What is SEO? – How SEO Works

Managing

Filed in: Marketing

This article is about “What is SEO, and how does it work?” We will help you learn what Search Engine Optimization is all about and how it works and why you should have a good understanding of “SEO”. Search Engines (Like Google, Bing, Yahoo) have certain minimum requirements to allow your website to show up in their database, so you need to optimize for these requirements. In combination to this are the competing websites that have already made it to the top of those respective search engine results pages, so your “SEO” must also be done better than those who are optimizing for the same set of results.

Have you ever wondered – Why aren’t more people finding my website?

SEO – How & Why

Abbreviated SEO stands for “search engine optimization”. Typically people think of (misunderstand) SEO as building links so that you show up higher in search engine results pages but is not always so much the case. SEO actually spans the range of doing a lot of different things:

To show up in desired search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
On-Site (on-page) optimization: knowing what keywords are the most valuable and implementing the basic + advanced SEO methods for website pages around those keywords.
Off-Site (Off-page) optimization: includes some links back to a website that are relevant and useful in the way the link was placed
Quality Signals are having a good website layout design, faster loading speed, low bounce rates, pages viewed per session, social signals and a number of things that indicate your website is popular and gives people what they are looking for.

The acronym “SEO” stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. The concept of SEO is to optimize your website (and other online assets) for maximum performance (first place rankings) in the results that are displayed for the key terms (keywords) that potential buyers are searching for. SEO is how you can influence high ranking results on search engines like Google without paying for ads. SEO is synonymous with “organic search engine ranking signals” which means that if all of the SEO signals are correct your website will show at the top of the results naturally (aka organically).

Organic SEO means finding ways to optimize your website or pages to appear high in the search results without paying for ads. Your website or pages within the site “organically” rank highly because of the optimization that has been done correctly.
A Search Engine is a computer algorithm that stores collected data from websites and then classifies, categorizes, tracks, interprets, and gauges popularity of websites so that it can display the most accurate and trusted results to the person searching. For example a popular search engine is Google Search.

SEO for Beginners

The reason why SEO is so attractive for businesses advertising is because it allows your website to act as the inbound marketing asset at the top of searches without constantly spending large amounts of money. Your website does not just magically appear at the top of Google, it takes work and optimization to get there.

Do a search for your business using the keywords potential leads would use to find a business like your’s. Did you appear at the top? In the middle? At the bottom? Did your business NOT show up at all??

Well, all of the listings you see on the results have taken the time to optimize their website and pages to get there.

Optimizing for the search engines to get the all coveted top ranking spot takes a bit of technical knowledge combined with taking action and a bit of patience. At a minimum you will need to know what “keywords” also called “search terms” relate to your business and take that knowledge into account when taking the action of optimizing your website for those terms. There are several combined efforts when doing SEO the correct way, and we are going to walk you through it.

SEO – How it all works

The concept of SEO does not apply to a business unless it has a website, or other online asset where new leads convert into customers. SEO can only be applied to online marketing assets (websites) that can be “indexed” by search engines.

So, if your business does not at least have a website then head over to our website design information to get started with step 1, and then we can help you with SEO from there.

In some cases when performing SEO for our clients certain things may need to be done that requires a website redesign service because of a lack of functionality or customization.

2 Core Factors of SEO

Internal = Website Structure (Layout, Content, Quality, Relevance, On-page signals) You have the most control of the internal factors.
External = Outside of your website (Off-page signals, Endorsements & links, Social media signals likes & shares, CTR = click through rate, Bounce rate) Some of these factors you may not have so much control over, but you can influence them from the internal factors.

These 2 main factors are combined when a search engine places your website in their results, and depending on how well optimized the website pages are in comparison to the competing resutls will determine the position in the results your website will appear.

Internal (Website) SEO Factors

SEO optimization efforts will produce great lasting benefits to your website if you focus on these main areas first:

Layout & design
Keyword research
Content quality
Titles & Headers
Originality of content
Internal link structure
Supporting articles
Faster loading speed

External (Off-site) SEO Factors

When a website is properly optimized internally it may still need some additional promotion elsewhere online, here are some of the important offpage SEO factors to consider:

Trust & authority branding
Engagement & social activity
Links into your website that are relevant
User behavior & click through rates
Reviews & mentions of your business

Website optimization needs to combine the best aspects of technical data for the search engines (aka machines) and the best content + layout for the user’s experience (aka humans).

Video Explanation: What is SEO

In Summary

If you rely on capturing new business leads from online sources like Google or Amazon search results by appearing first or near the top of results then SEO is a concept that MUST be done and implemented correctly. SEO is the way to drive new inbound sales from people who are searching for your products & services online. Organic SEO is the most affordable marketing campaign for businesses that yields the highest ROI on the marketing budget. SEO is “evergreen” meaning that when your website makes it to the top it can remain at the top “organically”.

We can help a website owner at any stage in the growth of their business. Whether you already have a website that needs optimization or need help with a new project so that SEO is done correctly from the start, we are happy to help.