SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process that helps a website rank on the search results page of a search engine like Google or Bing. When a website page appears on top of the search results page, it gains more attraction. Such websites have a lot of traffic, which in turn helps their business. 

SEO requires some practices which help in having the top ranks in the search engines. Some of these practices are easy to remember and apply, while some of them will become more habitual when you start using them. 

Using these methods is a great way to impress a search engine’s algorithm. With that, website owners and content creators should also focus on their content quality. The internet generation likes engaging, relatable, and funny content. You are putting your feelings out into the world of the internet through your website, and that is admirable. But you should also keep your readers in mind. 

In this article, we have explained the meaning of SEO. You need to understand what it is to make your website SEO friendly. We have also described some tools and techniques that may help your website in ranking and your business is flourishing. 

What is Search Engine Optimization? 

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a small term that has a big impact on your website. An SEO friendly website has greater chances of appearing in top searches on Google, Bing, and other search engines. The higher the rank of a website, the more traffic it will have. 

Many website pages have a top rank on search engines because the owners have chosen to do paid advertisements for their pages. SEO is different from paid advertisement because of that. SEO friendly pages have an organic rank, these websites have used SEO tools in the right manner to have the top rank on search engines. 

It has many types, including:

• On-Page SEO: On-page SEO includes the optimization practices that you do for your website. Whatever you include here is in your control. Writing high-quality content, using headings for a proper format, including tags and categories, adding meta tags, and having proper keywords are a few elements of on-page SEO. 

• Off-Page SEO: Off-page SEO refers to activities you do outside your website to ensure its top ranking. Here, you have to work on some external factors. Social media marketing, customer feedback, using backlinks, help in off-page SEO. 

• Technical SEO: This refers to some technical modifications you do to increase your ranks. technical SEO includes making changes in your website’s index so that the Google algorithm can easily find your website. XML sitemaps and making the website mobile friendly are also a part of technical SEO. 

• International SEO: International search engine optimization refers to the organic traffic that your website gets from other countries and regions of the world. Allowing people to make purchases in their currencies, making relatable content for global audiences are some international SEO practices. 

How Does It Work? 

Search engines have many bots in their system. These bots have the job of hopping from one site to another and collecting information on them. Google bots then take all the information that they’ve collected and put them in indexes. 

After this, the search engine algorithms analyze the contents inside the index. On the basis of many factors, they decide which pages can have the top ranks. The process of search engine optimization is very complex and there are many ranking factors involved to conclude which website pages will have the top ranks.

There are three key elements that play a role in the working of SEO:

• Links on the website: When you include links from other websites in your content, the Google algorithm sees that as a vote of quality. This is because website owners refrain from using links of poor quality in their website content. Therefore, when a website owner acquires a link from a top-quality website, they push their own rank up on Google. This way, your website gains authority, i.e., it gets a higher page rank. 

• Website content:  This is an essential component for search engine optimization and search engines. If your content is not what you are claiming it to be, then the algorithms will not rank it properly. For instance, if your post title says, “Top 10 ways to reduce weight” and the post’s content about weight gaining techniques, then it will be impossible for your website page to get a top rank.

• Website code: Your website pages have an HTML code, and how this code is written helps on your page ranking. Codes should be simple and not complex. The more complex a code is, the slower a page might run.

Search Engine Optimization Techniques

The algorithm of Google updates at least 500 to 600 times a year. This means that by the time you finish writing an article or making a post for your website, Google would have already made another update. This means that you will have to speed yourself up to these updates, you have to use useful search engine optimization techniques to be able to rank. 

Here are some of the techniques you should always keep in mind:

• Include keywords: Keywords are used in written content to give an idea of what the content is about. Keywords can be long and short. They are smartly placed in the content to increase the page’s rank. Using too many keywords altogether is not a good SEO practice. 

• Know the traffic on other pages: When you keep updating new posts on your website page, the old ones are bound to get less attraction and traffic. Updating the old content is a good strategy to keep the readers in the loop with the changes that happened since you last wrote the post. But for many reasons, people do not feel that that content is relatable. You also pay attention to the newer content.

• Write easy to read content: Use small sentences and smaller paragraphs when you are writing. Maintain the quality of the content you post on your website page. Make use of white space to break the paragraphs, put images relevant to your content in this space. 

• Use of semantic markup: The purpose of semantic markup is to describe the content’s meaning on your page. Here, you can include some information about the author, known as the Author Bio. You can also use extra explanatory texts, add images, and allow the readers to review the content through stars. 

Search Engine Optimization Tools

The above-mentioned techniques are helpful to make your website SEO friendly. But using those techniques can be a little difficult. For example, you know how to include keywords in your content, but you do know what the keyword is. When you face difficulties like these, search engine optimization tools prove to be contributive to your page ranking on search engines.  

• Ahrefs: Ahrefs is the most famous website crawler. This search engine optimization tool lets the website owners know where their website needs improvement to rank better on search engines. It also helps you find contents that are in your niche. 

• SEMRush:  SEMRush is a marketing SEO tool. It allows users to assess their website rankings and gives them opportunities to rank better. The Domain vs Domain feature of SEMRush lets you compare your website with your competitor’s. 

• KW Finder: As the name suggests, KW Finder is an SEO tool to find keywords. You can use this tool to find keywords that have a low level of competition. Individuals find this tool helpful because it can suggest the best keywords. 

• Moz Pro: It is widely used by website owners and it is one of the most popular SEO tools. Google algorithm keeps changing and Moz pro always takes notes of those changes. Moz allows you to download MozBar, a free tool to check your website metrics.  

• Woorank: Woorank is a SEO ranking tool. You can use it for free or upgrade it to use its premium features. The tool tracks and reports your marketing data back to you. Woorank also allows its users to know how their website is lacking and what changes can be made. One of its features also lets you know what keywords your competitors are using, so you choose something else that does not overlap with them.  

In Conclusion

The process of search engine optimization is complex and there are many elements to know and take care of. Even a wrong image or a word can lower your website’s rank on search engines.  

When you plan to build an SEO friendly website, know that it is not only your website that will help in the ranking. Obviously, the major part is in your control. But, many external factors also affect the page rankings of your website. Bad reviews from people, clickbait content, difficult to read the text and many more ways exist which can ruin your site’s ranks. 

Search engine algorithms carry out a detailed task to make sure that pages are ranking because they are following the SEO guidelines. Therefore, as a website owner, you should know the techniques you can use to improve your rankings.

Matching the speed of a search engine’s algorithm is not something you can manage to do by yourself, but the internet is full of helpful SEO tools. Using the best SEO software programs will naturally improve your website’s ranking on Google or Bing.