SEO Explained 2023: What Is Search Engine Optimization and How Does It Work

SEO Explained 2023: What Is Search Engine Optimization and How Does It Work?

Do you own a website? Are you looking to get more traffic to it? If so, then you should consider using search engine optimization (SEO) to help drive organic traffic to your site. SEO will help your site rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), which can result in increased traffic and improve the visibility of your website or web content. This guide takes a step-by-step look at SEO so you can learn what SEO is, what goes into it, how it works, and why it’s important.

SEO usually involves two main steps:

On-page SEO.

Off-page SEO.

On-page SEO
is about the content and structure of your website such as:

How does your website function?

How long your articles are?

How many internal links are on each page?

Your content.

Title tags.

Meta descriptions.

Headings.

Body text — that’s all on-page SEO.

Off-page SEO
concerns the backlinks, that is about:

How do other websites link to yours? This includes both:

Natural backlinks (links you haven’t paid for).

Paid backlinks.

The quality of the backlink depends on the strength of the external sites in terms of Onpage, Offpage, and Domain Authority.

You can think of off-page SEO as a vote of confidence in your site or business.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

The basic definition of SEO is that it’s how search engines work.

On a technical level, what search engines do when they optimize is crawl through websites to read their source code to create an index of webpages, ranked based on relevance and popularity (for example, based on backlinks).

Once it’s figured out which websites are most relevant to any given query, it presents them to users as search results.

Some popular misconceptions about SEO are that:

It requires agencies or companies - this isn't true! Anyone can do it themselves by following the steps outlined in this post.

Some other misconceptions include thinking you need a website or blog to have good SEO - while this may be helpful, you don't need one to rank well on search engines.

You should also keep in mind not just quality content but making sure that it's new content; constantly adding fresh information to your site is crucial for keeping the search engine spiders happy and ranking high on SERPs.

And finally, some people think all you need for good SEO is keywords - the truth is keyword density matters but so does optimizing your meta tags and having a compelling headline! -- In fact, without these things, SEO won't be effective at all.

In addition, remember that even if you're doing everything right there's no guarantee anything will happen overnight. So don't expect to rank number one after implementing these strategies immediately; instead, focus on taking gradual steps towards improving your site and then eventually more drastic ones like investing in social media marketing campaigns or investing in PPC ads.

How does SEO work?

Search engines like Google and Bing utilize bots to scan websites, traveling from site to site, collecting information about those pages, and indexing them. Consider the index to be a massive library where a librarian may get a book (or a web page) to assist you in finding exactly what you're searching for at the time.

Following that, search engine bots analyze pages in the index, taking hundreds of ranking variables or indicators into consideration, to decide the order in which search engine results page (SERP) should appear for a particular query. In the case of our library, the librarian has read every book in the library and knows which one will have the answers to your questions.

Our SEO success factors may be thought of as proxies for user experience characteristics. It's how search engine bots determine how well a website or web page can provide the searcher with what they're looking for.

You cannot pay search engines to increase your organic search ranks, unlike paid search adverts, therefore SEO professionals must put in the work. This is where we step in.

The search algorithms are intended to reveal relevant, authoritative pages while still providing visitors with a quick search experience. Keeping these criteria in mind while optimizing your site and content will help your pages rank better in search results.

There are several steps in SEO, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of them. Every SEO strategy is different, but you’ll start with a basic site analysis using Google Analytics (the site you want to optimize) or a tool like Moz or Ahrefs. From there, you can identify any technical issues on your website that need to be fixed so search engines will see them properly. Then, depending on your website’s structure, goals, audience, products/services, etc., choose what keywords best describe your business and start ranking for them. These keywords should be unique words that have enough traffic volume that they could mean a decent amount of new customers for your business if ranked for those terms.

How does Google work, and how to rank a page?

The influence of ranking factors in Google's algorithm (Based on a survey of over 150 SEO experts).

Search engines serve a single purpose. They attempt to provide users with the most relevant answers or information.

When you utilize them, their algorithms choose the sites that are most relevant to your query. Then, sort them by authority or popularity, presenting the most authoritative or popular first.

When offering relevant content to consumers, search engines take two factors into account:

Relevancy: This is the relationship that exists between a search query and the content on a page. Search engines evaluate it based on several aspects such as subject or keywords.

