SEO Explained
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a practice of boosting the quality & number of visitors to the site by enhancing results of rankings in algorithmic search engine.
Research reveals that sites on the very 1st Google page get almost 95 percent of the clicks, & studies also reveal that the results which appear high up on the page get more clicks through the rate (CTR), & more traffic.
There’re also a lot of other listings which could appear in Google search that include map listings, knowledge graph videos, and many more. SEO could include improved visibility in the result sets too.
How Does SEO Work?
Bing and Google (that power search results of Yahoo) actually score the search results majorly relying on authority and relevancy of pages it’s crawled & included in the web index, to the users’ query for providing the best answers.
And, Google uses more than two-hundred signals for scoring the search results & SEO also encompasses the technical & creative activities in order to influence & enhance some known signals. It is quite often helpful to not actually focus so much on the separate ranking signals & look at a wide target of Google, for providing the relevant answers for the users.
Therefore, SEO agency involves ensuring a site is technically sound, accessible, uses words which people usually type into these search engines, & provides a great user experience, along with useful & high quality, the expert content which assists answering to the user’s query.
Plus, Google consists of a large expert team of the search quality which evaluates search results quality, which is fed into the machine learning algorithm. Search quality rater guidelines of Google give so much detail & different examples about what Google actually class as low or high-quality websites and content, & their much emphasis for rewarding websites that show their EAT or expertise, authority & trust.
Google also uses the hyperlink algorithm that is called ‘PageRank’ for calculating the popularity & authority of the page, and since Google is much more sophisticated, it is still the fundamental signal. SEO could, therefore, include an activity in order to assist in improving the quality and number of different inbound links to the site which are from other sites. Such kind of activity has been historically called ‘link building’, though is just marketing some brand with the emphasis online, via content and digital PR.
Reputable and relevant sites that link to a site is the strong signal for Google which it may be of greater interest to the users, & could be trusted to pop up in search results for the relevant questions.
Ways to Do SEO
Search engine optimisation involves creative and technical activities which are grouped into ‘Offsite SEO’ and ‘Onsite SEO’. The terminology is basically dated, although it’s good to understand, because it splits the practices which could be done on a site, & away from the website.
Such activities need expertise, usually from different persons as skill sets needed to carry those out at some high level, are different – they could be learned. There is one more option that is to hire a professional SEO agency or consultant for assistance in some areas.
Onsite SEO
Onsite SEO typically refers to some activities on the site to enhance organic visibility. It largely means optimizing a site & content in order to improve experience, accessibility, and relevancy for the users. A few general activities are –
- Keyword Research – Analyzing the kinds of frequency and words that are used by the prospective customers in order to find out a brands products or services. Also, understanding users’ intention & expectations from the search.
- Onsite Optimisation – Enhancing the site structure, content relevancy, internal navigation, and on-page alignment to assist prioritize the key areas & target important search phrases.
- Technical Auditing – making sure the site could be crawled & indexed, is geo-targeted correctly, and also is totally free from mistakes or user experience hurdles.
- User Experience – making sure content shows trust, expertise, and authority, is easy to use, quick, and provides a great experience to the users against any competition.
The above-mentioned list just touches upon a few activities that are involved in the Onsite optimisation.
Offsite SEO
Offsite SEO does refer to such activities that are carried outside of some website in order to enhance organic visibility. It is usually called ‘link building’, that helps in increasing the number of links from different sites, as the search engines use those as to score a vote of trust.
Its typical activities are –
- Content (‘Marketing’) – Well-known sites link to the exceptional content. Hence, creating great content would help in attracting links. It may include how to guide, some story, visualization or infographic along with some compelling data.
- Outreach and Promotion – It involves kind of communicating with main journalists, webmasters, bloggers or influencers about some brand, PR, resource or content for earning coverage & ultimately get links to a site.
- Digital PR – It provides different reasons for the sites to talk & link to the site. It may be internal news flow, product placement, writing for external publications, quotes, original studies or research, expert interviews, and more.
There is a large number of several reasons why some website may link to other website & not all fit into categories above. The rule of thumb on if the link is good is to see the referral traffic quality (visitors who may click on a link for visiting your site). If the website does not send visitors, or visitors are completely irrelevant and unrelated then it may not be such a link that is worth pursuing.
Here are five reasons why you need SEO and should invest in a strategy in 2020:
1. A Good Search engine optimisation Strategy Can Improve PPC Quality Score
A good SEO strategy includes creating pages on your website for your products and services and using relevant keywords through your site. By aligning your text ad messages to the content on your website or driving PPC traffic to relevant landing pages (like a page for a specific product or service), you can improve your Quality Score, which can, in turn, reduce your cost for pay per click and improve the performance of your PPC ads.
2. Increases Market Access
The numbers don’t lie. Did you know that more than 70% of searches result in a click for one of the results on the first search engine results page (SERP)? If you’re not investing in an SEO strategy, you could be missing out on this traffic to your website.
3. Search engine optimization Can Boost the Effectiveness of Your Other Marketing Efforts
Because of an increased market share in SERPs with SEO, you can boost the effectiveness of your marketing efforts like PPC and retargeting. For example, coupling search engine optimisation and search advertising can improve traffic by 50%. Coupling search engine optimisation and retargeting can increase brand awareness. You can also use the insights from your search engine optimisation strategy to fine-tune your PPC campaigns – if you have keywords that are performing well for your organic search, you can add those to your PPC campaigns and test whether or not performance improves.
4. It will Improve Offline Conversions
Did you know that 50% of all mobile searches are conducted for local businesses looking to visit a store that day? If you’re adhering to a good local SEO strategy, you’ll have consistent listings and business information across the web that includes your business name, hours of operation, address, and phone number – all information that makes it easy for a searcher to visit your location and become a customer.
5. Search engine optimisation Can Help You Stand Out from Your Competitors
On the first page of a SERP, there are up to six paid positions, three map listings, and 10 organic listings. If you can align your keyword strategy to appear in a paid listing, a map listing, and an organic listing, you’re increasing your likelihood of a site visit and decreasing the likelihood of a searcher clicking to visit your competitors.
A great SEO strategy is an essential part of any online marketing strategy. Check out our website for more information about SEO pricing from a professional digital agency like Magoven.