What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is optimizing your website and content so that it ranks higher on SERPs. SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Page. Thus you are optimizing your website so that it can rank higher on the search engines.
Why do you want your website to rank higher on search engines? (SERPs).
Every website owner wants their website to rank higher on search engines like google because of the benefits that come with it. Ranking at the top of a search engine like google will bring a lot of traffic to your website. So many people will click on your website link on the SERP and come to your website. The higher you rank the more people who click your link and come to your website. For example, if you get to position 1, then you get the most visitors.
With these millions of visitors, you can do whatever you want with them. You can turn them into customers, users, new registrations and so much more. All this enables you to make money with your website for all the people coming to your website.
How does SEO work?
The way SEO works is by websites letting search engines know what their sites are all about. When they know this, the search engines are able to position the websites properly on the search results. The websites with the right optimization will be positioned higher than the ones without. This way, the people searching on the search engines get exactly what they are looking for.
What are keywords in SEO?
Keywords are terms or phrases that people type in the search engines. They type these keywords so that the search engine can show them results of what they want. On the other hand, the website owners, optimize their websites with these terms and phrases so that they rank on the SERPs for them. The SEO experts optimize their websites to rank top so that people can click on them.
What are the main types of SEO?
The main types of SEO include:
On-Page SEO. This is optimization of content that exist on your website. This content include things like pages and articles.
Off-Page SEO. This is the optimizations of things outside your website in order to rank higher. This includes things like backlinks.
Technical SEO. This is the optimization of technical things of your website such as site speed, mobile friendliness and crawlability.
Local SEO. This is the optimization of your website so that it can rank in the local search engine searches. This is mostly for searches dependent on geographical location. For example a restaurant search.
What is the difference between organic and paid search?
Organic search refers to unpaid listings that appear on SERPs without any payment. On the other hand, paid search is the search engine listings that appear because they have been paid for. This means that the owner of the listing paid for it to appear there. Contrary to organic search whereby the owner did not pay for their listings to appear there.
How long does it take to see SEO results?
Well, you can’t quite say that your website will rank ini given specific time after you start SEO. It varies. In most cases, it takes anywhere from 6 months since you start SEO to a year to start seeing significant change from your SEO. This is keeping in mind that you are doing things the right way. If you do not do things right, it can even take years to succeed or fail to take off at all.
What are backlinks and why do they matter?
Backlinks are URLs coming from other websites linking to your website. The URLs can be from any page or location on the other website linking to any page or URL of your website. Fro example, if Forbes mentions the name of your website and links that name to your website, that is referred to as a backlink.
Backlinks are very important. This is because search engines like google really value backlinks. Search engines like google rank websites with more high quality backlinks higher than the websites without. Hence the more high quality backlinks your website has, the higher it ranks on google. The vice versa is also true.
Is SEO better than paid advertising?
From me? YES! Absolutely. SEO is absolutely better than paid advertising. First because SEO is free. Once your website ranks at the top of google, you will start getting a lot of free traffic and keep getting it. The best part about this is that this traffic is consistent and will keep coming even for years as long as you still rank. If you were to spend money to pay for all those visitors/traffic, i promise you, you will go broke. Even some of the largest companies on the earth cannot match free SEO traffic one for one with paid traffic. Paid traffic especially from google is so expensive.
Can I do SEO on my own?
YES. You can do SEO on your own. You do not need a university degree or some extreme expertise to do SEO. Thus, you just need to know a few basic of SEO and you can get started. However, for super competitive keywords and industries, you might want to hire an SEO expert.
What is a meta description?
Meta description is a short summary of your page or blog post that appears in the snippet section of the search engine. When you search on google, it shows you the title of the page and then under that, they show you the meta description snippet.
What are some essential SEO tools?
If you are planning to do SEO, these are some of the useful tools that you can use:
- Google Search Console.
- Google Analytics.
- Ahrefs.
- SEMrush.
- Yoast SEO. (for WordPress).
- Moz.
What is white hat vs. black hat SEO?
White hat SEO are ethical optimization practices that adhere with the search engines guidelines. On the other hand, black hat SEO is the optimization practices that are contrary to the search engines guidelines.
Does social media affect SEO?
Yes but indirectly. Doing good social media work will not directly lead to growth in SEO. However, the social media signals will help the search engines understand that your business is alive and active online. Hence keeping your social media active will be good for your SEO.
Conclusion.
Now you know what is SEO. You also understand some of the most frequently asked questions about SEO.
