Want to know more about SEO and how it works? We made this simple guide to teach you more about the meaning of SEO, SEO optimization and SEO marketing.
If you didn’t know it, 4.79 billion people on earth have access to the internet. That’s 61.4% of the total population. But more interestingly, there are now 1.8 billion websites online and functional. And you want to enter this jungle and appear on the first Google page?
Then you’re going to have to work hard and ask you this very small question: what is SEO and how does it work? For people who are just starting to build their website or are in the process of redesigning it, search engine optimization can be a little intimidating.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Even if you don’t have an experienced SEO collaborator in-house, you can already start making positive changes that will help you improve your search engine optimization. With a little knowledge, you’ll be on your way to improving your site’s ranking in no time.
Now, let’s dig a little deeper into this subject.
“SEO is about being better than others at meeting the search intent of your visitors.“
Olivier Andrieu
SEO definition and how SEO marketing works
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization“, the process of optimizing your website to get organic, unpaid traffic on search engine result pages.
In other words, SEO is the process of making certain changes to the design and content of a site to make it more attractive to a search engine. You do this in the hope of seeing your website at the top of the list on Google.
Although SEO marketing may seem complex because of the different factors that can influence your ranking, this optimization process is easier than it seems. Well, almost.
The purpose of search engines is to offer the best possible service to those who use them. This means that they must provide results that are not only of high quality but also relevant to those users. There are no after-sales services in this area, so it’s better to keep the user pampered.
To do this, search engines will scan the different sites on the web to better understand their content and therefore provide the most relevant results to those who are searching for certain topics or keywords.
They also scan sites to determine if they are easy to browse and read, rewarding user-friendly sites with quality content with higher rankings on the results page.
Search Engine Optimization is the process by which everyone ensures that their site ranks well in search engines for words and phrases relevant to their business. For content to be presented to the right people, you must try to optimize it so that it appears at the top of Google&Co results for the keywords that are most representative of your site. Knowing that an Internet user does not go beyond the third page, the margin of error seems to be minimal.
There are two categories in SEO:
- On-Page SEO: this is everything that is on your site. And that you have total control over.
- The Off-Page SEO: this is everything outside your site. But here, you don’t have much control.
Without a doubt, SEO has many advantages. By improving it, you can increase your visibility on search engines. This will inevitably allow you to reach more potential customers. By creating content that is more attractive and more effective than your competitors, you will also increase your chances of generating more targeted organic traffic.
Factors impacting search engine optimization
Now that you know what SEO is and how it works, you may be wondering “how to do SEO marketing“? The truth is that SEO marketing works effectively, and that proper implementation can help get good results.
Let’s look at some of the factors that can impact your search engine rankings. First of all, you should know that Google will never reveal the exact algorithm it uses to rank sites. However, we do have a good understanding of the criteria that impact search engine result page rankings (SERPs). These include both on-page and off-page factors, which we will discuss later.
Content is king, long live the arena
Yes, SEO is a gladiatorial battle. Your competitors are numerous and will all want to be the last one standing in the arena in Rome. The good news is that they don’t always produce the quality that Google expects and this opens up great opportunities for you to catch up with them and overtake them.
Before we delve into some of the factors of on-page and off-page SEO, let’s talk about content. Content is effective in both attracting search engines and helping you build lasting links with visitors to your site. The more relevant and high quality content you have, the more likely search engines will rank you highly. And logically, the more appealing and effective your site’s content is, the more likely your visitors will spend more time on it and perhaps even make purchases.
Is there a miracle recipe for this? Yes, there is.
But no, finally. The secret to create content that is optimized for both search engines and visitors is to create quality and nothing but quality.
To do this, consider varying different types of well-written content by targeting topics that will interest your audience. Until it is necessary to keep them on the edge of their seats if necessary.
Here are some types of content you can focus on to improve your SEO:
- Blog posts and articles
- Social Media
- Electronic books
- Practical guides and tutorials
- Videos and audio recordings
- Computer graphics or other visual content
Another important element to consider when creating content is the use of optimized key words and phrases. These are relevant words and phrases that a user could type in when searching for answers to questions or when searching for products or services.
When you create content around these keywords and phrases, you improve your chances of getting a higher ranking on the search engine results page related to these keywords. Hence the importance of identifying them for your business, but also to identify them from your competitors.
Another factor that can have an impact on your content, and therefore on your ranking, is the freshness of your content. Here, we refer to the frequency of new content that you publish on your site.
However, creation is not the only way. You can also refresh your old content by updating it. Google appreciates the fact that you modify and enrich your texts to make them more effective. So don’t hesitate to add new information, statistics, photos or videos over time. If you have a site with thousands of pages, you should focus on the old texts that bring you the most traffic if you have a site with thousands of pages.
Although creating content requires time and resources, it is a strategy that undeniably pays off. Search engines like quality content and consumers need it to better understand the value you can bring them.
Start by creating a few blog posts and posting on social media. Once you have a group of loyal fans and followers, you can work on creating different types of media to attract and retain new prospects, like You Tube for example. This is a must in some areas and can sometimes trigger more sales and traffic than text-based content.
On-site referencing
The factors of on-site referencing are the elements that are an integral part of your site. They are the elements over which you have full control, which means that you can work to improve these factors over time by following SEO best practices. This goes beyond simple content marketing to the deeper levels of your site’s code.
On-site factors that help your SEO:
Title tags
The title tag of each page tells search engines the subject of your page. It should be about 60 characters long, including the keyword your content is focused on and the name of your company.
