What is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.
All major search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have primary search results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are shown and ranked based on what the search engine considers most relevant to users. Payment isn’t involved, as it is with paid search ads.
To understand what SEO really means, let's break that sentence down and look at the parts:
Quality of traffic.
You can attract all the visitors in the world, but if they're coming to your site because Google tells them you're a resource for Apple computers when really you're a farmer selling apples, that is not quality traffic. Instead you want to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in products that you offer.
Quantity of traffic.
Once you have the right people clicking through from those search engine results pages (SERPs), more traffic is better.
Organic results.
Ads make up a significant portion of many SERPs. Organic traffic is any traffic that you don't have to pay for.
The 10 Important SEO Tips
- Remove anything that slows down your site.
- Link to other websites with relevant content.
- Write for humans first, search engines second.
- Encourage other trustworthy sites to link to you.
- Have web analytics in place at the start.
- Write unique and relevant meta descriptions for every page.
- Use readable and meaningful URLs only.
- Build momentum with social media.
- Use the right keywords in your images.
- Create & publish unique content consistently to improve your rankings.
