What is SEO

What is SEO, Search Engine Optimization can be very confusing to some people but if you look at it carefully it is very simple on the surface.

Wikipedia defines SEO as the Process of affecting the online visibility of a website or a web page in a search engines’s organic results.

When you implement Search Engine Optimization on your website the goal is to optimize the site to rank number one in searches on Google and other search engines. Deciding on the keywords that you want to target is one of the most important factors because the competition for keywords increases the more people search for it.

Optimizing your Website for Search

Things to consider when thinking about optimizing your website

-Words matter

-Titles matter more

-Links matter

-The words used for these links matter

-Website Reputation Matters

-Relevance & Authority of your Website

Relevance is a measure of how appropriate Google thinks your content is for an incoming search query (This is where your keyword choice and content creation comes into play because it needs to be relevant for the specific keywords)

Authority – is a measure of how trustworthy Google thinks your site is using backlinks, brand popularity and reputation therefore these factors are used to rank your site’s authority.

SEO Approach

The best way to approach SEO is to play by Google’s rules. If your website is consistent and provides good content that is relevant to its readers. The keywords that you are targeting you will over time increase your ranking within searches.

If your content is good people will start to engage with it. They will link to it and share it on social media. This will increase the authority of your website as well as increase the brand reputation of your website.

Think of it like a snowball effect. If one person on social media shares you post on What is SEO on Facebook.  One of their friends sees it clicks on the link. They will arrive at your website. If they enjoy the article and find it relevant. They might right a post about it on their blog and link back to your site.

Most importantly you have a new way for people to find your post online. There is a new source linking to your website. So more people will find your site. They may share it on social media like twitter. One of their followers sees the post clicks on it. They arrive at your site enjoy reading your post. They like it so much they share it on their website or social media. Therefore the snowball starts to gain momentum and the authority of your site will start to increase.