WHAT IS SEO?
SEO, abbreviated for Search Engine Optimization is an organizing system of strategies, techniques, and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page(SERP) of a search engine — including Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines.
HOW DOES SEO WORK?
Different search engines recommend different things. Google says one thing, Bing advises another thing, and so does Yahoo. While the Search Engine Optimization works based on algorithms updates, search marketing, backlinks, and content marketing, to understand the complete circle of SEO is a little too overwhelming. Besides, there are SEO services that, without giving any clear insight of Search Engine Optimization, suggest methodologies that are either black or grey hat optimization, or which are complete contrary to what search engines are looking for.
Here, we are going to clear some doubts about how SEO works, without any robotic language.
SEO WORKS ON THE GROUNDWORK OF LINKS
If you have been studying about Search Engine Optimization, you are probably familiar with the word ‘backlink’. In simplest words, backlinks are links of one website on the other. These are referrals of a web page, or a website on other web pages of other websites. These referrals are the building blocks of SEO. Backlinks help a website get a higher rank on search engines, including Google.
While, earlier, it was much easier to get in attention of search engine crawlers with even low-quality backlinks, having just any backlinks will no more work anymore. With the new Penguin Algorithm, it has become important that SEO pay attention to the quality of their backlinks by linking their web pages to authoritative, relevant, and quality sites. For example, if you have a website dealing with art and craft products, and you link it with a website of fishes and marine life, the backlinks will be of no use.
If done rightly, backlinks help with,
- Improving organic searches
- Faster indexing
- Increasing traffic through referral traffic
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR BACKLINKS?
Several techniques together make effective and result-oriented SEO. These techniques include,
- Ask for a backlink. In case someone you know has a website that is shares the niche of your website, or holds relevancy, ask for a backlink.
- Participate in online communities through regular comments and posts that are related to your niche. Build relationships through forums, blogs, and social networking/groups. Make sure the content you share is original, interesting, and relevant for qualitative link building.
- Use a testimonial link. It will increase traffic, get you a quality backlinks, and you will get more potential attention than you will get from emails.
- Content marketing through regular blogs and articles bring in backlinks and traffic for the website. Maintain the quality of the content by making it relevant, helpful, and useful for your clients. Post on regular basis.
- Get your website listen on trusted directories such as Yahoo directory, Open Directory and DMOZ. In addition, register your website on smaller but niche specified directories.
- Sponsor sites in exchange of getting links.
- Use keywords in the text of your hyperlinks.
While these techniques are sure to bring you worthy backlinks, several tools can also help in link building.
The importance of these free SEO tools do not limit to link building, they also help in tracking the status of your links.
WHY DO YOU NEED SEO?
Having been discussed the benefits and techniques of link building; we now know that it is no easy task. With different search engines, different algorithms, and several big competitors, bringing your website a higher rank is an uphill run. However, it is essential. Anyone thinking SEO as an expense, useless, or even a trivial task is only pushing his/her site into failure.
SEO is an important investment that,
- Brings traffic to the website
- Increases sales/leads/conversions
- Provides measurable and trackable results
- Increases site usability
- Popularizes and boosts awareness
SEO IS COST-EFFECTIVE
SEO is also cost effective as compared to other marketing strategies. It maintains relevancy by only targeting those who are actively looking for your products/services. The inbound nature of Search Engine Optimization helps you to save money contradictory to outbound marketing strategies like cold calling. Though, undeniably, cold calling strategies may affect your business positively, the generated leads cost approximately 60% more than inbound strategies such as SEO. Additionally, when SEO targets the traffic that was actively looking for services or products such as yours, the traffic generated by SEO strategies is more qualified when compared to other marketing tactics.
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