Authority: The popularity of a website on the Internet determines its authority. Google makes the assumption that the more popular a website or resource is, the more useful its content is to readers.

They use complicated equations called search algorithms to examine all of this data.

Search engine algorithms are kept confidential. However, SEOs have identified some of the factors they use when ranking a page over time. They are known as ranking criteria, and they are the focus of an SEO effort.

Following the E-A-T structure when establishing relevance and authority may be quite beneficial. In SEO, E-A-T stands for "expertise, authority, and trustworthiness." And, while they are not direct ranking criteria, they may help enhance your SEO content, which in turn can influence direct ranking considerations.

Adding additional content, optimizing picture filenames, and strengthening internal links may all have an impact on your rankings and search visibility (SERPs), as you'll discover shortly. This is due to the fact that each of these behaviors improves ranking criteria.

Three Essential Elements of a Successful SEO Strategy

SEO is now a set of techniques used to make your site search engine friendly, allowing Google and other search engines to crawl, index, and rank your pages so that they can appear in front of users looking for content relevant to your business.

To have a successful SEO strategy, you need to understand what SEO strategy is and how it works?

What is SEO strategy?

An SEO marketing strategy, also known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM), is a comprehensive plan for boosting the number of people who visit your website using search engines. Off-page SEO tactics that produce inbound links from other websites, as well as on-page SEO approaches that employ intent-based keywords, are critical for full SEO success.

To optimize a website, you must increase three ranking factors:

Technical website layout,
Content,
And links.

So, let us go over them one by one.

1) Technical Website Layout

For your website to rank, three things must occur:

First, a search engine must find your web pages.

Then it must scan them in order to understand their contents and identify their keywords.

Finally, it must include them in its index, which is a compilation of everything it has discovered on the internet.

As a consequence, its algorithm will consider displaying your website for similar queries.

Doesn't it appear simple? Nothing to be concerned about. After all, if you can browse your site without issue, why shouldn't Google?

There is, however, a catch. A website appears differently to you and the search engine. It appears as a collection of images, colors, text with formatting, and connections to you.

To a search engine, it's just text.

As a result, any articles that cannot be shown in this manner are hidden from the search engine. As a result, even if your website appears to be good to you, Google may deem its content unavailable.

Let me provide an example, Here's what a typical search engine thinks about this article. If you want to compare it to the original (which appears to you now) you will be surprised.

Take note of the following:

First, the page is entirely composed of text. Despite our efforts, the only items visible to a search engine are text and links.

Then, as a result, it cannot see a picture on the website (note the element marked with an arrow.) It only knows its own name. If that image featured a critical phrase for which we wanted the page to rank, it would be invisible to the search engine.

This is when technical layout, also known as on-site optimization, comes into play. It ensures that Google can quickly scan and index your website and content.

The following are the most important factors impacting it:

Navigation and links on the website

Websites are crawled by search engines in the same manner that you would. They stick to hyperlinks. Crawlers from search engines arrive on a website and use links to get more material to evaluate. They cannot, however, view photographs, as previously stated. As a result, the navigation and links should be text-only.

URL structure

Search engines dislike long sequences of words with complicated structures. As a result, keep your URLs as short as feasible. Set them up to include as little as possible beyond the core term you wish to optimize the website.

Page speed

The load time – the time it takes for a user to be able to see the page — is used by search engines as a measure of quality. Many features of the website may have an influence on it. Consider image size. For tips on how to enhance your pages, use Google's Page Speed, Insights Tool.

Broken links or dead redirects

A broken link delivers a visitor to a non-existent page. A broken redirect refers to a resource that may or may not exist anymore. Both hurt user experience and prohibit search engines from indexing your material.

Sitemap and Robots.txt

A sitemap is a simple file that lists all of the URLs on your website. Search engines utilize it to identify which pages to crawl and index. A robots.txt file, on the other hand, directs search engines on which content they should not index (for example, certain policy pages that you do not want to display in search results). Create both to accelerate the crawling and indexing of your material.

