Start SEO – A beginners’ Guide
If you are new to SEO and excited to learn it, I am here to clear all the basic concepts of SEO, what is SEO and how it works? You will know in detail that how a search engine works at back-end, get to know about ethics used in SEO (Black hat and White hat), also know how many types are there of SEO on which to work with (On-Page, Off-Page & Technical) and an introduction to the algorithms of the search engine. Keyword is the backbone in SEO, I will also give a brief introduction of keyword and what types of keywords are used while working on SEO of a website. So, let’s get started…!
Why SEO is Important?
Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a vital role in website’s popularity, its ranking in search engines, rise in organic traffic, reach to the maximum customers worldwide and higher business outcomes at the end. Almost every business has its online portfolio in the form of website and the company needs the customers to know about the company, offered best SEO services, valuable products and easily approachable, so the SEO is most necessary for maintaining the digital presence on the internet. As the name is “Search Engine Optimization”, do we really optimize the search engine?
Actually, we optimize the webpages of our website for the search engine that it can rank higher when a user search for a specific query. SEO in my concept is a systematic, analytic, strategic and technical process of optimizing the website/webpages according to search engines that it can rank higher when a user search for a specific query. In brief, we the SEO experts work on the keywords research that users search for on the search engines and finds the relevance with our website. Then we analyze the keywords and put them into our website’s content (title, headings, links, descriptions, tags, etc.) for optimization. In result, the website can better crawled and indexed by the search engine and get ranked on top when user search for specific keyword.
How Search Engine Works
Before you learn how a search engine works, you need to understand what it is. Think for a moment! What would happen if search engines don’t exist? There are billions of websites on the internet world containing large amount of data content. Now tell me can you remember all the websites’ addresses and what website contains which type of content? Absolutely not; so, the search engine makes it possible for us to provide quickly relevant information from worldwide. We don’t need to remember the websites so the life becomes easy. A search engine is a systematic software that is designed to carry out web searches worldwide.
Search engine works in four levels:
- Crawler or Spider
- Indexer
- Ranking Algorithms
- SERP (search engine result page)
Crawler: At the first level scan all the existing websites worldwide which are in billions and new adding on. Not once but this process continues all the time periodically and it collects the data that what website consist of which type of data content in it. It collects the information and save the data locations into the local servers for further work.
Indexer: It’s work starts from here at second level. When crawler collects the data locations and save it into local servers, indexer put all the data collected into different categories which makes search engine possible to bring out accurate and relevant search results against users’ queries.
Algorithms: They are the set of standards which decide the ranking of the content of any website against search query. Here we actually have to work a lot as an SEO expert. You need to understand all the algorithms in depth and enhance your expertise accordingly. Google updates it’s Algorithms regularly when needed. I will write about algorithms in detail very soon.
SERP: search engine result page is the user interface where search results appear after inquired about queries in a user-friendly environment.
SEO Ethics
As we know every field of work has its own set of norms consisting specific rules and regulations. The SEO has its ethics set by the search engines worldwide that are being highly considered by the SEO experts while working for SEO of a website. There are two protocols used in SEO.
White Hat SEO:
White hat SEO is an ethical way of applying SEO methods such as creating quality content that focuses on human audience searches to get better search results on SERP (search engine result page). To do with the same, it is needed to create the optimized and relevant content that has strong backlinks. All the technical aspects are to observe critically to resolve the issues faced by the user for better user experience. A well-structured sitemap should be built and submitted to search engine. Deeply study about the algorithms of search engines and follow the standards set within.
Black Hat SEO:
Black hat SEO is unethical way of applying SEO methods. Keyword stuffing is the most common in black hat SEO in which a keyword is mentioned repeatedly in every part of the content. Mentioning duplicate content, adding hidden text and links in the content of webpage and clocking (showing different and irrelevant content as claimed in the heading or link etc.) the content are unethical protocols in SEO. Along with the link spamming and link farming, all the black hat protocols are unethical and prohibited. Be careful, if you apply any of them, your website’s ranking will get down and may blacklisted and your client can bare loss.
Types of SEO
Mostly there are two types of SEO which we work on. One is ON-Page and the other is Off-Page, there is third type known as “Technical SEO” which is actually the part of On-Page I believe; because in this you have to work on programing side of the website. Let’s discuss in detail.
