What is SEO? The Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization

What is SEO?

Are you new to SEO? 

You may have already heard about the importance of SEO.

Want to know what SEO and other search engine optimization basics are? You are in the right place.

Before you start hiring others or investing money in SEO-related activities, it's always a good idea to know the basics first. This way, not only will you understand how it works, but you will also be spending your time and money on the RIGHT aspects of SEO.

Here's what you'll learn in this guide:

• How is SEO different from SEM and PPC?
• Why do you need SEO
• Different Types of SEO
• SEO Truths
• Important SEO Metrics and More

Are you ready ? Let's get into the details.

What is SEO? Definition, Examples, Types and More

What is SEO?

The acronym SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website and its content with the goal of achieving higher search engine rankings for a specific key phrase.

SEO is the process of improving a website's ranking in the organic (non-paid) listings of search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Good SEO will improve your website's organic visibility in search engines so that you can attract qualified visitors to your website. site (free).

How does SEO work?

SEO is constantly evolving. What worked ten years ago won't work today and what works today might not work after a year.

So let’s see a broader perspective of what is happening when it comes to SEO in the current scenario. There are generally three components that search engines like Google use to rank a web page in search results:

1. exploration
2. indexation
3. Service

Let's briefly talk about each of them so that you can better understand these steps.

1. Exploration: Search engines like Google use robots (also called spiders or crawlers) that crawl websites and all web pages on the web.

2. Indexing: in this step, after crawling, Google bots analyze the content of the page and store this content in their index (which are huge databases from which the content can then be retrieved).

Quick note: If you have updated a blog post or page on your website and it is not indexed, Google will show the old version of that page in search results.

3. Service: Once crawling and indexing is complete, Google will serve the results to users (which are pulled from its database that contains billions of web pages and data).

How is SEO different from SEM and PPC? 

In search engine optimization, you'll often hear two common things: SEM and PPC.

First of all, SEM and PPC are NOT the same. Here's a quick overview of both;

• SEM (Search Engine Marketing, which includes paid and unpaid methods)
• PPC (Pay-Per-Click, which ONLY includes paid ads in search engines)

SEM vs. SEO

SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. This involves using all activities to improve your search rankings for your target keywords. SEM can be both paid and unpaid.

SEM is your best choice if you are looking for a QUICKER way to get your website in front of people who are already looking for what you have to offer.

For example, when you search for “best email marketing software” on Google, you will find a few paid ads at the top of the page. 

Likewise, advertisers who pay for these ads also write blog posts on email marketing software (in order to generate free traffic). 

What can you learn from the example above? Zaho uses SEM, because it uses paid ads, and also ranks for its target keyword on the first page.

Advantages of SEM:

• SEM is a good option if you want to see results quickly. You can start driving traffic to your website once your ads are approved. 
• You can use SEO and SEM channels together. For example, you can use SEM to drive traffic to your website while you work on improving your SEO. Once your SEO starts to improve, you can reduce your investment in SEM.
• The ability to monitor the performance of your paid ads and make adjustments as necessary.
• SEM provides long-term benefits because you will also put in SEO efforts that can lead to long-term benefits, such as improving your website's ranking, credibility, and authority. 

Disadvantages of SEM:

• SEM can be expensive, especially when you're bidding on competitive, HIGH CPC keywords.

PPC vs. SEO

PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click. This is a type of PAID search marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time a user clicks on their ad. PPC is the most common type of SEM, but not the only one.

Let’s take the same keyword example, “best email marketing software.”

This is what PPC ads look like:

As you can see above, businesses MUST pay Google to have their ads appear in these TOP locations because they know that people searching for that keyword will likely be interested in purchasing e-marketing software. -mail.

In conclusion, SEM is a broader term that includes all paid and unpaid search marketing activities while PPC is a part of SEM that ONLY involves paid advertisements. 

Whereas SEO involves ONLY FREE organic traffic where you will need to rank for keywords.

