Let’s dive right into what SEO is.
What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” This is how websites gain traffic by making themselves more visible in the results of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Why is SEO important?
This is crucial for a website’s success and viability because it’s a freeway of garnering organic traffic and exposure that marks a website’s relevance and reputation while feeding into those very things. And much of the time, search engines are the primary way users can find a particular website. If the world wide web is a library and websites are books, SEO is how websites ensure that they end up on the “popular” and “bestsellers” shelves of particular sections potential users enter.
Search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo are then the librarians of the internet. And to deliver relevant results to users who search for particular topics, they need to use a specific recipe to sort through and pick the best results. These recipes are complex algorithms that websites need to recognize and understand to offer the best ingredients when they are put into this algorithm.
What exactly do search engines value?
Perhaps the most obvious factor is words. When a user searches for something like “Michael Jordan,” the websites that show up have the name of the greatest basketball player ever somewhere on them. Another place words show up is in the titles of websites, which are sometimes hidden in a website’s code. Search engines pay lots of attention to these titles, both visible and invisible, much like how a librarian considers book titles and catalog codes.
Also important link, which search engines view as recommendations that the website links to engaging, relevant content. Smaller factors like how quickly a website loads or how much data it loads are also important. These factors are often combined. For example, a link that links to Website A with the words “Website A has mangoes” will help Website A show up even higher when a user searches for mangoes.
As with any competition, certain websites can take steps to “cheat” and get ahead of their competitors. For example, a website’s developers could buy a bunch of other bogus websites and link to the original to make it show up higher in search engines. Eventually, however, search engines like Google and Bing will recognize this loophole and close it. For websites both informational and business related to remaining relevant over time and with great consistency, those websites should focus on creating quality, relevant content and then trying to figure out how to maximize search engine results based on that content. The result then will be truly optimal, both in the search engines and for the website.
While you got an introduction to the topic of SEO, you can read more on how can you can rank your website higher in search results.
