What Is Seo And How Does It Work?: Seo For Beginners

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization.

 It's making a website findable when people search for information relating to its content on Search Engines like Google.

For instance, when people search for information on "organic skincare products for men" on Google, the search engine arranges and displays many websites with content relating to the search query on what is called a search engine result page (SERP).

The goal of SEO is to make sure that your website ranks among or even higher than other websites on the search engine result page (SERP).

BASIC TERMS IN SEO

1. Keyword: Keywords are the terms or queries people use to search for information on Search Engines.

2. Search Engines: Search engines are platforms or software that help people search for information online using keywords and phrases. Examples: Google, Bing, Duckduckgo, etc.

Google is the most popular search engine, holding about 80% of all the searches made on the internet are done on Google. So we'll focus on Google.

3. Search engine result page (SERP): A search engine result page is the page you see after entering a keyword or search query on Google or any other search engine. 

This page displays all the web content, both organic listings and adverts relating to your search query.

Every day, billions of people around the world search for new information about products or things they're interested in.

Search engines like Google receive over 2 billion searches per day.

Search engines organize and rank websites and content by relevance to users' queries to provide the best response to these queries.

SEO helps in configuring and making a website relevant to user queries by ranking at the top of the first page of a search engine.

Why is SEO important?

SEO is important to small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to get unlimited traffic, build brand authority, and increase sales on their e-commerce platform.

It is easily the best marketing strategy for massive growth that every small business should adopt.

Ranking organically as the first or second web page that comes up when people search for information on certain keywords will increase a brand visibility at minimal or no cost which is better most times, than paid ads and has more long-term value.

To get the best out of SEO, you have to understand the basic concepts and strategies to adopt.

Here are some best SEO practices that guarantee results and better Ranking on Search Engine Result Pages ( SERP)

1. KEYWORD RESEARCH:

Keyword research is the process of identifying the terms people might type on search engines to find content related to your website. These are your target keywords.

 Some mostly researched keywords using tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Moz, Answerthepublic.com, etc.

The purpose of conducting keyword research is to find the keywords with high search density, low competition, and are relatable to your website content.

When conducting keyword research, look for long-tail keywords that people are using to search for information in your niche. This is because long-tail keywords are comprehensive, and give insights into the kind of content the user is searching for.

One benefit of keyword research is knowing the intent behind keywords people are using to search for information.

For example, when someone uses keywords like "How to bake a cake". What this entails is that the person is simply searching for a guide on how to bake a cake and not necessarily looking into buying a cake.

Someone interested in buying a cake will use search queries like " cake vendor near me" or to be rather specific, " Chocolate cake vendor near me".

Knowing the search intent behind certain keywords will enable you to create content relevant to the search query and if your objective was sales conversion. Your conversion rate will increase.

2. ON-PAGE OPTIMIZATION: 

Another important SEO practice is optimization. 

This includes using target keywords in titles, headings, meta descriptions, and throughout the content.

Search engines like Google have a bot called a crawler.

The purpose of this bot is to crawl through your web content analyze your page and collect information about your Tittles, headings, subheadings, and your site architecture.

That's why on-page optimization is crucial and fundamental to ranking on search engines.

3. QUALITY CONTENT:

Search engines prioritize content that answers users' queries effectively.

To rank well on search engine result pages like Google, you must Create high-quality, relevant, and valuable content that satisfies users' search intent. 

One way to go about this is to study what competitors are writing about. This will give you an idea of how to answer queries within your niche.

4. PAGE SPEED: 

Fast-loading pages contribute to a better user experience and can positively impact your search rankings.

Make sure to optimize your website loading speed to at least 1-2 seconds. 53% of visitors abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

This will automatically tell Google that your site is not valuable and relevant enough to the users, as such, the site won't rank well on the search engine result page.

Some of the things you can do to improve your web page speed are to optimize images, use efficient coding practices, and consider content delivery networks(CDN) to improve your page load time.

5. BACKLINKS: 

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website.

 They play a crucial role in SEO because search engines, like Google, view them as a signal of a website's authority, credibility, and relevance.

 They act as "votes of confidence" and can positively influence your site's ranking.

 Acquire as many backlinks as possible, especially from popular websites with domain authority. This will increase your domain authority and make your site rank higher on search engine results pages.

6. SITE STRUCTURE:

Your website structure is one of the most important aspects of SEO you need to pay attention to.

Site structure refers to how information is laid on your website, the way it is designed, and how the pages connect.

 This helps search engines understand your content hierarchy and improves user navigation.

To have an effective site structure, organize your page in a logical and hierarchical order. Categorize your page into topics, and sub-topics.

You can use Menus to make it easy for visitors to easily find the information they want.

Another way to improve your site structure is to create clean and descriptive URLs for your pages.

 This not only helps users understand the content but also assists search engines in categorizing and ranking your pages.

Adequate internal linking, site mapping, breadcrumbs navigation, minimizing click depth, and customizing 404 pages, are other ways you can improve your site structure.

7. TECHNICAL SEO: 

Technical SEO involves optimizing the technical aspects of a website to improve its search engine visibility.

This is the part of SEO most people tend to run from but it's very crucial if you want to get better Results.

SEO goes beyond just creating content.

Addressing technical aspects like crawlability, indexation, and the use of sitemaps can help search engines understand and index your content.

8. USER EXPERIENCE:

Your number one SEO goal should be to give users the best experience on your page.

A positive user experience can indirectly impact your search rankings.

 Consider factors like bounce rate and time spent on your site as indicators to show whether users are having a good experience on your page or not.

9. ANALYTICS AND MONITORING:

What gets measured, gets improved.

Make it a periodic habit to check your site's performance.

 Use tools like Google Analytics to track your website's performance, understand user behavior, and make data-driven improvements.

FINALLY

SEO can be very daunting and confusing sometimes, for small business owners.

The hassle of running the business, attending to customers, and overseeing the affairs of the business does not allow a lot of business owners to pay attention to the benefits of SEO as a long-term marketing strategy.

We get it, and that is why you need cowritar.com as your SEO partner.

Cowritar.com is an SEO platform that takes away the burden of trying to figure out your way in the confusing world of SEO yourself and automates your content.

Cowritar provides you with seasoned SEO writers and experts, who will produce the best content that will make your web page rank higher on search engines and generate more traffic for your e-commerce platform.

Go to cowritar.com, pick a plan, and watch your E-commerce dominate the Search engine results page.