What Is SEO?

In the below guide, we will cover what is SEO, what does SEO stand for, the key terms you need to know, the difference between on-page and off-page tactics, SEO onpage optimization services, white hat and black hat SEOBlack Hat SEO is a term used to describe practices by webmasters who try to manipulate search engine rankings in ways that are not in keeping with the intent of the search engines., and how to optimize your site today. We will also explore what does SEO do for your website and how search engine optimization services could help.

What Does SEO Stand For?

SEO is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Optimization.

Nearly every web user is familiar with one or more of the most popular search engines. Globally, this is Google. However, there are specific search engines in different countries, including Naver in South Korea.

SEO refers to how Google and other search engines determine which web pages to show for specific queries. The algorithms are forever changing, and while no one is entirely sure how SEO works (except the developers at Google), there are data findings that reveal how content and sites are ranked.

Within SEO, organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page. is discussed extensively. Organic traffic is web visitors who don’t click on a paid ad to arrive at your site. Organic traffic is highly sought after, simply because you don’t have to pay for ad space in order to attract these visitors; all you need to do is optimize your site correctly, and they will find you.

Key Stats of SEO

• There are over 63,000 searches per second on Google
• 93% of all online sessions begin on a search engine
• 87% of smartphone users use search engines daily
• 75% of users never scroll past page 1
• The average number of words on a page which is on the 1st page of Google is 1,890
• Nearly 80% of people ignore paid search results
• 86% of users look up businesses on Google Maps
• 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they’d trust a review from loved ones

What Are Key SEO Terms to Know?

There are many terms you will hear with regards to SEO. The most important to remember are:

• SERPs: Standing for Search Engine Results Pages, page 1 of SERPs is the goal.
• Keywords: Also known as ‘Search Terms.’ These are the terms, phrases, and specific words that are relevant to your website and what site visitors are searching for. Keyword researchKeyword research helps websites unearth the best keywords to drive traffic and visibility. This research is supported by a number of powerful web-based tools, the best of which we’ve listed here. is the process of discovering which keywords will be most profitable to your business, e.g. highest volume, relevance, likelihood of conversionA conversion is a desirable result on a website that leads to an action such as completing an order, filling out a form, or simply clicking on a link..
• Anchor TextAnchor text is the text highlighted by a hyperlink. The words highlighted are crucial for SEO, informing Google’s crawling bots about the content of the site linked to.: Text which linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages. to an internal or external source. Often uses keywords and long-tail keywords.
• CTR: Standing for Click-Through Rates, this is a key piece of data that highlights how well your links are performing.
• Visibility: If your site is ‘visible,’ it means you can be found in SERPs.

It is also key to understand that you won’t land the 1st spot on the SERPs overnight. SEO is an ongoing process; it improves the longer you incorporate it. SEO isn’t something you include on your site once and hope for the best.

Instead, you have to continue to work at it, and you will begin to reap the rewards and improve your search engine rankings. How to improve SEO on your site will be the result of a dedicated SEO campaign and ongoing SEO strategies. Onpage optimization services can advise, guide and support you at every stage of creating and implementing an SEO strategy.

What is Visibility?

Visibility, as mentioned above, is a key SEO term to learn and understand.

When an SEO professional speaks about a site being ‘invisible,’ this doesn’t simply mean your site visitors can’t find you. It means your website doesn’t feature the necessary information Google needs to index the site. To become visible, you need to implement the correct data and tactics to ensure you provide Google with the right information, which will, in turn, boost you up the SERPs.

What Impacts SEO?

The exact algorithm Google uses may not be known, but there are a number of elements that experts know impact the quality of a site’s SEO. These include:

• Page Speed
• Mobile page speed
• Mobile-friendliness
• Optimized content
• Technical SEO
• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO
• User experience (UX)
• Backlinks & link buildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs.

What is On Page SEO?

On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing your own website and each page which features on it. Not only does it refer to the content, however, but it also applies to the HTML source code of your pages. On-page SEO is made up of quality content, title tags (the second most important factor), meta descriptions, clear URL hierarchy, and image alt text.

A note on URL hierarchy: URL’s need to make sense. A good URL structure would be www.clickintelligence.com/seo/managed-seo-campaigns.

This works because it shows the history a user would go through to reach the page, which adds further relevance to the page, and is something that Google loves. Thanks to the clear hierarchy, Google can see that managed SEO campaigns is linked to SEO in general, and this will help it stand out when Google is deciding what result to show for a ‘managed SEO campaign’ search query.

On page optimization services like our managed SEO services team here at Click Intelligence can create an on page SEO package to boost your search engine rankings, maximize your visibility and move your business forward.

Content Marketing

Digital marketers and business owners alike are all well aware of the phrase: Content is King. It’s still true in 2019. The content on your website must be optimized for search engines, but more than that, it must be easy to read for the user. This is a field within digital marketing known as content marketing. When you write quality content with the user in mind, that’s when you’ll create something extraordinary which will keep people coming back for more. One way to do this is by including a blog on your site. A blog offers you the opportunity to showcase your brand and your products in a fresh way, and it’s also a way to work on your search engine rankings continuously.

At the recent Brighton SEO conference, September 2019, Greg Gifford, SEO expert, highlighted how local content will be the key to your success. This is where your blog comes in incredibly handy, as this is where you can create content which concerns your local area but not necessarily your product or service. A great example of this would be a New York City hairdresser who could post about events and occasions in New York City, which their site users will want to read about.

Additionally, it’s a wise idea to steer clear of thin content, i.e., content that is less than 500 words in length. Since the 2011 Google Update (Panda), Google began to penalize web pages which were lacking in substantial, high-quality content. The best blog length in 2019 is 1,705 words. On average, blogs of over 1,000 words do significantly better.

What is Off-Page SEO?

Off-page SEO refers to actions you undertake outside your own site. Link building is a vital strategy for off-page SEO, making backlinks the backbone of the practice. A variety of factors impact off-page SEO, however, including:

• The domain authority (DA) of the site you’re placing a link on (we call this the ‘publishing site’)
• How “fresh” a link is
• The anchor text used
• The trustworthiness of the publishing site
• How relevant the publishing site is to your content and site

How SEO Helps Your Business