Understanding SEO Basics


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How search engine optimization works

This guide on SEO is a great starting point to help your < vital>search engine optimization efforts. With the information in this SEO starter guide, you should now better understand how SEO works and the steps you must take to succeed with your website in search engines.

The question of how SEO works can be difficult to answer. SEO, also known as search engine optimization, is defined by Search Engine Land as follows:

“It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.”

Driving search engine traffic is not hard, but it does take a lot of work to make it happen. All of the suggestions discussed in this SEO guide help you break down the process into manageable chunks. Remember that not all websites need every step in this guide. However, a good percentage of websites can use the strategies here to have an optimized website for helping search engines, and people find your website.

SEO Terminology

Here’s a short list of important SEO terms used in this guide:

  1. Index: Search engines, like Google, look for webpages that match your query. It does this by looking up your terms in their index, and searching for websites that most closely match the information you require.
  2. Crawl: The method search engines use for looking for new and updated content and web pages. Search engines, like Google, find these pages by crawling URLs via links, sitemaps, and social media signals. If search engines determine the content is good enough, they will submit it to their index.
  3. Crawler / Spider: Automated software that fetches web pages from the open internet and adds them to their index.

The goal of search engine optimization (SEO)

The ultimate goal of search engine optimization is to improve your site’s ranking so that you can bring the right people in from search engines. After all, 81% of businesses research their purchases on search engines. Additionally, 61% read product reviews before making a purchase.

As a webmaster, marketing professional, or business owner, it is natural to devote time, money, and resources to SEO. You can generate free, targeted, organic traffic to your website through the right process. While this sounds simple enough, three words in SEO deserve most of your attention: the right process.

Do you need an SEO company?

Regarding SEO, search engine algorithms are always changing. SEO strategies that work today may not work tomorrow. And what works tomorrow will not likely produce results a few years in the future. Because of the fluctuations in SEO factors, sometimes its makes sense to hire an SEO professional, versus learning SEO.

Business owners need more quality search engine traffic to drive leads and clients. The challenge comes from not having a complete grasp of how SEO works because you’re not in the industry.

So many people using search engines to research their products make it an essential part of your marketing strategy. How then can you find a good SEO company to help you with your search strategy? While there is no secret sauce to finding the right SEO company, below we go through a few recommended steps as well as what to avoid.

  1. Recommended Steps to Find a Good SEO Company
  2. Ultimate Guide to SEO Success Factors

If you’re considering hiring an SEO company, SEO Mechanic makes SEO happen, from the content to the code. We know the on-site, local, and technical SEO factors that improve site traffic and deliver higher rankings on all search engines.

Other benefits of SEO

Here are some other benefits of search engine optimization:

  1. Cost Effective – SEO has been proven to be one of the most cost-effective forms of online marketing, delivering a higher return over time.
  2. Stand Out – SEO can make your brand stronger, better, and well-recognized. People should find you at the top of search results.
  3. Drive Sales – Today, more sales offline are driven by research initiated on the Web. Open the flood gates, and traffic keeps flowing.
  4. Targeted Prospects – SEO can attract targeted prospects to your website and increase conversion rates by delivering the exact solution to the problems they are facing. There’s a better way to market your business; we’re here to help.

In the next section on how SEO works, we’ll discuss the following elements: SEO, Local SEO, and Technical SEO.

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