You’ve probably heard about SEO and the fact that it’s super important for your website, but do you find yourself asking “what is SEO” and “why is SEO that important for my website”?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone! We find that SEO is one of the least understood aspects of an online presence and we’re here to help!
We’ve written this article to provide an overview of some key aspects of SEO - the points we believe you should have an understanding of - so that you can feel a little more in control of your website.
The Basics
SEO, short for Search Engine Optimization - is the process of optimizing your website to increase its visibility online and have it rank (appear) in Search Engines such as Google and Bing. Of course, the better the visibility of your site pages in search results, the more likely you are to capture the reader’s attention and attract potential customers and sales.
How Search Engines Work
With around 93% of all web traffic being via search engines, it can make you wonder how they know what to show someone who is searching.
Search engines rely on algorithms to produce results. Algorithms are processes or a set of rules to be followed, and in this instance, is a set formula used to retrieve specific information stored online and then decide which one to rank for a specific keyword.
There are 3 steps a search engine completes to show results:
Crawling: Search engines send out ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’ (fancy words for their web crawlers) that find new pages and record information about them.
Indexing: The search engine decides whether it is going to use the crawled content or not. If a webpage offers unique and valuable content, it’s likely to be placed in the index.
Ranking: This is where the search engine will rank the content and sites found in steps 1 and 2. There are multiple ranking signals that we’ve outlined below under key SEO components.
Paid vs. Organic Results
When search results are displayed, there will be ads that appear first, then all organic listings will appear.
It’s worth taking the time to understand the difference between paid and organic search results, as, although they do have some key similarities, they are very different.
Paid search results = where a company has paid to have their website/page shown at the top of a search result list. These will clearly state ‘Ad’ in the results box.
Organic search results = search results that appear based purely on algorithmic calculations and not paid advertisements. The websites/pages that appear on the first search result page are those that have good SEO.
Organic search results are the most cost-effective way of having your website show up online as the only real cost is time!
Key SEO Components
There is a lot to get your head around when it comes to SEO, especially when things change constantly. However, there are 3 key components that you should do your best to understand so you can take action and know you are doing all you can to have your brand and your website found online.
Technical Optimization
This is the stuff that happens behind the scenes of your website. Not your content that’s seen and read on the pages, but all the ‘techy’ aspects that help search engine spiders crawl and index your site more effectively. It includes things such as your site speed, site architecture, XML sitemaps, 404 pages, and 301 redirects. Without a good technical setup, your website will struggle to get ranked organically.
Technical Optimization = All the ‘techy’ stuff
On-Page Optimization
As the name suggests, this encompasses all the things you can do on-page (within your page content) throughout your website. This includes ensuring your site content is relevant - providing a great user experience - and having the right keywords and phrases throughout. You also need to ensure your page-level elements like title tags and headings are aligned with search intent (your specified set of keywords).
On-page SEO = Your Website
Off-Page Optimization
And again, as the name suggests, off-page optimization is the measures you can take outside of your website to improve its SEO, mainly being high-quality backlinks (incoming links to your website). These backlinks not only help search engines better understand your website but they also increase your website's authority, trust and relevance. Examples of off-page SEO include social media, podcasts, and having your website mentioned (and linked) on other industry-related websites.
Off-Page SEO = Another site or platform
As you can see, there is a lot to explain when it comes to SEO and we have really just scratched the surface in this article. We’ll continue to share our knowledge here with our articles as well as on social media so keep an eye out for more.
If you feel your website could be doing better in search results we offer website audits where we can see how your setup is looking and offer recommendations for you to implement. Sometimes a few slight tweaks and updates can make a big difference!
