What is SEO?

Libby Day • September 18, 2019

What is Search Engine Optimization?

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and is literally the road map as to how search engines such as Google, Bing and others rank your website, and how potential customers find your business online.

When someone types or asks a query in a search feature online or a digital device, the words or ‘keywords’ they use to type or ask that forms a ‘key phrase’.

Based on the query, the algorithms will bring up the search engine results pages or for short SERP.

Where does it go?

The page SEO on your site is inputted for each page in the backend of your website, CMS or alike. The written content of the page and any media you give titles or tags on images all come under the umbrella of SEO.

Why SEO is Important?

Organic search is usually how most new customers find your business
SEO helps build better trust, domain authority and quality score by search engines
Good SEO helps users of your site have a better user experience which will help turn them into customers
Local search optimization will improve traffic and engagement with your business
Great SEO will improve your businesses conversions online and allow your website to be competitive against similar content on the web
The right SEO on your site is the framework behind all of your digital investment
SEO best practises and constantly updated as technology moves forward, it’s important to have an expert to monitor and implement updates to your website

We can split SEO into various categories to better understand which area of search means.

Organic Results

Is any traffic that your website or page received that is not resulting from paid advertising, usually ads will be in the top and bottom rail of the SERP page and will display Ad beside them. Organic results can come from referrals or links from other places on the web, via social media, email campaigns and or anywhere there is a link that will take a user to your website, such as a QR code for example.

Quality of traffic

You really want to attract the right visitors to your pages, so it’s important that the content they are looking for reflects what your organization or business offers or attracts what your ideal visitor cares about. If you are selling mattresses for example, you probably would want to write about the importance of getting a good night's sleep as well as just listing the sizes or specifications of the mattresses product.

Quantity of traffic

With the right SEO foundations as well the right quality of content, the quantity of traffic will grow over time. The more work put into generating and optimizing the content you own online, the better the results will be. Understanding your audience and being able to show up in searches is the key. The quantity of traffic if not the right quality of consumer is fruitless.