithms with advanced filters. Keyword stuffing used to work in earlier days. Now, it’s a strict NO for SEO marketing.  Anyhow, let’s get to the point that defines the right way to operate the search engine optimization techniques.

source: thewebomania

White Hat: This is the way of optimization, where you focus on readers and search engines alike. To be honest, you must invest your focus more on your readers. Because, that’s how you generate useful and quality content. Search Engines rank websites according to their relevance to a user’s search. White Hat SEO techniques primarily focus on generating resourceful content that’s useful for the users.

Black Hat: If you’re looking for short-term Search Engine Optimiztion results, this could be the search engine optimization technique for you. Black Hat generally focuses on getting you immediate results. But, when you go this way, there won’t be any scope for the long-term sustainability. Black Hat involves several types of illegitimate optimization and website promotion practices such as keyword stuffing. There are many other black hat practices such as cloaking, doorway pages, content automation, and many others.

Grey Hat: It is something that combines a few elements from both Black Hat and White Hat SEO practices. It’s neither completely right nor completely wrong. But, grey hat could still hurt your score.

If you’re a budding webmaster, try to avoid anything but White Hat techniques. It’s always better to be safer than sorry. Furthermore, black hat and grey hat practices may also lead to a penalty by search engines.

On-Page & Off-Page – What’s the difference?

The two main categories of Search Engine Optimization techniques are: On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO.

On-Page SEO comprises of all the ranking factors that determine the quality of your website or webpage. These factors include website design experience, URL, information architecture, content quality & value, keywords, SEO title tags, image alt text, headlines, page structure, and a few others.

Off-Page SEO refers to the external factors search engines consider. Some such variables are social networks, backlinks, influencer marketing and similar others.

source: seopressor

On-Page SEO: This section includes all the internal website optimization aspects. The three main categories are: Content, Keywords, and Page Structure.

• Content: Bill Gates, in 1996, stated: “Content is King”. The content aspect has always played an important role in a website’s ranking. The last few algorithms of Google have radically raised the importance of content. It’s safe to say that the whole SEO game revolves around Content.It’s important to write content that’s easy to read. Avoiding fluff and fillers can drastically improve the quality of your content. Make sure that your content is resourceful and easy to understand.

• Keywords: This is a game-changing factor. The ranking of a website heavily depends on the usage of keywords. But it can also lead to astray, if done in a wrong way. In the early days, a website could be ranked by spilling keywords all over the place. That’s not the case anymore. Research your keywords with the right type of tools. Use keywords when appropriate, but make sure you place them throughout the content.Place your main keywords in the first paragraph, headings, main content, and conclusion. Avoid keyword stuffing at any cost.

• Page Structure: You can’t rank a webpage that is clustered with improper placement of content. Structure your content in a clean way, involving headings and subheadings. Limit your paragraphs to 4-5 sentences. Eliminate any type of HTML errors. Your website should be easy for the search engine to crawl. Whenever it’s possible, interlink your web pages. By doing so, you make sure that the web between your web pages is thick. This phenomenon makes it easier for your website to get indexed.

Off-Page SEO: There are several external factors that influence your website’s ranking. The three main factors are Trust Rate, Authority Score, and Bounce Rate.

• Trust Rate: This is a way that Google uses to measure the legitimacy of your website. If your website looks similar to a major brand, Google is more likely to trust it. To achieve a better Trust Rate, you can start by acquiring backlinks from authoritative websites. These types of websites usually have .gov or .edu domains. This aspect is important for better local Search Engine Optimiztion results.
• Authority Score: It is classified into two sections which are Domain Authority and Page Authority. Domain Authority refers to the popularity of a domain. Page Authority indicates the reputation and quality of a page.
• Bounce Rate: It measures the number of readers that view only one page before leaving your website. You must aim to decrease the bounce rate of your website. Loading time, content quality, user-friendliness, and several others play an important role here.

Conclusion

We hope that this brief introductory guide has given you a deep insight into how search engine optimization or SEO works. Now, it’s time for you to get started with optimizing your website.

Make sure that you also focus on local SEO to market your website to the local customers.

Make a plan and operate accordingly. Write quality content that offers help to the readers. Never publish your content without proofreading it.

Try to avoid any mistakes on the website structure. Make sure that your website is easy to navigate through.

Feel free to comment your opinion and tell us how this SEO marketing guide has helped you.