What is SEO or Search Engine Optimisation?
There's a lot of discussion about SEO these days, but what exactly is it?
SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimisation," which refers to the digital marketing strategy of enhancing your website's position in search engine results pages (SERPs).
SEO involves creating and optimising content, links, metadata, and other elements of a website to rank higher in search engine results. As a result, SEO can help boost the quality and quantity of your website's visitors and overall user experience.
Generally, when talking about SEO, we refer to optimising for Google as it dominates the search engine market, averaging an 86–96% market share worldwide in 2023.
Within this article, we'll provide you with the fundamentals of this marketing strategy by exploring the following:
Black Hat Vs White Hat SEO techniques
Why is SEO important?
SEO is essential if you want your website to appear when a netizen (citizen of the net) enters a phrase or word related to what you're looking to sell, provide or showcase through your website.
As a business owner, you should strive to be present in the top 3 organic search results. Why? Because the top three organic search results receive 68% of clicks.
Let's say you're a watch repair shop based in London. Around 9.9K searches are made in the UK every month by netizens interested in "watch repair".
Using data from a recent study in 2023 by firstpage.com
39.6% (3920) of those users navigating the web will click on the website ranked no.1 on Google for the keyword "watch repair"
18.4% (1821) will click on the website ranked no.2
10.1% (999) will click on the website ranked no.3
The outstanding 31.9% (3158) of traffic will be shared among those websites positioned further down the SERPS.
It's also worth noting 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search results.
So if your website isn't appearing on the first page of search results, at the very least, for search terms related to your business, then you are likely missing out on valuable leads and customers.
An effective SEO strategy can assist your business in expanding by increasing website traffic, enhancing brand recognition, and, most importantly, generating more leads and sales. SEO can deliver a higher return on investment (ROI) compared to other digital marketing techniques.
How do search engines work?
Have you ever questioned how search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing can come up with websites and information when you type in a query? Most of us use these platforms without even considering their intricate functions.
At their most basic, all search engine algorithms follow the same process: they send out "web crawlers", "spiders", or "bots" to crawl the web in search of new websites and content. When they find something new, they add it to their database.
Then, when you type a query into a search engine, it searches its database for websites and content that match your query. It then ranks those results according to a variety of factors.
Google's algorithm, for example, has an estimated 200 ranking factors. Inclusive of domain authority, providing in-depth and relevant content, keywords, h1 titles, speed, mobile-friendliness and site performance are all taken into account.
The whole process sounds pretty simple, but it's quite complex. And it's constantly evolving as search engines strive to provide the best possible results for their users.
Can you do SEO yourself?
Yes, 100% - depending on your website's complexity, you can optimise it yourself. Of course, SEO has evolved, but the fundamentals remain steadfast.
Previously, incorporating keywords in your website's content and obtaining a large number of inbound links was enough to rank well in SERPs. However, as search engines have grown more sophisticated, they now seek a wide range of signals and high-quality information.
In general, Google frowns on shortcuts and will penalise a website if it appears that it has tried to subvert the algorithm dishonestly.
Book a complimentary SEO consultation if you need clarification on whether or not your site is up to date with Google's guidelines.
Black hat vs white hat SEO techniques
Navigating the complex realms of SEO can be tricky, as there is often a blurred line between what counts as authentic optimisation strategies and non-effective tactics. However, they can generally be broken down into two categories, black hat and white hat SEO techniques.
White hat SEO techniques are the golden child — The goal of white hat SEO is to optimise your website following Google's wishes. It is adhering to Google's standards and developing a long-term strategy.
Black hat SEO techniques are the villains — in the short term, these tactics may obtain higher SERP rankings, but over time you will be penalised by Google's algorithm.
Examples of white hat SEO techniques
Offering high-quality content
Fast site loading times and mobile-friendliness
Using descriptive, keyword-rich meta tags
Making your site easy to navigate
Examples of black hat SEO techniques
Invisible text
Duplicate content
Keyword stuffing
Cloaking
Abusing Structured Data/Rich Snippets
Understanding SEO best practices are essential to maintaining your website's integrity, online rankings, and visibility.
The fundamentals of Search Engine Optimisation success
Remember that many components are involved in improving your rankings; this list is by no means comprehensive but somewhat indicative of the three core elements of doing well in search engine results.
Technical SEO
These are the underpinnings that drive your site's performance and crawling ability. Search engines should be able to crawl and index your pages easily via internal links if they follow a clear and straightforward structure. You may also want to consider the following factors while developing your technical SEO:
XML Sitemaps
Site structure
URL structure
Structured data
Hreflang
Canonical tags
Duplicate content
404 pages
301 redirects
On-page SEO
The goal here is straightforward: provide high-quality content to match the target audience's intent. On-page optimisation factors you should also focus on include:
Keyword optimisation
Mobile-friendliness
Site speed
Internal and external linking
Optimise web page title tags and meta descriptions
Optimise your images and videos
Incorporate featured snippets
Optimise your website for user engagement
Apply schema markup
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO is what you can do to build your website's authority, which includes everything from link building to social media outreach. The goal is to increase your site's trustworthiness and visibility in the eyes of search engines, which can eventually lead to higher rankings.
Here are a few things you can do for a successful off-page SEO strategy;
Link Building
Brand building
Content marketing
PR
Local SEO (GMB and Citations)
Social Media
Forums
Influencer outreach
Events
Guest Posting
Podcasts
Reviews
Why is SEO an ongoing form of marketing?
As search engines evolve and other businesses create new content, your website has to do the same, or you risk being left behind, which is why SEO should be looked at as an ongoing form of marketing.
For example, let's say you're a candle company that launches an article about "Why paraffin wax is bad for you?" it's full of fast-loading awesome content, relevant keywords and internal/external links. Before you know it, other websites are linking to your content, and it's being shared all over social media. Your article ranks no.1 on Google, and you're getting 5k users a month reading and feeding into the rest of your site.
Your business's brand awareness and sales have increased dramatically - the future looks bright!
However, if you aren't monitoring and updating your content before you know it, a competitor has written the same article but with even better content and has adhered to the latest updates on Google's Webmaster Guidelines. As a result, your article's ranking drops in SERPS, decreasing your site's traffic and sales.
That's why it's crucial to stay on top of your SEO game and, if required, take on the services of an SEO expert who can monitor, create and update your website content in line with Google's guidelines and keep you ahead of the competition.
Complimentary SEO audit and consultation
We hope this guide has helped you understand the main principles behind search engine optimisation. I know a lot of information here, but don't worry - with time and practice, your SEO efforts will start coming together. The most important thing to remember is that this game has no shortcuts.
Expect to invest six months of your time if you want results. Those who say SEO is a "set it and forget it" strategy are wrong. Keep your site fresh and exciting with regular updates and awesome new content to ensure it remains a top player in the Google search engines and you stay ahead of the competition.
Are you yearning to improve your website, get more inquiries, and be at the top of search engine rankings?
If the answer is yes, you should take advantage of our complimentary SEO audit and consultation, where we'll have an informal chat about your website's current visibility and share technical recommendations and strategy suggestions for increasing sources of traffic to your website.
