SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the practice of optimizing a website to get a high ranking on Google or other search engines. SEO focuses on organic ranking or traffic that is obtained for free.
By doing SEO, a website can get visitors without having to pay or use ads.
In this article, we will discuss what SEO is, the importance of SEO for a business, and how SEO can help build or strengthen a brand through the digital channels available today.
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Google Algorithm
Before discussing more what SEO is, you must understand the algorithms and factors used by search engines to display content from a website.
To make website pages appear on search engines with high rankings, SEO tries to shape and adjust the structure and content of the website according to Google's algorithm.
The algorithm from Google itself is also confidential, but people or agencies who understand SEO well have an idea of the important factors.
It should also be noted that Google updates its Algorithm regularly to improve user experience and the relevance of answers on search engines.
2 SEO Determinants
Important factors in SEO can be divided into the following 2 categories that determine the ranking of a website:
1. On-Page SEO Factor
As the name suggests, the On-page SEO factor consists of everything that can be done on a website. All technical aspects of a website, play an important role in increasing the chances of increasing the website's ranking on search engines.
Broadly speaking, good On-Page SEO will make it easier for search engines to find relevant and quality content for people who search for certain keywords on these search engines.
That's why a good On-Page SEO must follow the search engine's algorithm. It all goes back to the main goal of search engines, which is to provide relevant and good content, according to what users are looking for.
According to MOZ, the following are some of the On-Page SEO factors worth paying attention to:
Content from web pages
The quality of the content is not only determined by the number of keywords that are entered.
Quality content is content that actually delivers what users are looking for and asking for. In addition, good content should also be easily linked, accessed, and shared.
Good title tags
Determining a good title tag and relevant to the content of the page you have also plays an important role in On-Page SEO.
Correct URL structure
URL structure must be made clear and well. An example of a good URL structure is:
https://www.fesney.com/2021/12/what-its-seo-search-engine-optimization.html
A good URL structure should have clear categories and hierarchies. The Fesney blog itself has been made "SEO friendly" with a good and clear structure.
Accessible by Bot/Crawler
If a website is difficult/inaccessible to bots/crawlers, then the website will not get a good position on search engines.
Other factors
Other factors such as website speed, image alt text, meta tags, XML sitemap, and many others must also be considered.
2. Off-Page SEO Factor
Off-Page SEO is a set of activities performed outside the website that aims to influence the ranking on the SERP / Search Engine Results Pages.
Optimizing Off-Page SEO involves several things that aim to increase audience and search engine perceptions of the popularity of a website, the level of relevance, trustworthiness, and authority of the website.
Quality backlinks
Optimizing good Off-Page SEO can be done by getting backlinks from other websites. Getting backlinks from other websites indirectly signals to Google/search engines that the website has quality content.
The higher the popularity of the website that provides backlinks to a website, the stronger the signal given to Google.
As an example, if a website gets a backlink from a website that has high popularity like CNN, then Google will consider the website to have very good content so websites like CNN provide backlinks to that website.
Please note that not all backlinks are rated quality by Google. Quality backlinks have criteria such as the backlink giving website is in the same niche.
You also need to know the risks when building backlinks, because if you do not follow the rules from Google then there is a possibility that your website will be penalized by Google.
Black Hat SEO
The difficulty of getting quality backlinks makes SEO practitioners do Black Hat SEO techniques.
Black Hat SEO can be done in various ways, both in terms of On-Page and Off-Page, such as: buying backlinks from other websites, keyword stuffing / putting a lot of keywords on a page or URL structure, cloaking, and many others.
Please note that Google updates its algorithms from time to time to fight Black Hat SEO actors. Performing Black Hat SEO techniques can indeed increase the ranking of a website quickly, but it is a high risk.
Penalty from Google
If a website is caught using this technique, then Google will not hesitate to remove the website from Google, which means all the hard work will be lost in an instant. All pages of the website will not appear on Google.
Google does not indiscriminately and is reluctant to penalize websites that use this technique. Reporting from Marketingland.com, several websites from large and well-known companies that have been affected by the use of this technique include JC Penney, BMW, Washington Post, and many others.
Our views on Black Hat SEO
Given the dangers and disadvantages of using the techniques above, you as a website owner must be careful in choosing an agency or person who does SEO for your website.
We never recommend the use of this technique, because we believe that good SEO techniques will produce good and sustainable results for the long term.
Other factors
Several other factors such as social media marketing, guest blogging, branded keywords, giving good anchor text, correct nofollow links, domain authority, and so on also need to be considered when making a strategy before doing Off-Page SEO.
What is SEO According to Fesney Blog?
The rapid development of technology today, especially in Nigeria, has led to increasingly fierce competition in the business world. Techniques in the world of marketing are also growing, traditional marketing methods are not enough.
The number of internet users currently encourages marketers to carry out activities in the digital world in an effort to attract audiences in cyberspace.
SEO is one of the important components that every business must do to survive and thrive in this era. SEO itself can be likened to long-term investment, given the amount of time and activity that must be done.
The Importance of Search Engine Optimization for a Brand
One of the main goals of SEO is to strengthen the online presence of a brand. This can be obtained by strengthening the brand image, customer confidence, and customer retention. Some of the advantages of having good SEO for a website are as follows:
1. Build credibility and trust
SEO can build and strengthen a brand. Nowadays everyone is looking for any information with Google.
When someone searches for information about your brand, they should be able to find your website ranking high on search engines like Google. When this is achieved, psychologically the person will view your brand as a trusted brand.
2. SEO beats Paid Search / Paid advertising
Maybe you have succeeded in using Google Adwords/ Paid Search as one of your online marketing strategies. But did you know, according to research conducted by MOZ, SEO brings in 75% of the total traffic by only using 15% of the total budget spent on Search Engine Marketing.
Even so, SEO and SEM have their respective portions and goals in internet marketing. We don't think SEO is better than SEM or vice versa.
3. SEO can take competitors' market share
A good SEO can take advantage of the situation by reaping what other competitors have sown.
SEO Cannot Stand Alone
One of the common misconceptions about understanding what SEO is is that SEO alone can produce results. This is not appropriate because SEO is only one small component of the overall online marketing activity.
Besides good and correct SEO techniques, integration of Social Media, PR Marketing, and other digital marketing activities must also be done to get good results.
We consider SEO not only as a technique to bring traffic to a website, but more than that. As a Digital Marketing Agency, our goal of doing SEO is to strengthen the brand through existing digital channels.
Choosing the Right Agency to Run SEO
There are already many Digital Marketing Agencies in Nigeria that offer SEO services; the prices and the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) they promise are different.
After reading the explanation about SEO above, maybe you feel confused or doubtful in determining who is able to do SEO for your brand.
Given the risks that must be borne if using SEO techniques that are not good, you must take a critical attitude in finding the right person or agency to carry out SEO for your business. Thus an explanation of what SEO is from us, hopefully, this article is useful.