In this analogy, website owners are the cats searching for ways to outsmart the search engine “mice” and achieve a high ranking in search results.
However, search engines are constantly adapting to new tactics and trying to stay ahead of website owners, making it a never-ending chase.
SEO involves trying to understand and predict the moves of search engines, while also anticipating the actions of your competitors.
It requires a combination of technical knowledge, creative problem-solving, and a willingness to adapt to stay ahead of the game.
In this article, we’ll walk you through what is search engine optimization and how you can possibly catch the “Mice”.
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
In its most basic form, SEO is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website or web page in search engine results pages (SERPs).
This can be done in a number of ways, including optimizing the website content, structure, and on-page elements like titles, metatags, and anchor text; building high-quality backlinks from other websites; and achieving high search engine rankings for relevant keywords.
Have you ever use google to search for something?
Let’s say you search for “The Funnel Brother”
You most likely will see my website is rank on the 1st on search engine results page for that keyword phrases.
If i am not please do let me know because i am not doing a good job.
Yes…
SEO is about how to rank on the 1st page on organic search results.
The web pages you see on the 1st page of your search are the pages search engines discover that is most relevant to the user’s query.
Organic search results meaning search results that are not google ads.
Major search engines have their own search engine algorithms.
For Google it is PageRank and RankBrain.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of optimizing web content and making it appear higher up in search engine results. In other words, SEO is getting people to find you on Google – and no amount of sarcasm will make it go away.
Why is SEO Important?
There are a number of reasons why SEO is important for businesses.
First and foremost, SEO can help to increase traffic to a website. This can result in increased conversions and sales, as well as increased brand awareness and loyalty.
Search engine optimization can also keep spammers at bay, as search engines are constantly combing the web to find sites that are replicating content or engaging in other search engine-unfriendly practices.
This means you’ll rank higher in search results and see more relevant traffic while staying safe from penalties or blacklisting by search engines.
Finally, search engine optimization can help to increase search rankings.
By optimizing your website for search engines, you’ll keep more relevant traffic on your site for longer, which is great for businesses that are looking to monetize search results.
How To Do SEO?
SEO works through a five-step process:
1) Discovery:
Search engine optimization starts with discovering what search queries people are using to search for your business and the competition.
You’ll need to find out which keywords (or combinations of words) internet users search on when looking for your business or similar businesses.
Often known as keyword research.
2) Analysis
Once you know what search terms people use, you’ll need to search for those search terms, find websites that are currently ranking highly for them, and analyze their search engine optimization strategies.
3) Strategy
Once you’ve analyzed your competition, you’ll need to create a search engine optimization strategy based on what you learned.
You’ll need to make sure the search queries you want to target are included in your strategy, along with a plan for implementing on-page search engine optimization elements and building backlinks that search engines will love.
4) Implementation
Search engine optimization isn’t just about discovering search terms and creating plans; you’ll need to implement your search engine optimization strategy as well!
This means taking care of any issues that could be preventing search engines from crawling your site, implementing search engine optimization best practices, and building relevant links.
5) Reporting
Once search engine optimization has been implemented, you’ll need to monitor search results and search traffic over time.
Based on the google analytics data that you review, you can then iterate on your search engine optimization strategy or implement additional search engine optimization tactics to help your search engine rankings and search traffic.
Learn More About SEO: Google SEO Starter Guide
Search Engine Rankings
Ranking factors is always changing.
What is working right now may not be working the next day.
If you read Traffic Secrets you will know the best way to understand how things works is understanding what the platforms wants.
In this case, search engine wants the best user experience for their users.
How do they know if the user is having a good experience?
That’s what the ranking factors comes in.
Here are some common ranking factors you should know:
User Experience
Search engine rely on webmasters to provide the best content possible so they can pull the right search results for their users.
To do this ranking factor such as bounce rate and page load speed which will tell search engines if the user is having a good experience on your site or not.
As many people use mobile search, it is important to make sure if your site is optimized for mobile pages.
It’s important you optimize for mobile experience.
The best way to check if you past the core web vital score is go to google search console.
