What is SEO? The Basics of SEO Explained

Whenever you punch in your query on Google’s search engine, let’s say you search for the term, “What is digital marketing”, you will be bombarded with a chunk of content offered by a number of websites. 

You may notice a number of websites that rank below one another with one website being ranked 1st, viz, it appears at the top of the page and vice-versa. Now you might be wondering the reason that determines this ranking of the website on the SERP.

This is where SEO enters and is one of the most crucial elements that is taught to the students who pursue a digital marketing course.

Are you curious to find out which institutes offer SEO in their course? Check out this blog on MBA in digital marketing to find out if this course matches your interests or not.

Interesting isn’t it? Let’s dive deeper to explore the ins and outs of SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is the process of working on improving the website in order to increase its visibility, viz, improve the ranking of the website on the search engine results page.

The intent behind ranking higher on the SERP is to improve the probability to get more organic traffic to the website. 

When you produce high-quality content on your blog or website and optimize it with the keywords your audience is looking for then Google will appreciate your efforts and incentivize you in by improving the ranking of your website.

SEO is a very important part of digital marketing which is definitely taught to students who enroll for Post Graduation in digital marketing.

How do these Search Engines Work?

In order for users to find the best answers to their questions, search engines need to discover the best pages to be placed at the top of the search results.

How does Google find the best pages to be presented to the users? Here are the following steps that Google uses in order to find and rank content:

  1. Crawling

It is the process in which Google uses a computer program called “bots” in order to crawl the website and discover new and updated pages.

There should be at least one link that points at your website so that it can facilitate Google to help find your page.

  1. Indexing

Google then has to analyze every component of your page such as the text, images, and video files in order to understand what the page is about.

This information is then stored with the Google Index which serves as a large database for webpages.

  1. Results

Based on the information it has stored Google then checks the quality as well as how relevant is the content for the users of the keyword they had requested. Based on these factors Google determines which website will rank at the top and bottom on the search results.

The only job of you as a website owner is to make it easier for the search engines like Google to crawl and index all the pages of your website that you want them to.

Driving organic traffic with the help of SEO is one of the best skills to make money.

Now that you know how Google crawls and indexes your pages, let’s now take a deeper look to understand the importance of SEO.

Why is SEO so important?

So far you may be very well aware that SEO helps to improve the visibility, i.e., the ranking of your website. The ranking is just one important part of SEO and in fact, there is much more to it.

Let’s understand how each factor mentioned below is more important for your SEO:

  1. Traffic

You need to rank higher on the SERP so that your users can find your page. The page that ranks number 1 at the top of the results page receives 10 times more traffic in the form of clicks as compared to the page that ranks 10th on the results page.

SEO helps you to improve this ranking and hence improve the traffic your website receives organically. It helps to attract relevant people to your page who may eventually even turn out to be your customers

  1. Secure Trust

When you make your page SEO-optimized, Google finds your page more relevant for user’s query and rewards you by improving the rank of your site.

Users who post their queries on search engines generally trust the results that these search engines provide them and if your page ranks higher then it will instill a sense of trust in the user’s mind who will eventually trust this suggestion by Google and click on your page.

  1. Facilitates Growth

SEO is a major contributor to the Growth of your brand. You already know that ranking higher for a high-volume keyword will increase organic traffic to your website.

When you gain more traffic it becomes easier for you to convert those leads into a customer. An SEO-optimized website helps your brand to grow in the form of happy customers sharing your site on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Conclusion

I hope that you have gained some valuable insights through this blog. Remember that you will be able to master the art of SEO through continuous practice. 

Just follow everything that I have mentioned in this blog and I am sure that your efforts will reap benefits. Making high-quality and relevant content is the best way to get started. This will help you to bring out the best in you to make your website rank higher on the search results page.