What is SEO? An explanation for beginners
Do you have a website? And do you want more traffic to your site? If the answer is yes, then there’s no doubt about it: SEO should be part of your marketing efforts. SEO is a great way to get and keep people on your site. But what does it actually entail? In this post, we’ll explain what SEO is and how you can get started!
What is SEO?
SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’. It’s the practice of optimizing your web pages to make them reach a high position in the search results of Google and other search engines. In other words: People will be more likely to see your website when they search online. SEO focuses on improving the rankings in the organic (aka non-paid) search results.
In the image above, we see the first few results when someone searches for the keyphrase ‘Neptune planet’. In this case, Wikipedia is the first result. This means their page on Neptune ranks number 1 on this search term. The idea behind SEO is that when you optimize your page to become the best result, you can climb those rankings and become one of the first results that people see. Which will get you more clicks and traffic to your site!
Although this example only shows us organic results, ads or rich results can also be at the top. There might even be Google Images, or a few products by Google Shopping. There are a lot of different possibilities. What Google shows can also depend on what it knows about the searcher (the country they live in, for example).
Why is SEO important?
You’ve created a website because you want people to buy your product, subscribe to your service, or read your content. Whatever your goal, you want people to visit your website. If you own a donut shop in Amsterdam, for example, you want your website to be number 1 when people Google: “donuts Amsterdam”. Because the chances of people clicking on your website are much higher when it’s the top result!
But how do you make this happen? One word: Search Engine Optimization! SEO is a great way to get people to your website for free. Which is especially useful if you’re a small business owner who doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on advertising.
What determines how high you rank?
How high each result ranks is determined by Google’s algorithm. And although parts of Google’s algorithm remain secret, years of experience in SEO have given us insight into the most important ranking factors. These ranking factors can be divided into two categories:
On-page SEO factors
The ranking of your pages is partly determined by on-page factors. On-page factors are all the things on your site that you have a direct influence on. These factors include:
- technical aspects, like the quality of your code and site speed.
- content-related aspects, like the structure of your website or the quality of the copy on your website.
These are all crucial on-page SEO factors that you can work on.
Off-page SEO factors
In addition to on-page SEO factors, your rankings are also determined by a few off-page SEO factors. These factors include:
- links from other websites. Especially the number and quality of links pointing towards your site is important. The more quality, relevant sites that link to your website, the higher your position in Google will be.
- social media attention.
- your competition in the niche of your particular business. In some niches, it’s much harder to rank than in others. The competitiveness of your market therefore also has a major influence on your chances of ranking.
- other marketing activities that happen off of your own website.
Although not impossible, these off-page SEO factors can be more difficult to influence.
Conclusion
SEO is the practice of optimizing websites to make them reach a high position in Google’s – or another search engine’s – search results. At Yoast, we believe that holistic SEO is the best way to rank your pages because you focus on optimizing every aspect of your site.
Don’t use any black-hat tricks
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