On-Page SEO:
In On-Page SEO you have to work on website and its webpages to make them search friendly by optimizing the HTML, keywords, content, URLs, medias etc. All the elements which we can control and manage internally would consider in On-Page. There is a checklist below for reference;
- Source code
- Head section (title tag, meta description, meta keyword, headings)
- URL optimization (change of slugs)
- Internal & External links
- Anchor text optimization
- Keyword density (LSI keywords with proximity technique)
- Content optimization
- Plagiarism
- Grammar & spelling
- Image optimization
- Keyword cannibalism
I’ll provide you with a comprehensive explanation of On-Page SEO shortly if you’re interested in exploring into its details.
Off-Page SEO:
Off-Page SEO focuses on all the ranking factors that occurs outside the website like brand mentioning, creating backlinks, maintain the presence on social media platforms etc. The main goal is to bring the audience and links from high authority platforms. There is a checklist below for reference;
- Search engine submissions
- Free classified submissions
- Image submissions
- PDF/PPT submissions
- Social bookmarking
- Forum posting
- Guest posting
- Press release
- Infographic submissions
- Video submissions
- Q & A submissions
I’ll provide you with a comprehensive explanation of Off-Page SEO shortly if you’re interested in exploring into its details.
Technical SEO:
Again, it is an internal part of the website to work on to improve the technical factors which result in increased the ranking of webpages in search engine. By applying some required technical changes that mostly have to do once, we can better crawled and indexed our webpages by the search engines. There is a checklist for reference;
- Sitemap.xml
- Sitemap.html
- Robots.txt file
- Page load time
- Optimize CSS and JS
- SSL certification
- Canonical tag optimization
- Redirections (404, 301, 302)
- W3C validation
- Open graph tag
- Structured data (schema markup)
I’ll provide you with a comprehensive explanation of Technical SEO shortly if you’re interested in exploring into its details.
Keyword Research – Foundation of SEO
Keyword research is a crucial step in search engine optimization (SEO) that involves identifying and analyzing the specific words and phrases that people use when searching for information, products, or services on search engines. Here are some of the key points for keyword research:
- Brainstorming: Start by brainstorming a list of relevant topics, words and phrases related to your business, industry, or website.
- Use keyword tools: Utilize keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Moz Keyword Explorer, or Ahrefs Keywords Explorer. These tools offer insightful data on similar terms, search traffic, and competitiveness.
- Search volume and competition analysis: Evaluate the search volume of keywords (how many people are searching for them) and assess the level of competition (how difficult it is to rank for those keywords). Choose keywords with a decent search volume and manageable competition.
- Long-tail keywords: Consider using long-tail keywords, which are longer and more specific keyword phrases that tend to have lower search volume but higher intent and relevance. They can often be easier to rank for and attract more targeted traffic.
- Relevance and intent: Focus on keywords that align with the content and purpose of your website or page. Consider the intent behind the keyword—whether it’s informational, transactional, or navigational—and tailor your content accordingly.
- Competitive analysis: Study the keywords your competitors are targeting and ranking for. This can provide insights into potential opportunities and help you refine your own keyword strategy.
- User intent and semantic search: Understand the user’s intent behind the search query and try to incorporate semantically related terms and phrases into your content. Search engines are increasingly using semantic search to understand the context and meaning behind queries.
- Refining and organizing: Refine your list of keywords based on search volume, competition, and relevance. Organize them into categories or themes to create a structured keyword strategy.
- Create Content: Develop high-quality, informative, and relevant content around your chosen keywords. Optimize your webpages, URLs, titles, headings, meta tags, and content to include the targeted keywords naturally.
- Monitor and Adapt: Regularly monitor the performance of your keywords using analytics tools. Keep an eye on search trends, user behavior, and your website’s rankings. Adjust your keyword strategy as needed to stay relevant and competitive.
Keywords Types
Keyword selection is an important aspect of content creation, and different types of keywords are chosen based on the specific situation and content requirements. So, here are some types below;
- Long tail keywords
- Short tail keywords
- Navigational keywords
- Transactional keywords
- Commercial keywords
- Informational keywords
- LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords
Remember that keyword research is an ongoing process. Regularly monitor and update your keywords based on changes in search trends, user behavior, and your own website’s performance. I trust that this blog has provided you with a comprehensive understanding of various SEO concepts. I hope that the knowledge gained here will prove beneficial in your practical endeavors.
You have learned what is SEO and how it works? I am sure you have understood the concepts of SEO and its work process and now able to optimize your website’s content and made better keyword research. This blog is from SEOciti.com that offers best SEO services in Lahore to enhance search engine visibility and boost up your business online. Thanks
