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DEFINITION | What is SEO?
DEFINITION | What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.
SEO consists of multiple strategies, actions, and best practices, all of which have the end goal of improving our website’s position in search engines. It refers to the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of website traffic, as well as exposure of our brand through non-paid (also known as "organic") search engine results.
SEO is as much about people as it is about search engines.
SEO is about
understanding what people are searching for online,
the words they’re using,
the answers they are seeking, and
the type of content they wish to consume.
Knowing the answers to these questions will allow us to connect to the people who are searching online for solutions we can offer.
PURPOSE | Why is SEO important?
PURPOSE | Why is SEO important?
Search engines are the gatekeepers to the world's information.
Search engines determine which information sources get shown for a search topic, in what order, and which information sources to exclude.
Thus, having strong presence in search engines is essential to be found online.
To strengthen our brand presence online
To strengthen our brand presence online
One of the most important functions of SEO is increasing visibility, which means making it easier for people to find our brand name when they search for something we have to offer.
Being shown in the top of search results and for many different search topics allows us to market our brand offerings to a larger audience and to a more diverse set of people.
To generate more website traffic
To generate more website traffic
When we increase visibility, we can increase traffic, because more people get to see our brand.
This creates a positive spiral effect.
Getting more traffic signals popularity to search engines. Search engines favor popular websites because popular sites seem to provide great content, and they rank them higher.
This increases visibility further and, in turn, traffic.
To understand our audience
To understand our audience
The more people visit our website, the more we can learn about them.
We can track their behavior on our platforms, we get to see which elements they interact with, we can learn which search questions have brought them to our website.
Using those insights, we can continuously improve our website to provide a better experience to website visitors, which makes them happy. Happy website visitors keep coming back and they may tell their freinds about us.
Again, this leads to more traffic, which signals popularity, which increases visibility, which further leads to more traffic.
What goes around, comes around.
To build authority and credibility
To build authority and credibility
Essentially, authority means that our website is trustworthy, of high quality, relevant, and has something amazing to offer.
In times of fake news, search engines want to show information sources readers can trust.
To do so, search engines value information providers who convey knowledge and expertise, and who signal thought leadership within their information space.
Being a leader within our industry, we should also demonstrate thought leadership and authority within the information space we aim to dominate. Providing high quality content that conveys a clear message is the key to do so and essential for SEO.
ESSENTIALS | What are the foundations of SEO?
ESSENTIALS | What are the foundations of SEO?
The foundation of good SEO begins with meeting fundamental needs, as shown at the bottom of this pyramid. Those are essential to generally be found in search – in other words, to be accessible.
If you actually want to be shown at the top of search results, you would need to also address SEO needs further up the pyramid.
Essential to be found online
Crawl accessibility: At the very core, a website needs to be set up technically correct to ensure that search engines can access it and discover the information provided there.
Compelling content: Once ensured that search engines can access and read our website, aim for content that answers searchers' queries or risk not to be shown for relevant topics in search engines.
Keyword optimized: To be able to rank well in search results for relevant searches, we want to use the same words on our website as people are using in their search.
Essential to be liked by users and search engines
Great user experience: Nobody likes complicated or messy websites that take ages to load and that make our lifes difficult.
Share-worthy content: Providing "Aha"-moments and "this is so interesting"-information is content people want to share with their friends. This earns links, citations, and applause.
Title, URL, & meta description: Making the URL, blue title, and short descripton shown in search engine results descriptive of what to find on the page can lead to a lot of clicks.
Snippet/schema markup: Providing a summary of your pages' content as structured data (the language of search engines) helps to stand out in search engine results.
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