Credits: Wikipedia.com,ahrefs.com,moz.com
SEO is a systematic process which directly effects the visibility of your website on unpaid results of search engines. It is hence very important to optimize your visibility and ranking for better traffic on the internet. It is related to the organic visibility of websites and if one properly leverages on SEO , it helps to drive relevant and conversion worthy traffic which ultimately leads to earning more revenue for your business. The planed process of website traffic improvement from the internet on your website is known as search engine optimization. This traffic which lands on your website can be from different sources like image search , video search etc. SEO works on computer based algorithms which dictate search engine behavior through search terms or keywords which people type in search engines.
Why is SEO important?
Website rankings are one of the highly talked about benefits of SEO , But SEO is a deeper concept and most of its benefits are related to internet traffic.
- High traffic
People trust search engines like Google or Bing and there many unsaid reasons to it. Hence if you rank higher in the search results which are thrown up or first few search results , people tend to click one of the first few search results. This drives more organic traffic which are easy and unpaid to your website. A study by Ahrefs stated that website ranking positively and strongly correlates to the overall page traffic.
- Consistent traffic
If you rank higher in search engines , there are high chances that you get both passive traffic and hit consistency. This is unlike any social media website where traffic tends to spike and fall equally suddenly. The main reason for traffic fluctuation on social media Is that they are designed to surface only fresh content. On the contrary , the traffic on search engine is quite consistent because the search performed is not as volatile as that on social media.
- It is economical
Search engine optimization leads to free and cost effective promotion through website ranking. Once you gain visibility through good SEO practices, it keep giving you the boon of search engine traffic month on month. Unlike paid ads which are highly expensive and time bound.
White Hat v/s black hat SEO
White hat SEO strategies are more of good practices and abide by the rules of the SEO industry to achieve organic rankings on search engines. The primary focus and aim here is to add value to people’s knowledge and work on information gaps of the internet market.
Black hat SEO Strategies do not flow the set rules and aim at quick ranking on search engines by adopting spammy techniques to fool search engines. They avoid all best practices and put websites at high risk of getting penalized for black hat practices. Penalizing leads to removal from search engines or de-indexing and has sever ethical implications. Hence it is a paramount to partner with only authentic and quality SEO agencies or experts so that they adopt best practices and not but your business at risk of getting penalized.
Achieving and setting the right kind of SEO goal for organic ranking and genuine traffic is one of the most important things one can do as a SEO practitioner. Make sure your SEO goals are measurable and smart.
Important factors to consider when doing SEO
One of the most important things to consider when performing search engine optimization or SEO is to include key factors like links, titles, meta tags, meta descriptions, good quality content, subheadings, images and optimized videos so that your content stands out and ranks by adding value in the life of netizens. However, it is very vital to understand that your SEO success is not dependent on a single factor , it is more of a holistic approach that you have to take when it comes to achieving good rankings on search engines through SEO.
One of the determinants of good ranking is content. There needs to be an equal amount of time and money investment in generating good quality content when you are aiming to rank higher in the search engines. Whatever you add in terms of content , it must be kept in mind that you do not use unnatural keywords or stuff your content with keywords. Overusing keywords takes away the natural flow from your content and does not help in improving SEO in any manner. It just keeps adding weird unnatural sentences toa good piece of content which is highly detrimental from the SEO point of view. You must ensure that your content is engaging and informative. It must add to the knowledge of the person reading your piece or solve a pain point in the market. It is also a good idea to optimize your content piece with interesting links, images or videos which help to increase the time spent by readers on your website. It is hence paramount to use keywords wisely and use easy to read materials which appeal to netizens as content affects SEO to a great extent. Planning your content in advance is one good way of ranking higher through SEO. Utilize headings, subheadings, proofread, edit and think well in advance about the layout of the content. Also, your content must be optimized well to fit into social media so that people reading have the option of sharing it and you have the scope of winning more traffic.