SEO 101

What is SEO? It seems like it's everywhere on LinkedIn lately, with job listings looking for SEO specialists. Though SEO itself isn't new, it can be a bit confusing if you are just getting started. For all the beginners out there, like myself, here's a quick guide that will help you get to grips with SEO.

SEO is optimizing your website to be more visible in search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This is usually when people key in a search query looking for certain information, products, or services that are related to the content in your website; the webpage will rank high in the search results, therefore driving much traffic to your website.

The Basics of SEO

The following are the essential steps of SEO:

Crawling: The crawling of a search engine is simply surfing the web by following link after link, starting with any random page that it knows of. While doing this, some information is gathered regarding what your site contains. This information then comes into use in searching.

Indexing: Whatever data is collected in crawling is stored in the database of the search engine. It enables your pages to appear in the search engine results.

Listing: Once a user enters a query, the search engine lists indexed pages, providing views of pages that best answer the query.

On-Page and Off-Page SEO

On-page SEO: It is the optimization of the content and technical nature of your website. These include optimization of content, textual and visual adjustments of content, and technical improvements.

Off-Page SEO: This has to do with the popularity and authority of your site, enhancing it using external means. It involves building links and boosting the visibility of your brand.

Keyword Research and Query Types

Keyword research underlines what people type in the search browsers. These keywords are important in optimizing your content.

Query types include:

Informational Queries: Searches for information, like weather updates, recipes, or guides.

Navigational Queries: These are searches carried out with brand names or specific terms to reach certain sites.

Transactional Queries: Searches related to e-commerce sites and service providers, which in most cases culminate in making a purchase or reaching out via contact forms online.

Choosing Keywords

When it comes to choosing keywords, keep the following aspects in mind:

Search Volume: The number of users searching for a keyword.

Competition: The number of websites targeting the same keyword.

Relevance: How the keyword fits with your content and audience.

Tools to Find the Right Keywords

You can check some of the best keywords for your website using tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Google Trends. These tools enable you to find some keywords relevant to your niche and give information about search volume, competition, and trends.

SEO Performance Tracking Tools

Google Analytics and Google Search Console are two essential tools that will enable you to track your website's performance as far as SEO is concerned. They help you understand the sources of your traffic, user behavior, and visibility in search.

Key Metrics to Track

Organic Traffic: This describes the total number of visitors visiting your site from the search engines.

Bounce Rate: It gives the percentage of the number of visitors who leave after just viewing one page.

Conversions: These are considered to be the number of visitors that go through your website to complete an intended action, such as making a purchase.

SEO vs SEM

As I searched for information on SEO, I also came across SEM-Search Engine Marketing. Here is how SEO and SEM compare against each other:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Refers to the set of long-term strategies meant to improve organic search rankings. It is optimizing your website so that it can reach the top positions in ranking organically over time.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing): The way to gain instant visibility is through paid advertising – in-text ads and map ads. This works faster by bidding on one's target keywords with paid advertisement.

Which one would you prefer?

Well both of them come with their pros and cons. SEO is long-term, with more sustainable benefits; SEM gives short-term visibility, which one has to continuously fund to keep up the traffic. It will depend on your business goals, budget, and how fast results are needed.

Common Mistakes That Are Better Avoided in SEO

Keyword Stuffing: Stocking your content with too many keywords may attract search engine penalties.

Not optimizing for mobile: As more and more people use mobile to access sites, a site that doesn't work well on mobile will start to lose visitors.

Not using analytics: Without any tracking of your SEO efforts, you have no idea what's working and what needs more work.

Website speed: If the website takes a lot to load, users just don't want to be on it, and the ranking in the search will be negatively affected. Improve the speed of your site to make users stay and boost your ranking as well.