Since if you’re reading this guide to SEO the chances are that you’re not an SEO expert yourself, the first thing to address in a guide such as this is ‘what SEO is’. ‘SEO’ stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’ – the art of making Google like the pages on your website more, and want to place them further up it’s rankings.
On Google and other search engines these days there are often paid ad spots at the very top of results pages – but SEO experts and people such as myself know that in general, users know about these ad spots, and that the people in them are only there because they paid for it. Your average internet user is wise to that and scrolls down past the paid ads portion to what’s called the ‘organic’ search results. As both SEO experts and the general public seem to know these days, you can’t ‘buy’ these spots, and the top of the organic results is where you’ll find the pages that Google actually believes are most relevant to the thing that you searched for – where it thinks you’re most likely to find what you’re looking for.
SEO experts know that there’s another factor involved here that makes having your page in these first few organic spots even more important. You see, around 94 % of people peruse the first page, and then - if they can't find exactly what they’re looking for – they change what they’re searching for and bring up a new set of results. They don't even look at page two, three, four or beyond. This is why it's, really crucial to rank really high on the first page of search results and that's where top quality SEO and the skills of SEO experts come in.
When you actually pay attention to the things that Google uses to rank your website, you are going to do better in those rankings. However, as SEO experts know well – there’s a catch. Google’s rankings are determined by an algorithm. That algorithm is constantly being changed and tweaked and perfected as the humans behind Google try to have the website provide everyone with what they’re looking for first time, every time.
What’s more, that algorithm is kept as a closely-guarded secret - just like the recipes for Coca Cola or KFC. If everyone knew what the Colonel’s blend of herbs and spices was, they could replicate it at home for themselves - they wouldn’t need to go to a KFC restaurant to get KFC. In just the same way, if everyone knew exactly how Google ranked pages and provided the results that it does, anyone could replicate that formula for themselves on their own website, and they wouldn’t need to go to Google to access it.
Because of this nobody (from well-known SEO experts like Neil Patel or Brian Dean, right down to me as I’m writing this very SEO guidance) truly knows what the Google algorithm is, or wants to see - and even if they did, it would likely change soon anyway. Nevertheless, the decades-old body of research started by the pioneers of SEO - which is still being added to and amended even today - allows SEO experts to act and recommend steps with confidence, and this is why SEO experts are important for businesses of all shapes and sizes. No matter whether you’re running a blog, a small startup or a multi-national company, ask yourself this – do you have time to train yourself in how to perform a task where the end goal keeps moving, and where you don’t really know what the goal looks like anyway?
I’m going to close this beginner’s guide to SEO by revealing that essentially, this is the nature of SEO. If a challenge such as the one described above appeals to you then take the plunge – you never know, in the process you might become an SEO expert in your own right! If you don’t have the time or motivation to take it on though, then it’s time to outsource your SEO work – after all, in the modern world, if you want to do business online and succeed in the endeavour - as we’ve seen right at the start of this guide to SEO - you need a good Google ranking… And to get that ranking, you need the services of an SEO expert on your side.