Duplicate content

Search engines are perplexed by pages with identical or extremely similar information. They frequently find it difficult to show any of those sites at all. If search engines discover them, your website may face penalties. As a result, search engines consider duplicate content to be a bad factor.

2) Content

When you use a search engine, you're searching for material — for example, information about a certain issue or problem.

True, this content may be available in a variety of forms. Text may be utilized, such as a blog post or a web page. However, it might also be a movie, product recommendation, or company directory.

It's all about the content.

And it's what helps SEO acquire more search prominence.

Here are two explanations for this:

First, when customers search, they are looking for content. Whatever people are seeking, it is content that offers it. And the more of it you post, the more likely you are to be found in search results.

Content is also used by search engines to determine how to rank a page. We've already spoken about the idea of relevance between a page and a person's search query.

They determine the subject of a page while crawling it. They can assess the quality of a page by analyzing aspects such as its length and organization.

Search engines can use this information to match a person's query with the sites they believe are most relevant to it.

Keyword research is the first step in the process of optimizing content.

Keyword Research

SEO is not about boosting the number of people that visit a website. You want to attract people who need what you're selling and will eventually become leads and customers.

That is only conceivable if it ranks for the terms that such folks would use while searching. There's no way they'd ever discover you otherwise. Even if your website was at the top of the search results, this is still a significant amount of time.

As a result, SEO work begins with determining what terms potential consumers type into search engines.

Identifying phrases and subjects important to your organization is usually the first step in the process. Then, they are converted into beginning keywords. Finally, undertake a comprehensive study to identify relevant phrases that your target audience might use.

We've written a comprehensive guide on keyword research for novices. It describes the keyword research method in great depth. Use it to determine which search phrases to target.

Keywords matter

Search engines use keywords to help them understand what a web page is about. For example, if you enter orange cat into Google, results that include that term will be listed before others on their search engine results page (SERP).

The orange cat in question doesn’t have to be directly referenced on the page for it to appear in these search results.

Search engines refer to these terms as long-tail keywords because they can describe an item more specifically than simply using one or two words. Since so many searches are made up of multiple words or phrases instead of just one, keyword research should consider how potential customers might search for your products or services. Long-tail keywords are typically researched through tools like Google Keyword Planner.

You can also find keywords for your business through social media platforms like Facebook. Social media is a great way to expand your reach, grow your audience and ultimately improve website traffic. Once you’ve found some promising keywords on social media, you can cross-reference them with Google Keyword Planner to see which are most relevant to what you want people to search for. Using these terms in your content will make it easier for Google or other search engines to understand what they’re looking at and deliver relevant results. Ultimately, if done right, keyword research should form one of many pieces of an effective SEO strategy. It doesn’t stand alone—it’s about working together with other components like backlinks.

Why keywords are important, but they aren’t everything

A lot of people assume that SEO stands for search engine optimization, but it doesn’t. Instead, SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization, which can be misleading because SEO refers to all things related to improving your search engine rankings.

Keywords are important when you’re creating content because they help your potential customers find you online (if they type in a relevant keyword), but they aren’t everything. In fact, if all you do is target keywords, then people are more likely to think of you as spammy or a shill than someone who actually provides great value—which could hurt your reputation among both customers and search engines.

But don’t worry, there are other factors besides just targeting keywords that go into optimizing your site for search engines, we will discuss them.

Following the creation of a keyword list, the next step is to optimize your content. This method is referred to by SEOs as on-page optimization.

On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization, often known as on-page SEO, ensures that search engines a.) understand a page's content and keywords and b.) can match them to relevant searches.

Please take note that I stated "page" rather than "content." This is because, while the majority of on-page SEO effort focuses on the text you use, it also includes optimizing some code parts.

You may have heard of some of these; the most common are meta-tags such as title and description. But there are others. So, here's a rundown of the most important on-page SEO steps to take.

Because blog content dominates most websites, I'll concentrate on blog SEO — optimizing blog entries for relevant keywords — when discussing those variables. All of this advice, however, applies equally to other page kinds.

a) Keyword Optimization

First, make sure Google knows the keywords for which you want this page to rank. To do this, add at least one of the following keywords:

Post’s title: The post's title is Place it as near to the beginning of the title as possible. Google is known to place higher importance on terms near the beginning of a headline.

