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How SEO Works - A brief guide
We previously wrote a full guide on the inner workings of SEO and how you can can utilize keywords to maximize your content's impact. You can find that article here.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial component of any modern marketing strategy. It's used by businesses as well as individuals looking to increase their online visibility and drive more traffic to their websites. But what exactly is SEO and how does it work? This article aims to give you a brief overview of the inner workings to help you understand the basics.
At its core, SEO is is about optimizing your content to help search engines better understand, rank, and deliver it to your target audience. The better your content is understood by search engines, the better it will do. When you make your content SEO friendly, you're essentially lending it credibility and making it more attractive. There are a variety of ways (industry specific practices) you can use to make that happen; and these practices are what is referred to as SEO techniques or strategies.
SEO has evolved significantly since its inception. In the early days, it was often about tricking search engines into believing that your content was more valuable than it is by using techniques like keyword stuffing (the act of repeating one word many times per page). Today however, search engines have become vastly more sophisticated and can detect low effort tricks and will demote content that uses such tricks. The focus of modern SEO is to deliver high-quality and user-friendly content that aligns with the search engine's guidelines and best practices.
To grasp how SEO works, it's essential to understand how search engines operate. Here’s a brief overview:
Search engines use programs called "crawlers" or "spiders" to continuously scan the web for new and updated content. Website operators often submit what is known as a "sitemap" (a document containing a list of links to all pages) to Google for scanning. Once crawled, this content is indexed in massive databases where it can be retrieved when a user of the search engine performs a search query. [1]
When a user searches for something, the search engine's algorithm kicks in. The search query is parsed and analyzed by an algorithm in order to try to understand the user intent behind the search. Once an educated guess is made as to what content the user wants to see, the algorithm provides a set of results back to the user.
Some examples of factors that search engine algorithms consider are: keywords, link equity, user experience, and a whole lot more.
On-page SEO is a set of practices that involves optimizing elements on your website to make the content easier to understand by search engines.
Keyword Research: Keyword research is the foundation of on-page SEO. It involves identifying relevant keywords and phrases your target audience uses to search for content like yours. [2]
Content Quality: while the term "quality" is abstract in nature, high-quality content is crucial for SEO. It often refers to domain relevant content that is well-written, informative, and engaging. Content should also be optimized with the right keywords in order to match the search intent of the user.
Meta Tags & Headings: Meta tags and Heading tags provide search engines with additional context about your web page. The most important meta tags include the title tag and meta description. In terms of headings using the h1 and h2 tags are particularly important in highlighting what sections of contents are available on my given webpage.
URL Structure: A clean and descriptive URL structure can help both users and search engines understand the hierarchy of your website. A webpage with the URL {somesite}/b/123 will in general perform worse than one that uses {somesite}/blog/article-url-about-something. The reason for this is because URLs hint at the content that is included within the webpage itself.
Improving the technical aspects of a webpage can have a massive impact on its rankings.
Site Speed: A fast-loading website is essential for both user experience and search engine rankings. Google has explicitly stated that site speed is a ranking factor. [3]
Mobile-Friendliness: With the majority of searches coming from mobile devices, having a mobile friendly website is no longer optional but a necessity. A website without a mobile friendly interface and content will struggle to rank as high as other sites that do.
XML Sitemaps: XML sitemaps help search engines discover new pages on your site more efficiently. They provide a roadmap of your site’s structure [4]
Off-page SEO refers to activities outside your website that can impact your rankings. Here are two key off-page SEO strategies:
Backlinks: Backlinks are simply links from other websites into yours. The more reputable the origin site is, the better. Reputable websites are a strong signal to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. Building high-quality backlinks is a critical part of off-page SEO.
Social Signals: While social signals do not directly impact rankings, they can drive traffic and increase engagement, which indirectly benefits your SEO efforts. The more a link is clicked and shared, the more likely it is to end up getting cited and sourced as part of a website's backlink collection.
SEO is a set of practices that focuses on making your content better understood by search engines. The field is constantly evolving as more and more requirements are piled on and changed each year, so staying up to date is very important. By understanding how search engines work, optimizing on-page elements, building off-page credibility, and ensuring technical excellence, you can significantly improve your website’s visibility in search results.
Remember, SEO is not just about manipulating algorithms; it’s about creating valuable content that resonates with your audience while adhering to best practices.
We provide an ever-expanding catalog of SEO tools, APIs, and content.
Find out more about our offering here
