What is SEO and How it Works?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a core digital marketing activity that drives visibility and potential business to a website. Search engines, like Google, rank websites based on their relevance to specific queries and display them in their results pages (SERPs). The more visible a company is on search, the more likely they are to capture the attention of potential customers. That’s why businesses compete for a spot on the first page of search engine results pages.

SEO is a multifaceted and complex process that involves multiple elements. Despite the confusion, there are some fundamentals of search engine optimization that all marketers should understand. This article will explore the fundamentals of SEO, how it works and why it is important.

The purpose of a search engine is to provide results for searches that are relevant to the user’s query. To do this, search engines survey and “understand” the web to populate a large database of content called an index. When a user enters a query, search engines compare that query to the content in their index and return relevant results. Search engines use many different factors to determine what content is most relevant, including the location and history of the searcher, the settings on their browser and other factors.

There are hundreds of different factors that go into what content from the index gets displayed for a given query, but these factors bubble up to five key components. Understanding how these components work together and how to optimize each one of them is the basis of SEO best practices.

A key part of the process is keyword research. Understanding what keywords potential customers are searching for provides a clear focus for the type of content that should be created and the keywords that should be targeted. Using tools such as Google Analytics to track organic traffic allows a company to assess the effectiveness of their SEO strategy over time.

While it is possible to manipulate some of the components that make up the search engine algorithm, most search algorithms are designed to be robust and resistant to manipulation. As such, there is no single SEO strategy that will guarantee a certain outcome. However, a solid plan for optimizing each of the components can yield a high ranking on the SERP over time.

Search engine optimization is a critical aspect of any digital marketing effort and has the potential to drive significant and consistent growth for your business. By understanding the fundamentals of SEO and how it works, you can develop a strategy that will be effective for your business’s unique needs. Then you can start to measure the success of your efforts over time and continue to refine your approach to meet the ever-changing demands of search engine algorithms. To learn more about our services and how we can help you develop a successful strategy, contact us today. We’re happy to answer your questions and provide a free consultation.