The post's title: Place it as near to the beginning of the title as possible. Google is known to place higher importance on terms near the beginning of a headline.

URL: The keyword should also be included in the URL of your page. Ideally, nothing else should be included. Remove any stop words as well.

H1 Tag: The title of the page is shown by default in most content management systems. However, be certain that your platform is not using a different configuration.

The first 100 words of the article content (or the first article paragraph): Including the keyword at the beginning of your blog article will reassure Google that this is, in fact, the focus of the page.

Meta-title and meta-description tags: Search engines present their listings using these two code components. They show the meta-title as the headline of the search listing, while the meta-description offers text for the little paragraph below it. Above that, they utilize both to better comprehend the content of the page.

ALT tags and image file names: Do you remember how search engines perceive images on a page? They can only view the names of their files. As a result, ensure that at least one of the photos has the keyword in the file name.

In contrast, the alt tag is the text that browsers show instead of a picture (for visually impaired visitors.) However, because the ALT tag is included in the picture code, search engines also consider it as a relevance indicator.

Also include semantic keywords, which are variants or synonyms of your keyword. They are used by Google and other search engines to improve the relevance of a page.

Let me provide an example to demonstrate this. Assume your primary keyword is "Apple." But do you mean the fruit or the IT behemoth that created the iPhone?

Consider what happens if Google discovers phrases like sugar, orchard, or cider in the copy. The option of which queries to rank it for should be apparent, right?

That is what semantic keywords accomplish. Include these to prevent your page from appearing in irrelevant searches.

b) Non-Keyword-Related On-Page Optimization Factors

On-page SEO is more than merely sprinkling keywords around the page.

The following factors also influence a page's credibility and authority:

External links: Linking to other, related sites on the topic assists Google in further determining its topic. It also gives a pleasant user experience. How? By presenting your material as a useful resource.

Internal links: Those links assist you to improve your results in two ways. For starters, they enable search engines to locate and crawl other pages on the site. Second, they provide semantic relationships between distinct sites, which aids in determining their relevance to the search query. As a general guideline, each blog article should have at least 2-4 internal links.

The length of the content: Longer content often ranks higher. That's because, if done correctly, a lengthier blog article will always offer more comprehensive information on the issue, keeping a reader on your site for longer. This is known as dwell time, and it is a significant ranking element for search engines.

Multimedia: Although not required, multimedia components like films, infographics, and audio players might indicate the quality of a page. It, like lengthier content, keeps viewers on a page for longer. As a result, it indicates that people think the information is important and worthwhile.

3) Links

According to what you've read so far in this tutorial, no page will rank unless two elements are present: relevancy and authority.

To offer consumers the most accurate results possible, Google and other search engines favor pages that they believe are both related to their queries and popular.

The first two areas of concentration — technological setup and content — aimed to increase relevance (though I admit, some of their elements can also help highlight the authority.)

However, links are responsible for popularity. But, before we get into how they function, here's what SEOs mean when they talk about links.

What is a backlink?

Backlinks, or links, are referrals to your content information on other websites. Every time another website acknowledges your content and directs its viewers to it, you acquire a backlink to your site.

The quality and quantity of backlinks like these are used by Google to determine the authority of a website. Its theory is that webmasters will refer to a popular and high-quality website more frequently than a substandard one.

But keep in mind that I also mentioned backlink quality. This is due to the fact that not all links are the same. Some, particularly low-quality ones, might have a detrimental influence on your rankings.

Links Quality Factors

Low-quality or suspected backlinks, such as those generated with the intent of making a site appear more authoritative to Google, may lower your ranks.

As a result, when it comes to link building, SEOs don't just focus on any backlinks building. They want to generate as many high-quality referrals as possible.

Naturally, as with the search algorithm, we don't know exactly what criteria determine a link's quality. However,

SEOs eventually discovered some of them:

A linked site's popularity:

Any link from a website that search engines regard as authoritative will by definition be of high quality. In other words, links from websites with high-quality backlinks will produce greater outcomes.

Relevance of the topic:

Links from domains related to yours will have more authority than links from unrelated websites.

Trusted domain:

Search engines, like popularity, evaluate a website's trust. Links from more trustworthy websites will always have a greater influence on rankings.

