What is SEO?

By: Anna Cave

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and is used to increase traffic to your website organically by helping your site show up in search engine results. 

SEO doesn't just focus on bringing more traffic to your site; it also makes sure the visitors are of quality and on your site for a reason. It doesn't matter how many visitors you have if they don't have a purpose for being there. Obviously attracting more people is great, but you want them to have a genuine interest in your site and what products or services you may be offering.

SEO works to attract people organically, meaning no payment is necessary. You could easily pay for your website to be advertised after a certain search term, but good SEO makes it so your site shows up regardless of payment. This is good for you, because you won't be spending any money on Google Ads. This also helps get users on board and trust that your content will be good. How often have you skipped through the first three search results on Google just because they're ads? By using SEO to make your post stand out without being flagged as an ad, users are more likely to trust you over paid advertisers. 

But how do you even get your website to that spot? So much content is produced on the internet each day, and every day there are more than 3.5 billion searches on Google. Since 91% of that traffic never ends up being found, it is important to build good SEO so your site gains some traction with Google. 

Unfortunately, no one really knows how the SEO algorithm works. There is no magic formula, but there are still some effective ways to get your content seen.

To create good SEO, you need to think like someone who has a problem that your site can fix. People turn to Google for solutions, so your site needs to be phrased like one. There are several paid sites that can help you develop popular key word phrases. If you're not interested in spending money to determine what keywords to use, don't worry. Just think of phrases you might search if you were looking for something similar and include them in your content.

It is important to note that stuffing a bunch of random keywords on to your site isn't going to get you anywhere. Google only wants to show its users content that will actually help them, so make sure any keywords you use flow naturally and have relevant content surrounding them. This kind of SEO is called on-page SEO. Through key words, it lets Google know you have the answers search engine users are looking for. Developing good on-site SEO leads to higher domain authority, which produces and sends signals to Google that lets them know your content is useful to others. Another way to increase credibility in the eyes of Google is to use backlinks, which is where other sites link to your content in their articles. A lot of backlinking requires communication with people who produce content similar to yours so that you can encourage them to link to your content. If you can show Google that you are being used as a reference, you'll move up in the rankings. Similarly, you can also use internal links to connect articles among your site. If you have articles that are relevant to keywords you are mentioning in other articles, go ahead and link them together so when people look to find more information, they'll still be on your site.

Now that we've learned how SEO works and ways it can be implemented, it is important to note that SEO takes between 6 and 12 months to be effective. Don't shy away from that long timeline though— SEO still has its benefits. SEO helps reach people in the long run and overtime becomes better than ads because you'll still appear at the top of the search results even when your ad campaign is complete. 

This just skims the basics of SEO. There are many techniques and elements to implement to your site that go beyond keywords and linking. Ahrefs is an SEO toolset that has resources to teach people how to use SEO, and they have a great video about SEO for beginners that covers more tips and tricks for boosting SEO.