Last updated on October 17th, 2023 at 04:22 pm

Have you ever wondered, why some websites rank higher on search engines, and some go on to the last pages? The key to everything is SEO. What is SEO? If you’ve been wondering what SEO means or you just don’t get, we’re here to help you learn!

SEO is an acronym of search engine optimization, which is a process that affects the visibility of a website or a page on search engines.

In simpler words, this marketing technique optimizes the online content present on web pages with certain keywords, so that a search engine shows it as a top result.

Let’s break it down even further:

You’re looking for the best chocolate cake recipe, and you will most probably enter “chocolate cake recipe” on any search engine. The results you see first are the pages that the search engine has decided are the best fit for the keyword entered. This means that these pages have been optimized well for the keyword “chocolate cake recipe”. So, once you work the magic of SEO into your webpage content, your article or website will show in the top results when someone searches for this keyword.

How Searches and SEO Work?

Now that you have a basic idea of search engine optimization, you must be wondering, how SEO works? How are searches calculated in search engines?

The answer is very simple – it is the search engine’s algorithm!

You might use Google, Yahoo, Bing or any other search engine you like, then type a word, and a long list of web pages appear that might have your answer.

How do search engines find the right kind of websites for your keywords?

Search engines like Google have a crawler that runs on every website, gathers information they can find on the web, and bring back the data in 1s and 0s format. This builds an index that is matched when you enter a keyword like “chocolate cake recipe.”

Now that you understand the “SE” part of SEO, let’s tell you more about the “O” part, which is optimization.

What is SEO optimization?

 Optimization in search engine optimization is to add relevant keywords naturally to the content of your site so that the bots understand what they’re looking at when they search. This includes the following parts:

• Content: The content written on the page should be original and informative for the reader. Keywords are important, but without high-quality content, ranking becomes a challenge.
• Title tags: They are an HTML element that demonstrates the title of a web page, which is displayed on search engines.
• Meta descriptions: They are also an HTML element that gives a summary of the contents present on the page.
• Internal linking: Linking the inner pages of the website or other articles inside a content piece, increases its authority for search engines.

Now, you understand the meaning, working, and elements of SEO. It is time to introduce the different forms of search engine optimization.

What are the types of SEO?

 In our everyday life, there are some who take shortcuts and some who take the long walk; usually the latter is more rewarding.

• Black Hat SEO

If you’re someone who is looking for the SEO magic to happen within a couple of days, then you might end up doing black hat SEO.

This type of search engine optimization focuses on making the content optimized only for search engines, and is usually of very bad quality.

This approach may help you make a few bucks fast and easy, but will eventually land you in the zone of spammy and terrible pages, which get banned fast.

You will have to constantly look for new ways to dodge the algorithm updates to survive in your position.

• White Hat SEO

If you’re looking for a way to build a substantial business for the longer run, then white hat SEO is the way to go!

This type of search engine optimization focuses on the human audience. You try to give the best possible content, to reach the top positions without breaking the rules.

Inessential to say, but white hat SEO is the one you should choose to keep yourself in the game for a longer run.

What are SEO Categories?

When you start cleaning your house, you think about cleaning the outdoors and the indoor area. It is the same with search engine optimization. Every SEO service focuses on optimizing the website from the frontend as well as backend. These terms are referred  to as on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

• On-Page SEO is the most important category of SEO services that impacts the search engines results the most. It lets you clean the living space, cabinets, and kitchen of your website. It involves content, use of target keywords, title tags, meta description, site architecture, mobile-friendliness, page speed, and so on.
• Off-Page SEO lets you clean the backyard and pathways of your website. It involves page rank, domain authority, bounce rate, quality of links, social PR boost, visualization of the content on the web, and much more.

What are some interesting facts about SEO? 

• Did you know that 75% of SEO is off-page and only 25% is on-page?
• Google is used for 84% of the searches among search engines.
• Title tags are the most important element of on-page SEO.
• Meta descriptions under 155 characters increase chances of a click.
• The top 5 results get the most clicks.
• Google+ makes the most social impact for SEO ranking.

Summary

SEO services and optimizing websites is one of the most important factors that help your site gain a better stand on search engines. Higher position means more business, and search engine optimization can help you reach your goals, faster.

Understanding this will help you learn where your site is lacking and what needs your attention. If you’re ready to get ahead of the game with SEO, pop us an email and we’ll be in touch to get you optimized!