Backlink Building

Backlink building is the process of getting new backlinks in SEO. And, as many practitioners admit, it may be a challenging task.

Link building involves creativity, smart thought, and patience if done well. To develop high-quality backlinks, you must devise a backlink-building plan. That is no minor achievement.

Remember that your backlinks must meet a variety of quality standards. Furthermore, search engines must not be able to determine that you purposefully created them.

So here are some strategies about how to go on it:

Editorial and organic backlinks:

These backlinks are generated by websites that mention your content on their own.

Outreach:

You request links from other websites. You may develop a fantastic piece of content and send it to them through email. In turn, if they find it useful, they will refer to it. You can also suggest places where they can connect to it.

Posting as a guest:

Guest posts are blog pieces that you publish on websites other than your own. As a result, such firms frequently let you include one or two links to your website in the content and author profile.

Profile links:

Many sites provide the opportunity to build a link. An excellent example is online profiles. When creating such a profile, you may often include your website as well. Not all of these links are authoritative, but some are. And considering how simple it is to create them, they are worth exploring.

Competitive analysis:

A lot of SEOs study their rivals' backlinks regularly to locate those that they can replicate for their own sites.

If you're still with me, you've just uncovered what's causing your site's success in search.

The next step is to assess the effectiveness of your efforts.

How to Track and Monitor SEO Results?

Technical setup, content, and backlinks are all important factors in ranking a website in search results. Monitoring your efforts allows you to optimize your plan even more.

Measuring SEO performance entails tracking indicators like traffic, engagement, and links.

Although each company develops its own set of SEO KPIs (key performance indicators), the following are the most common:

Keywords Ranking (split into branded and non-branded terms).
The average time spent on the webpage and the bounce rate
Increase in organic traffic.
Organic traffic conversions.
Quantity of indexed pages.
Top landing pages for organic traffic.
Link building growth (new and lost links).

Local SEO

Previously, we had concentrated on improving a site's overall ranking in search results. However, if you own a local business, Google allows you to carefully target potential clients in your region. However, you utilize local SEO for that. It's also well worth it.

Local companies account for 46 percent of Google searches. They check for vendor recommendations as well as particular business addresses.

Furthermore, people act on this information: 72% of searchers visit a local business or company's location within 24 hours of conducting a search.

But wait, isn't local SEO different from what we've been discussing all along?

Both yes and no.

For both local and worldwide ranks, search engines use similar methods. However, because they position a site for particular, location-based results, they must also consider several other ranking elements.

Even local search results differ in appearance:

They display only for searches with a local purpose (for example, "restaurant near me") or when the location is explicitly specified by the user.

They include results that are specific to a certain location.

They focus on providing consumers with precise information that they do not need to go elsewhere for.

They typically target smartphone users since local searches are increasingly common on mobile devices.

A local pack, for example, the most visible piece of local results, contains practically all of the information a consumer would need to pick a company. Here are the local results returned by Google for the term "best hotel in Hurghada."

Local SEO and SEM

It should be noted that there are no links to any material in these results. Instead, they provide a list of nearby restaurants, a map of their locations, and more information about each:

Business name.

Image.

Description.

Address.

Star Reviews.

Opening hours.

phone number or website address of the business.

All of this information helps clients decide which company to work with. However, it also allows Google to decide how to rank it.

Factors Influencing Local Search Ranking

Google considers the closeness of a searcher's location when assessing local web pages. With the growth in local searches featuring the phrase "near me," it's only natural that Google will prioritize the companies that are closest to you.

Keywords are also important for local SEO. However, the inclusion of a company's name, location, and phone number on a website is an extra part of on-page SEO. It's referred to as the NAP in local SEO.

Again, it makes sense since the search engine requires a mechanism to determine the location of the organization.

Google evaluates authority in local search based on factors other than links. Reviews and citations (internet references to a business's address or phone number) further emphasize its authority.

Finally, the information a company enters into Google My Business — the search engine's platform for managing local business listings — has a significant impact on its results.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. They are, however, the most important to get right immediately if you want your business to rank high in local search.

What is black hat SEO?

The final part of SEO I'd want to emphasize is something I hope you never have to utilize. I really mean it.

