Introduction to SEO
SEO or
Search Engine Optimization is the process of maximizing the visibility of websites in search engines, in the results(SERP) they generate and getting the optimum level of relevant traffic directed to one’s site, thus the word optimization is used.
It is common knowledge and now statistically proven that the higher up or earlier a website appears on a search engines results page, the more traffic it is likely to get from the users of that search engine. The second factor to influence traffic is frequency of appearance on the results page, or how many times a certain website appears on a search engine’s results page.
The primary or basic goal of search engine optimization is to maximize both these aspects of appearance to direct more traffic towards a website from a search engine.
Crawlers/Spiders: Search engines use internet bots called ‘crawlers’ or ‘spiders’ to index websites on the World Wide Web and keep their indexes updated. This process is called crawling or to put it in easier terms, crawling is the process of reading and cataloguing websites on the internet. In collaboration with these spiders, algorithms are written to generate results from the indexes created by these internet spiders. The process or methods through which, firstly, a website is made easier to index for a search engine’s spiders and secondly, made as responsive as possible to the algorithms of search engine, is what a large part of search engine optimization is all about.
What do you understand by term 'SEO',
SEO means search engine optimization. It is the process of getting traffic from the free, organic or natural search results on search engines like google, yahoo or Bing (we generally use google and Bing for our clients). We’re not paying anyone to pull people to the site/webpage.
Need of SEO
Billions of searches are conducted online every single day. This means an immense amount of specific, high-intent traffic.
Many people search for specific products and services with the intent to pay for these things. These searches are known to have commercial intent, meaning they are clearly indicating with their search that they want to buy something you offer. So how does Google determine which pages to return in response to what people search for? How do you get all of this valuable traffic to your site?
Google’s algorithm is extremely complex, but at a high level:
- Google is looking for pages that contain high-quality, relevant information relevant to the searcher’s query
- Google's algorithm determines relevance by “crawling” (or reading) your website’s content and evaluating (algorithmically) whether that content is relevant to what the searcher is looking for, based on the keywords it contains and other factors (known as "ranking signals")
- Google determines “quality” by a number of means, A site's link profile(the number and quality of other websites that link to a page) and site’s content are among the most important
Increasingly, additional ranking signals are being evaluated by Google’s algorithm to determine where a site will rank, such as:
- How people engage with a site (Do they find the information they need and remain on the site, or do they "bounce" back to the search page and click on another link? Or do they just ignore your listing in search results altogether and never click-through?)
- A site’s loading speed and “mobile friendliness”
- How much unique content a site has (versus “thin” or duplicated, low-value content)
There are hundreds of ranking factors that Google’s algorithm considers in response to searches, and Google is constantly updating and refining its process to ensure that it delivers the best possible user experience.
Types of SEO
There are two types of SEO
- White hat SEO
White hat SEO utilizes techniques and methods to improve the search engine rankings of a website which adhere to search engine(mainly google)guidelines.Some white hat SEO techniques include: high quality content development, website HTML optimization and restructuring, link acquisition campaigns supported by high quality content and manual research and outreach for Steady, gradual, but lasting growth in rankings.
- Black-Hat SEO
There are unethical(banned) by google ways to get traffic to website, like using ‘n’ number of keywords on the site(cloaking), showing one content to the user and different one to user(Doorway pages), hiding text on the site by using same colors, etc. These might not look unethical to us but are a way to cheat the user so the site is banned and the search bot will not be able to crawl or index the pages. After that, we’ve to correct the mistake, then we might be able to rank again. It takes a lot of time and is bad for the company’s reputation results in Quick, unpredictable, and short-lasting growth in rankings.
Conclusion
There are hundreds of ranking factors that Google’s algorithm considers in response to searches, and Search engines are constantly updating and refining its process to ensure that it delivers the best possible user experience. We’ve to grab the pace and optimize accordingly for steady, gradual but long lasting growth in rankings