Benefits of PPC:

• You will get fast results and you can set ANY budget depending on the keywords you want to target.
• You can set daily or monthly ad spend based on PPC ad performance.
• PPC provides access to HIGH targeting options, such as demographics, interests, keywords, and location. This means you can reach a very specific audience.
• With PPC ads, you can find out what exactly works because you'll get detailed analytics and conversion tracking.
• More flexibility since you can modify ad creatives or pause campaigns whenever you want
• This can help you increase your brand's overall organic visibility and create awareness, even if users don't click on your ads. 

Disadvantages of PPC:

• This can be expensive, as it only involves paid clicks. This means that you will have to pay for each click that comes from search engines like Google.

Why is SEO important in 2024?

Why should you consider doing SEO? Is it really worth it? Let's find out.

Did you know that the #1 organic result generates 10 times more clicks than a page ranked in position #10?

Here's another cool thing: the top THREE organic search results get over 50% of all clicks.

This is why your business needs SEO.

Imagine ranking in the top three search results for competitive and relevant keywords in your industry. You will generate HUGE amounts of traffic and sales for FREE.

You need SEO to rank your web pages in the top search results. Simply put, if you ignore SEO, you leave all the traffic, leads, and profits to your competitors who are already doing it.

Here is a brief overview of the benefits of using SEO for your business;

• More traffic : By optimizing your website for relevant keywords, you can attract more organic traffic. Plus, you don't have to pay anything for this traffic because SEO traffic is 100% FREE.
• Best conversions: our blog gets better conversions because we rely MAINLY on SEO for traffic. SEO helps you improve your website's user experience and attract HIGHLY targeted visitors from Google, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates.
• Brand awareness : What happens when you rank for many keywords related to your business? People will recognize your brand. When people see your website ranking highly in Google searches, they are more likely to remember and trust your brand.
• More sales: The reason why businesses spend a lot on SEO related areas like website design, Content marketing, etc., is that it helps you generate highly qualified leads who are already interested in what you have to offer. Ultimately, this helps you increase your website sales.
• BEST long-term return on investment: no matter what we spent on SEO over the last 13 years, we generated 3-5 times more revenue. SEO is a long-term game offering excellent long-term ROI. Over time, your website's organic traffic and sales will only increase.

Want more details? You can discover these incredible benefits of SEO in 2024.

Different Types of SEO

SEO is an ocean. There are many ways to optimize your website to improve its search rankings. 

Here are some of the different types of SEO that you can learn and implement for better rankings.

On-page SEO: it's about optimizing the elements of your website that are within your control, such as your website content, title tags, meta descriptions, images, page speed, user experience , etc. The key to on-page optimization is to write high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience.

Off-page SEO: optimizing elements of your website that are outside of your control, such as backlinks, social signals like Facebook shares, tweets, etc. Try to build high-quality backlinks from other websites and promote your content on social media.

Technical SEO: optimize technical aspects of your website, such as site structure, website crawlability, mobile friendliness, improving Core Web Vitals score, etc. It's about creating an easy-to-use website structure, optimizing the loading of your pages. times and create a mobile-friendly design for your website.

Local SEO: the practice of optimizing a website for local search results. This involves creating a Google My Business profile, optimizing your website for local keywords, and getting reviews from local customers.

eCommerce SEO: This is the process of optimizing e-commerce websites for search results. This includes optimizing product pages, category pages, and the checkout process.

Besides the above types of SEO, there are also many other SPECIFIC specializations, such as business SEO, app SEO, video SEO, etc.

So, what type of SEO should you use? It ultimately depends on your website traffic goals, your industry, and the keywords you're targeting. 

Must read: 11 Types of SEO: What They Are and How to Use Them Like a Pro

10 truths about SEO

The fundamentals of search engine optimization can be boiled down to the 3 Cs;

• Content (your content should be useful and engaging)
• Code (it should be simple and easy for search engines to crawl your site)
• Credibility (you need credibility with other sites in the form of links)

Here are some essential SEO truths you should know in 2024 and beyond.

