What is SEO?

Andre Gieniec Google, Marketing, SEO

As a business owner with a website, you’re probably well aware of the importance of SEO. You’ll take care to follow the instructions of your SEO guy and make sure the pages of your websites have the necessary keywords. That’s how users searching for the products and services you provide can find you.

That’s common knowledge and it’s clearly the easy part! But, if you’ve been wondering why that’s important, let’s take a quick peek behind the scenes at what happens at Google. You’ll also understand the significance of the keywords and key phrases you add.

SEO is Actually Search Engine Optimization

SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization. In layman’s terms, it means optimizing your website so that Google and other search engines can find it easily. The critical issue here is to be found by the right kind of visitors who are likely to purchase the products and services you’re marketing. The true definition of SEO is the practice of bringing in better quality and quantity of traffic to the website. You need to clearly indicate to Google what are the kind of products you carry. If your business sells Apple phones, Google has to recognize the fact instead of sending you customers looking to buy high-quality fruit. The next factor is obviously quantity. A higher number of visitors will likely translate into higher conversions and possibly higher sales.

Next, Let’s Talk About SERPs

SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Pages. Where your company and its website appear on these pages can make the ultimate difference in whether a user lands on your page or a competing website. Statistics show that the first website to appear on Google’s search pages has a potential click-through rate of 31.7%. That figure translates into the probability that the person landing on your site will take the time to explore everything that you have to offer. Also, the first organic result has a ten times higher probability of getting a click-through. The following search results from 2 through 10 will also do well enough. Similarly, websites that have targeted keywords in the title and meta description will also attract more visitors.

The point is - you and your business need to be right up there - at the highest possible spots on the search pages. And, we absolutely need organic results. Users tend to ignore the search results that carry the “Ad” tag.

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

How Search Engines Work

Let’s try to understand what happens when a user types a keyword into the search bar of their browser or asks a question. Each browser has crawlers or tiny “bots” that quickly check through the millions of websites on the internet and come up with the closest information they can find to answer the query. The ‘bots skim through the content and pick out high-grade sites that carry valuable information related to the search.

Next, these websites are displayed on the search engine pages. For the user, it takes less than seconds to find the information they want. But, there’s an intricate process taking place behind the scenes to make those pages appear, as if by magic. And, there’s more. Google also has various algorithms in place that will select sites dated with the newest information and most relevant to where the user will want to shop. For instance, the particular city or online stores close by.

The question is - how to attract the crawler bots? And, that’s the point of SEO.

Critical Aspects for Successful Search Engine Optimization

For your SEO strategies to be successful, you need to make your website easily accessible by search bots. Here’s how your SEO guy helps with that.

  1. Create a great web design that crawlers can find easily
  2. Add interesting content that is relevant to users’ queries and provides valuable information
  3. Add keywords to signal crawler bots
  4. Provide a great user experience with fast loading speeds and compelling UX
  5. Interesting content that users want to share, the more links and citations you get, higher will be the traffic
  6. Add a descriptive SEO title, URL, and Meta Description.
  7. Add a snippet that will provide an enticing overview of what the content is all about
  8. Add internal links with do-follow tags so crawlers can pick up more relevant pages.

How Your SEO Expert Works to Optimize Your Site

Your SEO expert works to ensure that your website has all the right signals to entice crawler bots and caters to the advanced algorithms that search engines use. That includes publishing valuable content complete with keywords, YouTube videos, and images that indicate you have not just valuable information but also the right products and services that users are looking for. Do keep in mind that Google has a whole array of ranking criteria and the ‘bots pick up only relevant pages, not entire websites.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is not exactly a complicated process. But, it’s best left to the experts who stay updated with the latest search algorithms and other criteria used by Google and other search engines. Interested in learning more about how Google works? Take a few minutes to add your query on this page: https://www.hyperlocalplatform.com/contact/ and let’s talk about how to transform your website into the best that the crawler bots can find.