We have mentioned SEO multiple times in the past. In the next few articles, we will discuss and understand how search engine optimization works, and how it has grown to be an important marketing tactic online. Therefore, this article will serve as an introduction to SEO where you will gain insight into what it is, and its key terms and concepts.
Introduction to SEO
It is no secret that businesses thrive on the internet. Therefore, the internet has made it easier for small and big businesses alike to generate more sales and expand. In addition, it has made the playing field even for every kind of business. Because of this, there are hundreds – if not thousands of companies competing against each other. Moreover in being able to succeed, one of the most important factors is your ranking on the search engines.
Every business is fighting for the top spot of every search engine. You want to be in that top spot so when people search the internet, your website will be visible. There are many factors that affect the position of your website in the search results pages of search engines.
Think of it this way, each day there are millions of people performing billions of searches to find content on the Internet and it only makes sense for you to want your products and service visible online.
Search engines such as Google, Bing, Firefox, and others are some of the channels through which these searches happen. Therefore, these search engines have their own algorithms which determine the results to be displayed.
These algorithms are closely guarded, and in order to succeed, you need to determine the factors that affect the algorithm. This is the practice known as search engine optimisation or SEO.
Search Engine Optimizers
To put it simply, SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to achieve the highest ranking on the search engine results pages or the SERPs. Therefore, there are a lot of people who can be called experts on this field, and they work on SEO professionally.
According to Google, their algorithm uses more than 200 different factors in its algorithm. These factors determine the relevance of the website and its proper place in the ranking. Moreover, it is a search engine optimizer’s job to spend time analyzing the patent applications of these algorithms to determine what the factors are.
White Hat SEO vs. Black Hat SEO
There are two distinct variants of search engine optimization: the white hat SEO and the black hat SEO. White hat SEO works within search engine parameters and the aim is to customize the website for improved user experience.
On the other hand, there is black hat SEO which refers to the method of trying to trick search engines. This kind of SEO plays around the rules to achieve high rankings on the search engines.
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A search engine’s goal is to send their users to the most relevant website that suits each user’s needs best. Practicing white hat SEO should guarantee that users in the search engine can find exactly what they are searching for. Meanwhile, using black hat SEO can achieve higher rankings in a quicker manner but there is always the risk of being blacklisted by the search engines.
Key Terms
Below are the terms you need to be able to understand the world of SEO better.
- Anchor text – this refers to a visible clickable text in a link. Visit any webpage or blog, and you will see highlighted texts (mostly in the color blue). If you click the anchor text, you will be redirected to a different web page.
- Alt text – this refers to the “alt” attribute for the IMG HTML tag. This is mostly used in HTML to attribute a text field to an image on a web page. It is used to tell a search engine or a user what the image is about.
- Backlinks – this is the term used to describe all the links on other pages that will send the user to a specific web page. The links to that specific page are referred to as a backlink or inbound link. Backlinks affect your rankings on search engines. The more backlinks there are to your website, the better results.
- Domain name – the domain name is used to identify an IP address of a server that makes it distinguishable from other domain names on the WorldWideWeb. For instance, our domain name is Scalarly.com
Key Concepts
Below are key concepts you need to pay attention to these terms as we will use it frequently in the next series of articles.
- (ASO) – this is the process of optimising mobile and web applications for the specific web stores where they are distributed.
- Heading tags – Heading tags are often used in HTML, which are basic elements used to identify headings which subheadings on a webpage. Search engines review these heading tags and determine their relevance to the article and the users.
- Flash – this refers to the technology used to show video and animation on a website. Flash can be heavy on the user’s bandwidth, and unfriendly to search engine spiders.
- Home page – we have discussed the home page in multiple articles before and this is the first page of any website. It is also referred to as the landing page at times. The homepage of your website gives the users a glimpse into what your website is about. It is the first page most users visit, and it is important to give them a good impression.
- Hypertext Markup Language or HTML – HTML is used widely when it comes to SEO. There are certain HTML tags used to structure information and features within a web page and search engine spiders also review these HTML tags on your website to deem its relevance.
- Hyperlink – you don’t need to be an SEO expert to know what hyperlinks are. This is an electronic document that allows the users to follow the link to the relevant web page once they click on it.
- Internet Protocol or IP address – this is the term used to define an exclusive number that is used to represent every single computer in a network.
© Image credits to Steve Johnson