1. SEO isn't just about following a bunch of tips and techniques. It's about understanding how search engines like Google rank websites and create a website optimized primarily for users.
2. SEO is a long-term strategy. It's a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time and effort to get decent results. There is no miracle solution.
3. SEO is constantly evolving. Many latest SEO trends are emerging. What worked a few years ago will no longer work today. This is because search engines are constantly updating their algorithms. So you need to stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices.
4. Backlinks are EXTREMELY important. Google gives a lot of weight to websites that have relevant, quality links pointing to them. This is why authority websites often rank in the top three search results, even with average content.
5. SEO is more about using an SEO tool or plugin. Yes, they can be helpful, but they are not a silver bullet. You need to create high-quality content and build links regularly to rank in search engines.
6. It is not easy to rank a website, especially a new website that has no backlinks. You need to build your authority by creating useful content, links, and improving your social signals.
7. Good SEO involves creating content for users, not search engines. You mainly need to create content for users. Create content that satisfies user intent. 
8. SEO can be profitable and save you a lot of money than paid advertising, especially in the long run. It can also generate the highest ROI in terms of leads, traffic and sales. 
9. Duplicate content will NOT penalize your website in search results! But thin, mediocre content does NOT rank well. Stop rehashing content. Be unique, be useful and add value to your content.
10. Backlinks from high authority websites carry more weight. Your rankings will likely increase if you build a backlink from a high DA website (80+). It is better to create ONE link from an authority site than to create 10 links from low authority sites. This is because Google takes into account the authority of the linking website to determine the value of a link.

Important SEO Metrics

Whether you're implementing new SEO techniques or investing in SEO to increase your site's organic traffic, there are a few things you should keep in mind. important SEO indicatorss . 

• Total clicks: total number of times your website was clicked in search results.
• Average CTR : Organic CTR tells you if a user is interested enough to even click on a website when it appears in Google search. This is a good metric to track because it shows you how relevant your site is to the keywords people are searching for.
• Pages per session: Average number of pages viewed by your website visitors per session. This is a good measure of your website engagement.
• Keyword Ranking: your website's position in search results for specific keywords. The higher your keyword rankings, the more search traffic you will generate.
• New backlinks:  number of new links to a website from other websites. Try to create as many new links as possible from various referring domains to improve your search rankings.
• Page loading time: the time it takes for a page on your website to load. You can use Google PageSpeed ​​Insights to easily measure this metric. A fast page load time is important for both users and search engines.
• Mobile traffic: percentage of website visitors who use mobile devices to visit your site. 50% of search users use smartphones, so it's important to make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
• New and returning visitors: This is another important SEO metric that shows the percentage of your website visitors who are visiting for the first time versus those who have visited before.

So, which of the above SEO metrics are most important? 

It's important to follow all of these steps, but some are more important than others. 

For example, if you're trying to improve your website's user experience, tracking page load time is important because users are more likely to leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Enough said! Now let's discuss a PROVEN strategy to improve your search engine traffic.

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A 5-Step SEO Plan to Improve Your Search Rankings as a Beginner in 2024

So far we have discussed what SEO is and how it works, now let's talk about an essential SEO plan that every beginner should implement for better search rankings in 2024.

Step 1. Create Extremely Useful Content

Content is king. You cannot rank higher without quality content.

What is good content anyway?

Quality content is content that makes people stop whatever they're doing to read it, share it, and act on it. You need to create content that is useful, engaging, and informative (or entertaining).

One of the effective ways to create quality content is to spend more time on research and create in-depth content.

Did you know that Google prefers content-rich sites?

According to SerpIQ, the first result usually contains 2 words and the 416th result contains 10 words.

So what did you understand? Google gives higher rankings to in-depth content. So, if you want to rank on the first page, learn how to create very useful and detailed content (at least 2 words or more).

There are other benefits to creating long-form content as well, including:

• Improved dwell time (the time users spend on your site)
• You will attract more backlinks
• Longer content gets more social shares
• RankBrain rewards long-form content (RankBrain is Google's third most important ranking factor)

That being said, keyword research is extremely important before creating a blog post. Keyword research is the process of finding words and phrases that people use in search engines like Google.

Make sure to focus on researching long-tail keywords if you are just starting out as a blogger.

Long-tail keywords are easier to rank for and they send you highly qualified visitors from search engines.