Meta description
The meta description is an explanatory text on the subject of each page. It appears in the search results. It is the first thing an Internet user sees to understand the subject of the page and its relevance. It must include your keyword and provide enough detail to tell the reader what the page is about. This text must be a maximum of 160 characters to be fully visible on Google pages.
Headings
Not only do headings make your content easier to read for visitors, but they can also help improve your SEO. You can use H1, H2 and H3 tags to help search engines better understand the content of your site. But no matter what happens, every page must have at least one and only one H1.
Internal links
The creation of internal links, or hyperlinks to other content on your site, can help search engines to know your site better. For example, if you write an article about the value of a specific product or service, you can link to the product or service page in your blog article. This is also a great way to move a user from page to page so that they stay longer on your site.
Image name and ALT tags
If you use images on your site or in your blog content, you should also include your keyword or phrase in the image name and alt tag. This will help search engines better index your images, which can appear when users search for images for a certain keyword or phrase.
« The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results »
SEO serial killer
When strategically placing your keywords and SEO phrases on your pages, it is important to avoid over-optimization. Google and other search engines will penalize you if you use keywords too often throughout the content.
In addition, you need to make sure that each piece of content focuses on only one or two keywords. This ensures that your content is specific and relevant. If you try to use too many keywords at once, it can have a negative impact on your search engine optimization and result in poorly targeted and sparse content.
If content plays a key role in the ranking of your site, it is also important to take into account the architecture of your site. It is therefore advisable to use a site structure that allows search engines to scan or easily explore your pages and content.
Establishing internal links between your pages, creating a sitemap, and submitting this sitemap to search engines can help improve the searchability of your site and allow search engines to better understand your content.
Another concern about the architecture of your site is whether or not it is suitable for cell phones. Today, internet searches on mobile devices have surpassed desktop searches. So make sure that your site is mobile first, the favorite phrase of all SEO managers.
You need to make sure that users are able to view, read and navigate your website from their mobile device in a fast and smooth way. It will impact the user experience, but it can also affect your SEO.
Off-site referencing
In addition to the elements of on-site referencing, there are also off-site referencing factors that can have an impact on your ranking. Although you don’t have direct control over these factors, there are ways to improve your chances of seeing them play in your favor.
Here are some of the different off-page referencing factors that can have an impact on your search engine rankings:
The authority of your site
Trust is an increasingly important factor in the ranking of a site on Google. It is the Domain Authority score (DA) and it determines whether you have a legitimate site that visitors can trust. One of the best ways to improve the DA is to create quality links to your site from authoritative sites.
External backlinks
One of the most popular ways to build an off-page SEO is the use of links. You need to be careful because having spamming sites pointing tons of backlinks to your site is a quick and easy way to get your site banned from search engines. Instead, take the time to build relationships with influencers and blogs that create quality content and will link to your site in their own content.
Social Networking
Another important factor in off-page referencing is social signals, such as Likes and Shares. When it comes to boosting referencing, one must look for social signals of influencer quality. The more quality content you publish, the more likely you are to encourage people to share your content with others.
Although you don’t have direct control over what happens outside of your site, you can increase your chances of improving SEO simply by creating quality content that others will find interesting.
The more relevant and interesting your content is, the more likely people will link to your content and share it on social media. The more people trust your content, the more search engines will do the same.
Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO
In terms of referencing, there are two different and opposite approaches to optimize a site: Black Hat referencing and White Hat referencing. Basically, the dark side or the light side of it.
Black Hat
Some people are only interested in SEO to be able to quickly classify their content without really caring about the consequences. Black Hat SEO involves tactics that focus on search engine optimization only.
This means that they do not take into account the human visitors who will read and navigate their site. These people will go so far as to break the rules of courtesy in order to improve the ranking of their site at all costs.
As a consequence, this approach produces pages that are often difficult to read for Internet users and look a lot like spam. Although sites can be ranked faster than those that are properly optimized, these sites are often penalized or banned by search engines sooner or later. We see this with every major update of Google’s algorithms. It’s AI, so it’s constantly learning what quality is, and it’s starting to do it very well.
All in all, this rapid approach to search engine optimization ruins your chances of building a site that is sustainable and capable of providing new leads for years to come.
White Hat
White Hat is an effective approach to optimizing your website for search engines and building a sustainable online presence. It consists of focusing on the human audience that will click on the site and read its content.
The goal of this type of SEO is to produce the best possible content on a site that is easy to read and navigate while respecting the search engine optimization rules.
We remind you again, even if Black Hat SEO tactics can help you rank quickly, it is inevitable that search engines will eventually understand what you are doing and penalize your site.
Depending on the severity of the offence, your site may not be able to cure itself of Google penalties, or it may take months to do so. The only way to create a sustainable online business that will generate more organic traffic over time is to follow search engine optimization best practices and create effective content that your visitors will find interesting.
SEO: patience will reward the honest ones
After learning more about SEO and how it works, you can now work on making changes to your site to improve your SEO and strengthen your ranking on the search engine results page.
Keep in mind that there are many factors that affect your SEO ranking, but the most important is whether your content is useful and relevant to your target audience.
Keep in mind that SEO takes time to perform. You won’t enjoy the benefits of search engine optimization overnight. In fact, it can take months before you can appreciate the results of your work.
However, following SEO best practices by creating quality content focused on your visitors is the best way to build a sustainable online business that will continue to generate new organic traffic to your site for years to come.