# What is SEO
SEO stands for 'Search Engine Optimization is the process of getting organic traffic from search engines.
It help to improve your website's ranking in search engine result pages SERPs.
What you will learn in this article ?
- 1. How Search Engines Work ?
- 2. What Is SEO ( Search Engine Optimization )
- 3. Types Of SEO ( Search Engine Optimization )
- 4. SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) Strategies ?
- 5. SEO Steps To Follow For Newly Created Websites ?
1. How Search Engines Work ?
Search Engines especially Google have copies of "billions" of webpages stored in an index database.
When you type a query into a search engine, it searches through all the pages that have in its index database and tries to return the most relevant results. It uses an algorithm to do that.
Google Search is an automated search engine that uses software known as web crawlers that explore the web regularly to find pages to add to our index
Nobody knows exactly how these algorithms work, but we have some clues from Google.
Three stages of Google Search
- a. Crawling ( Google downloads text, images, and videos from pages it found on the internet with automated programs called crawlers. )
- b. Indexing ( Google analyzes the text, images, and video files on the page, and stores the information in the Google index, which is a large database. )
- c. Serving search results ( When a user searches on Google, Google returns information that's relevant to the user's query. )
2. What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ?
SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) is a process of increasing the number of visitors to a website by improving its ranking in search engine results.
SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) is a process of optimizing a website or a single webpage by taking steps to rank higher on Google or other search engines. It's all about improving a site's rankings in the organic search results.
3. Types of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- a. On-Page SEO (Related to website's content optimization)
- b. Off-Page SEO (Related to all activities that take place outside of your website. Link building is an example of off-page SEO, social media marketing, etc.)
- c. Technical SEO (Related to improving the technical aspects of a website in order to increase the ranking of its pages in the search engines. Like website speed, easier to crawl, etc.)
| On-Page SEO | Off-Page SEO | Technical SEO |
|---|---|---|
| Site content | Link building | Site speed |
| Title tag and meta tag optimization | Social media marketing | Structured Data |
| Heading optimization | Content Marketing | Canonicalization |
| Image optimization | Customer reviews | XML sitemaps |
| & others | & others | & others |
4. SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) Strategies ?
- a. Black Hat SEO
- b. White Hat SEO
a. Black Hat SEO
Black Hat SEO is used to increase a site or page ranking in search engines by violating the search engine's terms of service.
Black Hat SEO strategies can get your website banned from search engines.
Black Hat SEO results are for short time only.
b. White Hat SEO
White Hat SEO is an approved strategy from search engines that can rank your websites on Result Pages.
White Hat SEO results are for the long term.
| Black Hat SEO | White Hat SEO |
|---|---|
| Duplicate Content | Relevant Content |
| Keyword Stuffing | Relevant Keywords |
| Non Relevant Links | Relevant External or Internal Links |
| Redirecting to another site | Follow search engine rules and guidlines |
| Hight risk for website get banned | No any risk |
| Blog comment spam | Only valid backlinks |
5. SEO Steps To Follow For Newly Created Websites ?
- a. Create a List of Keywords
- b. Analyze Google's Result Page
- c. Focus on Content Design
- d. Optimize for On-Page SEO
- e. Internal Linking
- f. Optimize for Technical SEO
- g. Backlinks
a. Create a List of Keywords
Keyword research is usually the first step of any White Hat SEO strategy.
There are multiple paid tools available to find the best keywords for your site. But we will implement some free ways to find keywords.
Google Suggest:
You can get keyword ideas by typing a keyword into Google's search field, and it will populate a list of keyword suggestions.
From Google suggestions, you can get an idea of what people are searching for.
Keywords can be long known as"long tail keywords" or short "short tail keywords"
"long tail keywords" tend to be less competitive means there is a higher chance to get ranked on these keywords.
You should choose those keywords that have high search volume and low competition.
If you want to check search volume and competition levels for keywords, you can use some keyword research tools.
b. Analyze Google's Result Page
Now you have a list of keywords.
You can search in Google which page is already ranking for those keywords.
Type a keyword in the Google search field and hit enter.
You will see result pages on SERP (Search Engine Result Pages).
You can see there are almost 10.5 billion results for that keyword.
Just ignore Ad results that are marked red. Because these are paid advertisements.
Check the top 10 results from SERP (Search Engine Result Pages) and note down the titles of topics that users have written on their pages.
Note: I choose this keyword just for learning purposes, as this keyword has high competition. At the start, we should choose keywords that have low competition.
c. Focus on Content Design
After analyzing the top 10 SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages), it is now time to create high-quality content for your page.
Your content should be better and different from others.
Your content structure should be proper.
Your page or post must have all the information available that the user is searching for.
If you have some external links on your page, those links must redirect to valid and popular sites.
d. Optimize for On-Page SEO
-
a. Title tag (Page Title)
Your page title tag must have primary / main keyword at start of title. This is the title that appears in search results.
-
b. Meta Description
Meta description tag must have primary and secondary keywords and summarize your page content. In short in the meta description tag there must be a summary of your page content.
-
c. H1 Tag
H1 Tag is the main heading of the page. In that heading, there must be a primary keyword. There must be only one h1 tag for one page for proper structure.
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d. Formatted Tags
You can add secondary keywords in formatted tags like strong, em, b, i
These tags can be added to page content to stand out text.
-
e. Image alt Tag
You should optimize your img tags as well by writing proper alt text. Crowlers read img alt text when they crawl your site's pages. Alt text must properly describe the meaning of the image.
Screen readers also read alt text of img tags and this is also necessary for accessibility.
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f. Page Content
You can write primary and secondary keywords in your content. Make sure not to overuse keywords, just add them when necessary.
Your page content must properly describe the intent of users.
e. Internal Linking
You can add other pages' links of your website to any other page and these links' text can be a primary keyword for another page.
For example, your website has two pages:
1) Database management system 2) What is SEO
On your first page, you can add an external link to a page What is SEO ?. And in the link title, you can add the primary keyword of that page.
f. Optimize for Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process of ensuring that a website meets the technical requirements of search engines for ranking.
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a. Use SSL
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b. Mobile-Friendly website
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c. Speed up your website
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d. Create an XML sitemap
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e. Fix broken internal and outbound links
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f. Remove duplicate content on your site
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g. SEO Friendly URL'S
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h. An optimized robots.txt file
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i. Make sure your website is accessible at one domain
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j. Register your site with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
g. Backlinks
Backlinks also known as external links or inbound links. It referes to the links on one website pointing to another website.
Backlinks are very important in SEO because it gives a signal to Google that it a valuable content that's why other sites are referring to this on their pages.
Different ways of creating backlinks:
- 1. Social Bookmarking
- 2. Image Submission
- 3. Blog Submission
- 4. Profile Submission
- 5. Article Submission
- 6. Forum Submission
Thanks for reading.
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