Long-tail keywords have less competition and higher conversion rates than short-tail keywords.

Take a look at the following illustration to understand the difference.

As you can see above, phrases longer than 4 words (which are long tail keywords) have low competition but they produce higher conversions.

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing your blog posts and pages for your target keywords. On-page optimization helps you rank higher for your targeted keywords in search engines like Google.

Tools for on-page SEO: If you use WordPress, there are a ton of tools that can help you optimize the page, but the following two plugins are highly recommended.

1. Rank Math SEO: We recently switched to Rank Math (previously we used the premium version of Yoast SEO). Rank Math allows you to optimize your posts for an unlimited number of keywords per post. Simply choose your targeted keywords and this plugin tells you where to insert your keywords for better search rankings.

2. WordPress SEO by Yoast: Yoast SEO is one of the most popular SEO plugins downloaded by millions of users worldwide. It helps you with on-page SEO, XML sitemaps, and more. Its premium version offers even more features.

Step 2. Website navigation is important

From your website's sidebar to your site's footer to your site's search bar, your website's navigation is extremely important.

How search engine bots and website users navigate your site plays a key role in your search rankings (and your user experience).

If your website visitors don't find what they are looking for when they visit your site, they will simply abandon your site without wasting any time.

Here's a general rule to remember: your website's navigation structure should allow anyone to visit any page on your site and find what they need in 3 clicks.

• This means that if someone wants to visit your contact page, they should be able to find it in 3 clicks.
• If someone wants to buy a particular product on your site, they should find it in 3 clicks
• If someone wants to sign up for your mailing list, they should be able to do so in 3 clicks

Do you get it?

Here are some helpful tips for making your website's navigation structure simple for both your website users and search engine crawlers.

Use a navigation menu: If you look at our blog home page, you will notice a navigation menu. 

Almost all pages and blog posts can be discovered from this navigation menu.

From our premium products like eBooks to various categories, popular articles, contact page information, everything can be found in our navigation menu.

Most website templates and themes allow you to display a navigation menu on your site, so be sure to use it for easier access for your website users.

Use your footer wisely: your footer is as important as the header navigation of your site. You can also simplify your footer section by simply listing social media profiles to follow, your most important posts, etc. As your blog grows, you can make more changes and include more links, like we did for better search crawling.

Implement a SILO structure: Silo site structure helps you organize your website content into different categories and subcategories. A silo structure helps Google search bots easily determine the relevance of each post on your blog based on your keywords.

Here is an illustration of a deep silo structure.

So how can you implement it? Simply divide the main topic of your blog into multiple categories so you can create specific blog posts for each category.

Step 3. Create Highly Relevant Backlinks

According to a survey carried out by Moz , more than 37% of business owners spend between $10 and $000 per month on external link building.

Hands down, link building is the #1 ranking factor on Google. If you want to rank higher for your keywords, you need more links. It's that simple.

Most people think that link building is difficult. That’s why they never spend time building links. It's not rocket science either. That being said, here are the top 3 persistent ways to create relevant, high-quality backlinks in any niche.

1. Write guest posts for others: la guest post is the permanent strategy for creating highly relevant links. But you need a proper guest posting strategy to start building links because you can't just spam other people's inboxes with your guest posting pitches.

Make sure you find the right blogs in your industry to start your guest blogging journey. So how do you find relevant guest posting sites in your niche? You can use the following Google search strings to find relevant blogs and websites in your niche to write articles. Guest articles.

• [your subject] “write for us”
• [your subject] “becoming an author”
• [your subject] “guest post”
• [your topic] “guest post”

You can also check out this article where you can find more 350 guest blog sites in so many niches.

2. Steal your competitors’ backlinks: Your competitors are your main sources of link building. If used correctly, you can spy on your competitors' sites to start building smart.

So how do you steal backlinks from your competitors? You can use competing search tools like Semrush.

Once you are on Semrush, go to Backlink Analytics under the Link Building tool and enter any domain (like your competitors').

As you can see above, the SEMrush link building tool instantly gives us a brief overview of your competitors' domain backlink profile.

