If you are new to the world of SEO, you can be forgiven for feeling more than a little apprehensive. From complicated jargon to constantly changing algorithms to the vast number of online tools that promise to revolutionize your SEO strategy, it can be hard even to know where to start when it comes to optimizing your website.
You need a simple, no-frills guide that breaks down the fundamentals of SEO in a clear, concise, and, most importantly, relevant way.
Luckily, this is exactly what we have created for you.
Within the below ultimate guide to SEO, you will find out:
- What does SEO stand for?
- Common SEO terms & their meanings
- Why is online visibility so important?
- How does SEO work?
- How to optimize for on-site and off-site
- What to look for in an SEO agency
Ready to transform yourself from an SEO amateur to an SEO expert in a matter of minutes?
Let’s get started then.
What does SEO stand for?
SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the practice of increasing both the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
Or, to put it even more simply, it helps your site become more visible online, which is crucial if you want to rise in the ranks of Google and get on that highly sought-after first page on SERPs.
Popular search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo use algorithms to sort through the vast amount of content available on the web to find the most relevant pages to satisfy searchers’ queries. Unfortunately, no-one knows exactly how these algorithms work, but they have provided sufficient information to allow marketers to create SEO strategies to improve a site’s ranking online.
If you are not currently using SEO to boost your website’s visibility online and to drive organic traffic to your site, don’t worry, it is never too late to learn the basics of SEO and start applying them to your overall digital marketing strategy.
Common SEO terms & their meanings
One of the most intimidating aspects of SEO and the element that puts off many business owners from starting to build an SEO strategy is the vast amount of complicated jargon and industry-specific terms that most how-to-guides are filled with.
Therefore, to make your SEO learning journey as straightforward as possible, we have collated the most commonly used SEO terms and their meanings.
SERPs: Search engine results pages. This is what you see when you type a query into Google.
Keywords: Also referred to as search terms, keywords refer to the terms that people are searching for that are relevant to your niche.
Anchor text: This is the text that links to an internal or external source.
CTR: Click through rates. As in the number of times, links are followed to your website.
Why is online visibility important?
If you are wondering why you should go to all the bother to learn about SEO and improve your online visibility, the below eye-opening statistic may help convince you.
A whopping 93% of customers do not look further than page one on SERPs.
What does this mean for your business?
Put, if you are not on the first page of Google, you are invisible. At least online, you are.
Although this may sound dramatic, and you might believe that simply by having a great product or service, a flash website, and a strong social media presence, you can gain sufficient visibility online, but this is not the case.
You also need search engine optimization to maximize your chance of being seen by Google and your target audience.
How does SEO work?
Now that you understand why SEO is so important, the next step is to find out how it all works.
As briefly mentioned above, Google’s main goal as a search engine is to direct its users to be relevant and authoritative sources to best answer their search query. If you want your site to be chosen by Google, you need to prove that it is worthy of a high ranking.
SEO can help you to do this.
To maximize your SEO efforts and experience optimum online visibility, you need to know what Google’s ranking factors are so that you can accommodate them in your overall SEO strategy.
Below are the main criteria for Google when it comes to ranking your site:
- Keywords usage: Partial and exact keyword matches in your content.
- Social metrics: The quality and quantity of links and shares on social media.
- Page-level features: The length, readability, quality, and originality of your on-site content.
- Brand mentions: How often your brand name features in the news and media
- Traffic: Who visits your site and where they come from. Also, CTRs, signals from browsers, toolbar clicks, etc.
- Backlinks: The quality and quantity of external links to your site.
- Internal links: The quality of link sources used in your content, anchor texts, etc.
Learn more about Google ranking factors and how they affect your SEO strategy here.
What is the difference between on-site and off-site SEO?
If you have read about SEO before, you may have already come across the terms on-site SEO and off-site SEO. As the names suggest, on-site SEO refers to your website’s optimization tactics, whereas off-site SEO is anything outside of your website that affects your rankings on SERPs.
Let’s take a closer look at each of the two disciplines and discover how each one can help boost your online visibility and help you rise in the ranks of Google.
On-Site SEO
Also known as on-page SEO, on-site search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing elements on your website to improve your search engine ranking and overall online presence.
Several on-page ranking factors can have a huge impact on your page’s ability to rank. These include:
The content of a page
If you want Google to rank you highly, you need to be creating great content. Purely from an SEO perspective, good content must be both linkable and supply a demand. It also needs to be presented in a user-friendly way.
Title tags
Another key component of on-site SEO, meta title tags, are a major factor in helping search engines understand what your pages are about.
URL
As well as using good link-building practices, you also need to make sure that your website’s category hierarchy is reflected in URLs. This helps ensure that search engines can determine the relevancy of your web pages.
Keywords
Although you may have been told that keywords matter most when it comes to effective SEO, they only make up around 7% of the ranking factors on Google. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t important, just that you need to be cleverer when it comes to using keywords if you want them to work hard for you.
Off-site SEO
On the other hand, off-site SEO refers to any optimization tactics that take place outside of your website. Equally as important as on-site SEO, even if you create the best content in the world, you won’t be able to build up trust, relevance and authority without first building an off-site SEO strategy.
Although there are several practices that you can adopt when it comes to off-site SEO, the most effective one, and the one that you can’t afford to not take advantage of, is link building.
Backlinks
If you want your website to appear popular and relevant to Google, you need to focus your efforts on building high-quality backlinks. Also known as inbound or external links, backlinks are created when an external website links to your site.
The beauty of a backlink is that it can instantly instill confidence in your brand, both in terms of Google and your site visitors.
However, backlinks are only beneficial if they come from reputable sources and that the website in question doesn’t use black hat SEO techniques.
Other off-site SEO strategies:
- Social media marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Guest blogging
Can I optimize a page myself, or should I hire an SEO firm?
After reading the above guide, how do you feel?
a. Ready to take on the world of SEO single-handedly?
b. More confused than ever before?
Likely, you fall somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, and this is perfectly normal.
Search engine optimization is a complex process, not to mention a constantly evolving one and some of the tasks involved require technical skills that few business owners possess.
If this is the case for you and you are concerned that you don’t have the time, resources, or know-how to effectively carry out SEO, outsource this task to SEO experts.
What to look out for in an SEO firm?
If you want great results, you need to choose a great SEO consultant, and here is how you can ensure you get one:
- Look for an established portfolio
- Ask for specific facts and figures from previous campaigns they have worked on
- Seek out positive testimonials
- Look for Google certifications
- Demand 100% transparency
Don’t worry if you can’t get your head around SEO; that’s what we are for. Find out how we can help you here.
