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Search engine optimization (SEO for short) is a set of practices used to improve a website's visibility on search engines. It involves optimising a website or a webpage to make it easily discoverable by search engines like Google. The goal of SEO is to improve a site's ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) and increase organic traffic to the site.
Types of SEO
There are 3 main types of SEO.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO refers to SEO efforts carried out on a website's webpages. The pillars of on-page SEO are keywords, internal and external links, meta descriptions, alt texts, and so on.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO involves the SEO work done away from a website. This type of SEO is usually done on other websites, on social media, etc. Off-page SEO efforts include using backlinks and building a strong brand reputation online.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO has little to do with the site's content itself, but focuses more on elements that contribute to the website user's overall experience. These include the website's load times, the existence of a site security certificate, an XML sitemap, a Robots.txt file, etc.
SEO vs SEM vs PPC
SEO is one part of a trinity of search marketing tactics. The other two parts are search engine marketing (SEM) and pay-per-click (PPC). These three terms can be confusing to many people, mostly because they often try to differentiate all three. However, there's very little difference between them.
SEO is an aspect of search marketing that involves the gradual optimization of a website to meet the highest search engine indexing standards for maximum visibility. It is free (technically, speaking) and can be a slow and sometimes difficult process.
PPC, as the name implies, is not free. PPC is paid SEO. It involves brands paying a search engine to place their ad at the top of search results for certain keywords, as opposed to reaching the top of the SERP organically. All the search results captured in the screenshot below carry "Sponsored" tags. These tags mean that the brands paid to have their ads displayed at the top of the results page. This is PPC.
SEM is the lasso that ties both SEO and PPC together as search marketing techniques. It is the umbrella term for any form of marketing done using search engines.
Why is SEO important?
The SEO industry is a hundred-billion-dollar industry and is projected to grow to over $122 billion by 2028. With billions of online searches being conducted globally everyday and organic searches accounting for 53% of all searches, SEO is a huge deal. SEO also transcends traditional search engines like Google and Bing. An increasing number of people now perform searches on social media platforms and online retailers.
Here are some interesting stats to put the numbers into perspective:
- 61% of online shopping searches in the U.S. start on Amazon; 49% on traditional search engines
- 32% start on Walmart.com; 20% on Youtube
- Facebook and Instagram take 19% and 15% respectively of initial searches for products online
What these numbers reflect is an incredible reliance of consumers on search engines for finding products. As a business, getting your brand to the front of herd can significantly boost website traffic and sales.
However, it is impossible to get to the top of the pile without SEO. The top ranking site on Google for any search query typically gets 40% to 60% of the clicks. The site that ranks second gets significantly less. Sites that end up on the second page of Google's SERP get only 2% to 3% of the traffic for their search queries.
But while 2% and 3% seem like small numbers, they add up to a significant amount of traffic since Google alone receives more than 3.5 billion search queries per day. The SEO pie is a very large one and even making it to the second page of Google can do wonders for a website's traffic. It's no wonder 49% of digital marketing experts say organic search has the highest ROI of all digital marketing channels.
What are the Benefits of SEO?
Having great SEO is beneficial to brands and businesses in many ways.
1. Increases revenue
Great SEO begets great traffic. The higher up a website ranks in search results, the greater the volume of organic traffic it receives. More traffic means more ad revenue and possibly more sales.
2. Builds trust
Content that ranks high on search engines is considered credible content. Consistently showing up at the top of SERPs proves that your website contains useful information and is a source that users can trust.
3. Widens reach
SEO is a great way for brands to reach new customers. Ranking high for certain keywords introduces your brand to new customers who go online to search for those keywords.
4. Saves cost
SEO is relatively inexpensive when compared with other forms of marketing. A brand with the right amount of motivation can invest the time to create and execute its own SEO strategies without needing to hire SEO experts.
5. Maximizes efficiency
It's been more than a hundred years since John Wanamaker said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." Those words hold true in traditional advertising to this day. With SEO, it's a little different. The existence of SEO analytics tools like Google Analytics means that brands can see which keywords and pages customers engaged with. Brands can use these comprehensive data to measure the effectiveness of their SEO strategies and improve their efficiency.
Google SEO Tools
These SEO tools from Google are a great place to start.
1. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is an essential technical SEO tool. Use Google Search Console for tracking Core Web Vitals, for indexing, and for granular query analyses.
2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics measures website traffic and website performance. It tracks activities like how much time a user spends on a webpage, what areas on the page they interact with the most, and averages how many webpages users visit per session.
3. Google Trends
Google Trends tracks trends and popular topics from various regions across the globe. It also tracks how much interest in a particular topic has fared over time from as far back as 2004.
4. Google Keyword Planner
This is Google's keyword research tool. The tool is free for users with an active Google Ads account. Google Keyword Planner displays important data including average monthly searches for a keyword, 30-day search trends, and keyword competitiveness.
SEO Techniques
SEO techniques are broadly categorized into white hat SEO, black hat SEO, and grey hat SEO.
1. White Hat SEO
White hat SEO practices are compliant with search engines' guidelines. They are human-centric and prioritize creating content with the end-user in mind. White hat SEO includes practises like writing with good spellings and grammar, using well-labelled images, writing only content that is relevant to the site's overall subject, using only relevant links, and so on.
2. Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO uses unethical practices to try and game search engine algorithms. These practises focus solely on improving SERP rankings without any consideration for the user's experience on a website. Employing black hat SEO tactics can get a website banned. Examples of black hat SEO tactics are using duplicate content across multiple webpages, using hidden texts, keyword stuffing, cloaking, using irrelevant links, etc.
3. Grey Hat SEO
Grey hat SEO sits in the grey area between white hat SEO and black hat SEO. It is done by combining white hat SEO and black hat SEO tactics. For example, creating valuable content, but buying backlinks to the content instead of gaining them organically. Engaging in grey hat SEO tactics can get a website penalized.