Once you click on their Backlinks section, you will be presented with a list of all the sources of their backlinks.

This is what it looks like;

Look at this? Once you know the sources of backlinks from any domain, you can use various link building strategies such as blogger outreach, broken link building, guest posting, etc. to acquire these links to your site.

3. Build relationships: Most people underestimate the power of relationship building. If done right, building strong relationships with other bloggers can be very helpful. The key here is to network with everyone including;

• Influencers in your industry
• A list of bloggers
• New bloggers
• Influential micro bloggers

Make sure you make a list of 20-30 (or more) sites in your area and start doing the following things to build relationships.

• Send emails frequently (to compliment their work or suggest something useful to their audience)
• Buy their products (and shout out on social media)
• Subscribe to their mailing lists
• Leave thoughtful comments on their blogs
• Write guest posts for them

Do everything you can to build strong relationships with other bloggers (including linking to their blog posts). Sooner or later they will do the same for you – not everyone, but at least a few bloggers will do the same for you.

Step 4. Page Speed ​​Matters

Increasing your page speed can result in a 25% increase in page views.

The speed of your website matters a lot.

If your website takes more than 2-3 seconds to load, it may affect your overall results.

According to Web Tribunal , here are some interesting page speed statistics.

• A 11 second delay reduces page views by XNUMX%
• A 7-second delay reduces conversion rate by XNUMX%
• 1-3 seconds of loading time results in a very low probability of bounce rate – only 32%
• On an annual basis, a one-second delay can result in a $2,5 million loss in revenue if your store generates $100 per day.

First and foremost, page speed is a Google ranking factor. This means that you will notice that your page's organic ranking increases if your page loads faster and decreases if it takes too long to load.

Quick note: Are you looking to increase the loading times of your pages? Read our detailed tutorial on speeding up WordPress sites where you'll discover a ton of practical ways to improve your site speed.

So focus on improving your overall website speed and page load times.

Did you know that your web hosting plays a HUGE role in your site speed?

Yes, it's true.

Step 5. Track your SEO results

Yes, SEO gets complicated every year. So, the only way to get rewarding results from search engines like Google is to focus on creating quality content rather than quantity and putting your users as top priority.

Always remember one thing: SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Read it again!

If you want to get the best search engine results, you need to plan for the long term. Don't expect results overnight. Don't Buy Thousands of Backlinks on Fiverr Gigs , because they will not help you in any way.

Make sure you track your SEO results.

You can use tools like SEMrush to create projects so you can track everything from your organic keywords, keyword positions, backlink growth, new content ideas, and more.

If you are considering tracking your SEO results, here are some of the things you need to track.

• Organic traffic growth
• Keyword Ranking
• Average time on page and bounce rate
• Best Landing Pages That Attract Organic Traffic
• Link growth (including new and lost links)

While there are a ton of other aspects you can track, the above are essential. By keeping an eye on the above, you will understand your audience behavior, what type of content to create, how to build backlinks, etc.

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SEO Definition FAQ

Here are answers to some common SEO questions.

Relevant resources for SEO beginners:

• Link Building Awareness: A Simple Beginner’s Guide to 2024
• Link recovery: What is it? How to Recover Lost Backlinks in 2024
• Buying Backlinks: Everything You Need to Know About Paid Links in 2024
• 8 Best Link Building Tools to Find Link Opportunities in 2024
• Things to Balance When Doing SEO: 5 Important Things
• 10 Highest Paid SEO Tools That Are Worth Every Penny
• Future of SEO: 5 Trends That Will Impact Your Website Ranking
• What is timeless content? Beginner's guide with practical tips
• 10 Best Link Building Tools to Find Link Opportunities 

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Final Thoughts on SEO Basics

By learning good SEO, you can increase your search visibility. By increasing your search visibility, you can attract more visitors, which ultimately leads to more conversions and sales.

So make sure you learn and implement the basics of SEO to improve your organic rankings.

I hope you understand what SEO means and all the SEO basics that you need to implement for better search engine results. If you have any further questions about SEO essentials and basics, let us know in the comments.