Website Tools What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the process of increasing website traffic quantity and quality along with gaining more exposure to your brand through the use of free or “organic” search engine results.
SEO greatly involves the understanding of what people are searching for on the internet, the overall information and answers that they are seeking, and the type of content that they want to view. If you know the answers to all of this, then you are more capable of connecting with people who are searching online for the solutions that your company offers.
SEO
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How Do Search Engines Work?
A search engines known as a software system that is designed to carry out web searches. Search engines are answer machines! They consist of three parts. 1) Crawlers, which are also known as spiders or bots 2) An index & 3) An algorithm.
Spider-
The process itself begins with a spider which travels the web through links. Links connect each page to each other on your website. Then, a spider looks for data and knowledge, such as content, headings, and links, which each contain valuable information that elaborates on what the webpage is about and how it is structured. A spider goes around the internet 24/7 and when a spider passes through a website, it saves the HTML version of the page in a huge database known as the index.
Index-
The index’s updated every single time the spider comes around and finds new information. In Google for instance, the spider visits depending on how often you change content on your site, and how important Google thinks your site is. So, now the content on the webpage has been put into the index. But, how does this translate to ranking?
Algorithm-
The search engine algorithm takes data from the index, makes a calculation based on multiple factors that predict whether or not a result will be useful for the search. Then, the algorithm uses this calculation to see which specific order of pages these search engine results page should show. Overall, the algorithm analyzes pages in the index, and take into account hundreds of ranking factors which thens used to determine the order pages that should appear in the search results for a given query. Also, unlike paid search ads, you cannot pay search engines to gain higher organic search rankings.
How Search Engines Work
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How Do Search Engines Find My Website?
In order for a search engine to know what your website exists, there first has to be a link from another site that goes to your site. Following that link will lead to the first website crawler-session and the first save in the index.in today’s time period, you are unable to submit your website to a search engine. Today, search engines follow all the links on the web.
Why are links important for SEO?
Links from other websites as well as links within your own website are very important to your SEO strategy because this way, there is a direct correlation because quantity and quality of links that lead to your website, and how much search traffic your website receives. Search engines use the number of links that point to a webpage to determine how important that webpage is. Links are what allow a page to rank high in search engine results. For small businesses specifically, more links on your websites tend to receive more traffic, which results in gaining more customers.
What are organic search results?
When search results aren’t sponsored, we call these results organic. Organic search results’ earned through effective SEO and aren’t paid for. According to the way that Google’s algorithm works, these organic results are the queries that fit the question of the web users best. Also, these search results are strictly algorithmically and unaffected by advertiser payments. Today, search engine result pages are known as “SERPS.”
Organic Search Results
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What is Google’s SERP?
Search engines use web crawlers to index a website. After that, the indexed information is used to create snippets, or in other words, links to sites that contain a description. These are shown on a search engine’s SERP, or search engine results page.
Search engine result pages accustom for both advertising and dynamic organic results formats, also known as “SERP features.” An example of SERP features- featured snippets (an answer box). These features include PPA boxes (People Also Ask Box) which answers questions related to the users search query. Almost every single SERP user loves features snippets. These snippets provide you with information about the query that you have entered in an instant without having to click through the website. The ultimate goal is to keep searches coming back and to keep them on the SERP’s for longer.
It is important to remember that search engines make money from advertising. Some of the SERP features on Google are organic and are influenced by SEO.
SERP
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What is Holistic SEO?
Holistic SEO refers to the improvement of all important aspects of a website in order to make it rank higher in search engines. It is super important to focus on your users and their experience on your website. It is also important to ensure that your site matches what Google’s algorithm is looking for. Google’s overall mission is to find the best possible results. If you focus on making a great site for your user, this will lead to better rankings due to the fact that you are offering exactly what they want and are looking for. By following a holistic approach, it means that you are focusing on all of the following aspects:
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Technical SEO-
A website user always likes to use fast sites, and so does Google. Through the practice of technical SEO, you can make your sites quicker to load for users and more crawlable by Google.
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Quality Content-
Having quality content means that the content on your website is easy to read and understand. It is straight to the point, and most importantly, useful for visitors. Your audience always wants to view content that is helpful for them and answers all of their questions.
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Social Media Strategy-
In order to rank high in search engine results, it is important to promote your content on as many platforms as possible, including social media. Investing in a social social media strategy will allow your website to gain more visitors and grow.
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Optimize For Mobile-
Almost everyone browses the web on a mobile phone in today’s time period. It is important to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile for users to easily view content.
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Accessibility-
It is important to make sure that your website is accessible for everyone to use. Some examples on how to make your website accessible include, proper alt text for images, using headings correctly, and providing descriptive names for all links.
Overall, attractive websites have a lower bounce rate and higher conversion rates. Having an spotless website that has high-quality content and a great user experience will not instantly improve your ranking. However, eventually, it will affect your SEO in positive ways!
Holistic SEO
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Why is SEO important?
Yes, paid advertising, social media, and other several other online platforms can generate traffic to your websites. However, the majority of online traffic to your websites completely is driven by search engines. If your SEO strategy is set up correctly, it will continue to pay dividends over time. If you are able to provide solid pieces of content on your webpages that deserve to rank for the right keywords, your website traffic will eventually snowball over time, whereas advertising on the other hand, needs continuous funding in order to send traffic to your site. Optimizing your site will help you deliver better data and information to search engines so that all of your content can become indexed properly and displayed within search results.
Need help with SEO for your websites blog posts? Feel free to read our blog post titled “How To Blog Effectively in 2021” to learn more!
Should I hire an SEO professional or agency?
Here at Digital Task Force, we provide SEO services that will drive more traffic to your websites by improving search engine ranking. We will work towards implementing the latest SEO techniques to ensure that your website will gain traffic. It is the most cost-effective option to hire an expert who has more experience and knowledge on SEO and who will follow the best methods and practices in order to deliver consistent results. Feel free to read our published blog post to learn more about SEO for your websites metadata. Contact us today! We can’t wait to hear from you.
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