Because, despite its allure, utilizing black hat SEO usually results in punishment from search results.

Black hat tactics seek to manipulate search engine algorithms by employing strategies that violate search engine standards. Keyword stuffing, cloaking (hiding keywords in code so that humans don't see them but search engines do), and link purchasing are the most frequent black hat practices.

So, why would someone engage in black hat SEO? For one thing, rating a site according to Google's rules takes time. In fact, a long time.

Black hat approaches, for example, allow you to simplify link generation. Keyword stuffing enables users to rank a single page for several keywords without creating extra content.

However, as previously said, getting discovered frequently results in a site being entirely removed from search results.

And I put it here because I want you to understand that there are no shortcuts in SEO. Also, be wary of anyone who suggests tactics that appear too wonderful to be true.

Black hat seo strategies and white hat seo strategies

The difference between Black Hat Strategies and White Hat Strategies.

Why is SEO important for marketing (SEM)?

Because individuals make billions of searches each year, frequently for commercial purposes to obtain information about products and services, SEO is a critical component of digital marketing (Search Engine Marketing). Search is frequently the key source of internet traffic for businesses, and it works in conjunction with other marketing channels. Greater exposure and higher placement in search results (SERPs) than your competitors may have a significant influence on your bottom line.

However, search engine results pages (SERPs) have evolved in recent years to provide users with more direct answers and information that is more likely to retain people on the results page rather than pushing them to other websites.

Also, elements in the search results such as rich results and Knowledge Panels can boost visibility and give more information to consumers about your organization right in the results.

To summarise, SEO is the cornerstone of a whole marketing ecosystem. When you understand what your website visitors desire, you can use that information for your campaigns (paid and organic), website, social media properties, and more which is known as Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Is it better to outsource SEO or keep it in-house?

Whether you do SEO yourself, delegate it to another team member, or totally outsource it, you'll want to make this decision with as much information as possible.

Doing Your Own SEO

Be honest with yourself: do you want to study SEO? Do you have time to study the fundamentals? Do you have the funds to hire someone if you rebuild your website and unintentionally deindex many pages? If you answered "no" to any of these questions, you may not want to take on the duty of SEO yourself. SEO is a long-term game that, like a muscle, requires regular effort to see benefits. That might need a significant level of dedication. If you are still unsure, attempt the next best thing: delegate the task.

Assign SEO to a Team Member

If you are unsure about handling SEO yourself, try assigning the task to a team member. If you have someone interested in growth marketing, development, or even web design, this is a vital skill to assist them to advance in their profession. If you have the funds, you might potentially engage a full-time search engine optimization professional.

This employee may report to the marketing team, the development team, or even the design team. Because SEO impacts practically every function of a business while keeping a distinct set of skill requirements, this role will not be susceptible to frequent changes if departments are restructured in the future. Because the individual you assign this work to will frequently contribute cross-functionally, you will have considerable leeway in managing them.

Outsource SEO to an Agency

You're not interested in SEO, your staff is overburdened, and you don't have the budget to fill a full-time SEO position. What happens next? Outsourcing SEO to a professional expert provides the biggest bang for your dollars. Why? To begin, a reputable SEO expert is very competent at generating organizations' organic traffic, leads, and conversions. They do this every day, therefore they won't require the ramp-up time that you or a member of your team would require to master the fundamentals.

Second, because they do not require insurance coverage, payroll taxes, or other perks, a consultant may be less expensive than hiring someone full-time for the work. But how much would you be looking at for SEO outsourcing?

If you do it yourself using a keyword research tool, SEO might cost between $100 and $500 each month. A consultant can cost between $75 and $150 per hour, while a full-service marketing agency can cost up to $10,000 per month. Small companies typically spend less on SEO than large corporations, so keep this in mind.

Incurring SEO costs can refer to either your investment in your organic search strategy or the amount you spend for paid search engine marketing (SEM) services such as Google Ads. If you pay for a tool, consultant, or marketing firm to assist you to optimize your site content, the cost will vary greatly depending on the scope of the services you receive.

SEO Training Resources

This article is only a beginning point for learning about SEO. But there's still a lot to learn.

If you or someone on your team wishes to learn this ability, check the following online training resources: