SEO
One of the biggest questions that we get from our clients here at Paprika ads Digital Marketing Agency is “what is SEO and how does it work?” For businesses that are just starting to build their website or going through a website redesign, search engine optimization or SEO can feel a bit intimidating.
How Does SEO Work?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website in order to improve your rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Appearing at the top of Google’s page results, demonstrates to users that search engines view your site as the best possible solution for their query. It is important to remember that it’s about optimization of your website and presenting content in a way that is relevant for your users first and then SERR positioning.
SEO involves multiple practices including keyword research, technical SEO, content and link-building. Performing a site-wide technical audit (on-site optimizations) sets the foundation of your campaign. This can involve meta data, headings and boy copy of your site, as well as the structure, URLs, layout and a host of other elements to make sure that your site is easy to use and is also accessible for people and bots.
It also worth mentioning that Google doesn’t see your website as a visual page as your customers do. It works by sending robots (crawlers) to analyse the back end code and renders the data that comes back to determine the purpose of your site. and the solutions it provides.
Where does content come into it?
Creating high quality, unique content for your key landing pages and a blog that’s oriented around your target market and their seraching habits will only help you improve your rankings. That’s why it is important to research your audience and create what are known as buyer personas. Using tools such as Google Analytics (GA), Search Console and SEMRush to determine which keywords are driving traffic to your site, can help you to work out what needs to be SEO’d on your site.
So what about “link-building”?
Producing great content reinforces your company’s authority and expertise in your field. High quality content gets high quality organic links. Google will associate you with whoever has linked to you – spam tends to link to spam, and reputable sources tend to link other reputable source.
Google also takes into account your customer’s behaviour both during and after their visit to your site. How long did they stay? Did they visit another site to find the answer that they needed? If Google determines that your site is too high in the SERPs because users are actually finding the answer elsewhere, then your site’s ranking will fall.