Search engine optimisation (SEO) entails the craft and science of making pages get high ranking in search engines online. One of the significant ways people explore and discover new content online is by search, therefore getting high ranking in search engines can generate traffic for a website and lead to more visits.
With the online search engines, paid ads often show at the top part of the result page. Results follow this, and organic search results like search marketers call it. Traffic generated through SEO is referred to as organic search traffic. This distinguishes it from site traffic as a result of paid search. Paid search is also called Search engine marketing (SEM) or pay-per-click (PPC).
The Benefits of SEO
Search engine optimisation is an essential aspect of online marketing; the reason being that search is one of the primary means of users navigating the web. Results from search engines are given in an orderly manner, and the higher a site gets on the list, the more traffic it tends to get to its website.
For instance, with a typical search, the first result will likely get 40-60% of the traffic for that search, with the second and third on the list getting lesser traffic significantly. However, only a small percentage of searchers, about 2-3% end up going beyond the first page of the results. This is why you are wanting to get on the first page of results. Therefore, a little innovation in search engines rankings can lead to getting more traffic and searches, and potential business in the long run.
As a result of this, most website owners and businesses make a move to manipulate search results so their sites will rank higher on the search results page (SERP) and they’ll appear on top, more than their competition. At this point, SEO steps in.
How SEO Works
Online search engines make use of guidelines or algorithms in determining the pages that will appear on the result page for any query. These algorithms have developed to a complex phase, taking thousands of ranking factors into account. This determines the ranking of their search engine result pages (SERPs). Nonetheless, there are core metrics, numbering three that are used by search engines to evaluate and determine site quality and site ranking.
- Links – Links from various websites have an essential role to play in evaluating site ranking in the many different search engines available. This is because a link can be viewed as a sign of quality from other sites. Website owners may not be able to link other sites that are not of standard quality. Sites that get links from other sites get the authority and are seen as being credible, also referred to as PageRank on Google. This becomes the case when the sites linked to them are reliable as well.
- Content – Besides adding links, search engines can also analyse web page content to determine if it’ll be relevant for a given search entry. A huge aspect of SEO is creating content with the keywords search engine users are searching for as the target.
- Page Structure – The third essential aspect of SEO is the page structure. These web pages are written in HTML; therefore, the code structure can affect the search engine’s page evaluation ability.
SEO is an important process that entails optimising these core search engine metrics to rank high in the online search results.