Backlinks
As search engines crawl the internet, search engine wants to see that other search engines are ranking your site high on their search results.
This will tell that your website is valuable.
It’s like telling engines you’re an authority in your search topic.
To be it’s like bragging who you know on the internet.
Link building between website owners with other sites.
Content
Produce high quality content targeted towards the search terms your customers use.
Not only will this keep search engines happy, but it will also help you reach the right audience who are already searching for your products and services.
Your website also needs to be fast and free from broken links.
SEO is not easy.
But what you need to know about search engines optimization is, search engines are constantly changing their search ranking algorithms which means search engines ranking factors are always changing.
Understanding what search engines wants will allow you to understand how search engines work.
If search engines doesn’t think your site or page is valuable for their search result, search engines won’t rank it high.
Search engine optimization is a combination of art and science.
There’s no exact science on how search engines work and what search terms and ranking factors search engine follows.
But you can use analytics data to understand search traffic and find the right keywords to target.
This is why search engine optimization can be challenging.
You need to constantly monitor search result and search traffic over time in order to iterate on your search engine strategy or implement additional search engine optimization tactics that will help increase search performance for your website.
Authority sites are like the authorities on a topic—they’re the go-to sources for users looking for reliable information.
What Is On Page SEO?
On page SEO is the SEO factors that search engines use to rank pages on search engine result.
For example, search engines looks at on page factors such as keyword usage, meta data, HTML tags, content length and so forth when ranking search results.
Other than off page search engine optimization which focuses more on external link building, search engine optimization tactics typically focus on on page search factors.
On page search factors are often organic search ranking factor that search engines use to show the right search results to user for their search terms.
For example, if you search for best SEO tutorial, search engines look at on page search factors such as keyword usage, meta description tag, HTML tags, content length and search engines will search for the right search results to show you.
Search engines look at on page search factors because search engine want to see if a site is relevant for search terms used.
If search engine found a site is not relevant for certain search terms or topic, search engines won’t rank it high even if search engine found that search term is highly searched on search engines.
To summarize, on page search factors includes search terms and keywords used in the website’s content and meta data such as title tag and meta data etc.
What Is Off Page SEO?
Off page SEO is search engine factors that search engines use to rank pages search result.
Unlike on page search factors which search engine uses to determine relevancy for websites, off page search factors are used by search engines to determine the quality of a site and how valuable a website is.
For example, if you search for best SEO tutorial search engine will look at off page search factors such as external link value, search engines give site a higher authority of the website linking to you.
In other words, search engines look at how many websites are linking to your search result and search engines also look at quality of those sites that are linking to your search result.
What Are the Benefits of Search Engine Marketing?
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs).
Businesses and marketers use SEM as an integral part of online branding and website positioning.
With search engines optimized to garner high rankings in SERPs, search engine traffic increases significantly; this improves brand visibility and accessibility to a wide, geographically dispersed market.
1. Increased Visibility: SEM increases the visibility of websites by placing them at the top of SERPs.
2. Improved Brand Visibility: When search engines are optimized, they deliver high rankings for branded keywords.
3. Greater Market Reach: SEM widens a business’s reach to a geographically dispersed market through increased search engine traffic.
4. Cost-effective Advertising: Paid search advertising is one of the most cost-effective means of marketing available today.
5. Enhanced Website Traffic: Websites that rank high in SERPs receive significantly more website traffic than those that do not rank as well.
Final Thought
To conclude, search engine optimization (SEO) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs).
Search engines optimize search result to garner high rankings in SERPs and search engine use search factors such as keyword usage, meta data, HTML tags etc. to search search result.
Off page search factors include search terms and keywords used in the website’s content, external link value etc.
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
When search engines are search optimized, they deliver high search ranks for branded search terms.
If search engine found your site does not contain search-optimized search factors search engines won’t rank it high even if search engines found that search term is highly searched on search engines.
Generally, search engine uses on page and off page search factors to determine how relevant a website is for certain search terms.
Don’t stop there…
It’s equally important for you to understand once the customer lands on your website what should they do?
The following resources below would be great addition in your business should you pursue of the funnel building journey.