What Is SEO? Learn the Basics of Search Engine Optimization

SERPs consist of paid search results and “organic” search results, where the organic results don’t contribute to Google’s revenue. Instead, Google delivers organic results based on its assessment of a site’s relevance and quality. Depending on the type of search query, Google will also include different elements on the SERP, like maps, images, or videos. And some of those people might link to you, which can help your rankings. And a human-centered marketing approach to your SEO content strategy will not only result in more organic traffic to your website but will get more eyes on your content in general. Implement schema markup to provide search engines with additional context for voice search.

SEO best practices also apply to local SEO, since Google also considers a website’s position in organic search results when determining local ranking. Very early on, search engines needed help figuring out which URLs were more trustworthy than others to help them determine how to rank search results. Calculating the number of links pointing to any given site helped them do this. This tactic made for terrible user experiences, and instead of laughing at funny jokes, people were bombarded by annoying, hard-to-read text. It may have worked in the past, but this is never what search engines wanted. How do search engines ensure that when someone types a query into the search bar, they get relevant results in return?

c) Number of other links

There are way too many people preying on marketers that simply do not understand content rules. The goal of SEO is to raise your ranking in organic search results. There are different practices for optimizing AdWords, shopping, and local results. To many people, the term “search engine” is synonymous with Google, which has about 83% of the global search engine market share. Because Google is the dominant search engine, SEO typically revolves around what works best for Google.

Top technical SEO best practices

Users who know a lot about the topic might use different keywords in their search queries than someone who is new to the topic. For example, some users might search for “charcuterie”, while others might search for “cheese board”. Anticipating these differences in search behavior and writing with your readers in mind could produce positive effects on how your site performs in search results. And your visibility index (which measures the exposure and visibility of your brand, product, or website in a market or industry). You can also measure local SEO performance using analytics from the tool. Including search visibility, customer engagement, and listing traffic.

• This is in between the black hat and white hat approaches, where the methods employed avoid the site being penalized but do not act in producing the best content for users.
• Using professional SEO services ensures your site meets quality standards and builds a positive reputation.
• It involves optimizing content, HTML source code, and other on-page elements to align with search engine algorithms.

SEO is about determining what works for your site in your industry based on your unique landscape. Google said, way back in 2016, that voice searches made up around 20% of all searches performed in the Google app. Google’s move makes sense because more than 50% of traffic worldwide is generated from a mobile device. User experience (UX) plays a substantial role in how well your website will rank on Google. Metadata tells the user what they can expect to find if they click on the page.

To be clear, meta descriptions don’t count as a Google ranking factor. Also, Google is known to not use a site’s meta description much of the time. That said, using unique, well-written meta descriptions can have a positive impact on the number of clicks you ultimately receive.

Go to the Keyword Magic Tool and type your seed keyword into the search bar. Keyword research is the fundamental building block for any successful SEO strategy. Understanding how to do keyword research is one of the most crucial aspects of on-page SEO. It primarily involves optimizing various aspects of a website according to Google best practices and known or suspected factors Google finds important or valuable. Loading performance is measured by the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) SEO Anomaly metric, which tracks the time it takes for the page’s most visible content element to render fully.

In other words, keyword research shows you what users are actually searching for. So you can create content that answers their queries and attracts them to your site. Image SEO is the process of optimizing images on your website to make them appear more prominently in search results and enhance your overall SEO performance. After ensuring proper crawling and indexing, focus on user experience factors such as page speed, website security, and mobile-friendliness.