What is SEO? A plain-English guide to search engine optimization
Contents · 5 sections
SEO, short for search engine optimization, is a set of techniques and tactics that help a website rank near the top of search results.
It’s essential if you want your site to get more visibility and organic traffic. That’s why SEO has become one of the most effective and widely used online marketing strategies, and your business can benefit from it too.
To get the results you want, you need to follow a few rules and guidelines. Here are the most important ones.
What is SEO?
First, keep in mind that SEO is a process, not a one-time setup. Don’t expect to make a few small tweaks to your site and see results overnight. You need to work with a clear purpose and meet search engines’ requirements to earn the top spots.
The main goal of SEO is to bring in traffic from the so-called “organic” results in search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. You get there by optimizing your website in a number of ways.
Traditionally, that means choosing the right site structure and information architecture, picking a CMS (content management system), building backlinks, editing content with SEO in mind, social signals and more.
What are search engines actually looking for?
Search engines want to send users to the content that best matches what they searched for. So when you build or optimize a website, you need to think about a few things: content, performance, authority (links) and the overall user experience.
Search engine algorithms come down hard on websites that use unapproved techniques (known as “black hat” SEO). You’re much better off following their recommendations and sticking to approved techniques (“white hat” SEO).
Otherwise, your rankings can drop. Your site could even be removed from a search engine’s index entirely, which means people won’t find it at all. You definitely don’t want that, because it would do serious damage to your online business. My advice: be sensible and stick to the official guidelines.
A short history of SEO
Website optimization started in the mid-1990s, and back then it was pretty simple. All you had to do was submit your page to the search engines. They would send a “spider” to “crawl” the site, pull out its links and keywords and index what it found.
Site owners soon realized how valuable it was to show up in search results, because it brought in new visitors. It also made their brands better known and gave their sites a chance to become an authority in their niche.
That set off a long chain of changes that brought SEO to where it is today. And search engines keep changing their algorithms to give users the most relevant answers. That’s why websites today need to stay flexible and respond quickly to new requirements if they want to improve and hold their rankings.
SEO for Google
Google is the largest and most widely used search engine in the world. According to 2021 data, about 90% of all searches worldwide go through Google. We see the same trend in Bulgaria, so it’s very important that your website meets the tech giant’s requirements.
Google’s first (and most important) “preference” is high-quality, original content. So your first task should be keyword research, which will show you how to bring more traffic to your site. Get to know your users well, then create engaging, useful content that answers their questions and sparks their interest.
When you optimize your website for Google, you also need to improve the site structure at every level, optimize your content (titles, keywords, text, images), make good use of analytics (Google Analytics), and pay attention to site quality and promotion. Earning backlinks from authoritative sites is another big factor in reaching the top positions.
What makes a website great?
When it comes to brand recognition, one of the main goals of any business, mediocrity is not an option. If you want results, aim for the best and don’t settle for less. A great website takes more than SEO. The key ingredients of an effective website include:
Look
Never forget that your website may be the first (if not the only) impression a potential customer gets of your business. An attractive site is more likely to hold their attention longer. According to Google, a visitor should stay on your website for at least 10 seconds. Anything shorter counts as an irrelevant visit and pushes your bounce rate up.
Content
Your site’s look certainly helps attract visitors. But what keeps them there is the information they find. With no salespeople or advisors like a regular store has, your customers will rely mostly on your website’s content to decide whether to buy. Make sure it’s informative, useful and interesting.
Functionality
Even if your website looks great and is packed with interesting information, it won’t be usable if some parts are poorly built (broken links, for example). Worse, they’ll undo the good impression your great design and style made on customers.
Usability
This is a key part of every great website. It means simplicity, fast-loading pages, logical navigation, compatibility with different platforms and browsers, and a responsive design that works well on every kind of phone and mobile device.
SEO has changed a lot over the past decade, and it keeps changing all the time. That’s why your approach to SEO shapes how customers see you and your business.
Think of SEO as a way to build your brand, not as an attempt to game the search engines. Remember that the real goal of optimizing your website isn’t to land in the top spots in search results. It’s to make sure your customers are happy with what they find on your site.
I recommend working with specialists who know this process inside out and can offer you quality, professional SEO services, so you can get the results you’re after.
Petar Dyaksov
Entrepreneur and founder of a digital agency, in e-commerce since 2009. He grows online businesses such as Fragrances.bg and Timedix and shares his experience as a speaker, moderator and mentor at nearly 80 conferences and trainings.
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