SEO Guide: What is SEO and importance of SEO

What is SEO?

By definition, SEO or Search Engine Optimization, is increasing a brand website’s visibility in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for relevant Keywords or Phrases.  In other words, you enhance your potential for ranking higher in the SERPs with SEO.

But how do you do that? You do that by following instructions laid out by the search engines of your desire. But, on the surface, rules like proper, reliable content, valid information, following a proper structure, etc, are a must. Why? You must understand the mechanics of search engines.

Now, How do Search Engines Work?

It is a given that search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo all consist of complex algorithms to present relevant answers to each and every query. But, at their core, three main steps, one process, define how the search engines work: Crawling, indexing, and Ranking. This SEO guide breaks down each step to help you understand how search engines discover, organize, and rank your content:

1. 1. Crawling: Just like how a spy infiltrates an enemy camp, Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc, have bots they call spiders or crawlers that go to each and every page and scan whatever is present on the internet. They go from one link to the next, one page to another, gathering information. These crawlers are also the reason why, as mentioned before, rules like structure and content are a must.

1. Indexing: Just like a textbook or any book for that matter contains an index that details where the information was gathered, these crawlers bring the data back, and search engines store these data and organize them in their massive database, also called the index, with details about each page, keywords, metadata, images, and overall structure of the content.
2. Ranking: When you search for something on the search engine, the results that you get are based on the rankings assigned by the search engine. These rankings are based on a number of technical checkboxes that you must tick in order to be amongst the top rankings. Factors like keyword relevance, keyword strength, mobile-friendliness, content quality, backlink quality, page authority, overall user experience, and more are deciding factors. The information about these ranking factors is available on the search engine’s official website pages.

In short, rankings are a search engine’s assessment of the trustworthiness, accuracy and quality of the presented information. Or in relation to Google, “this information, from this brand/ website is more credible than the rest”.

The importance of SEO in Digital Marketing:

In order to grow in the digital space, you need rankings, you need credibility, you need traffic, and more importantly, trust, and you can achieve all of this with effective SEO. So, here are some pointers that describe the importance of SEO:

1. Increased Visibility and Traffic:

With SEO, your website can rank higher on the results page. This means the users are more likely to visit your page. This also implies that the visitors are more likely to make purchases on your site.

2. Builds Trust and Credibility:

As mentioned earlier, your website’s ranking is the search engine’s way of assessing your website’s credibility and trust. Higher ranking means greater credibility, means trustworthy.

3. Delivers Long-Term Results:

While there are ways where you can pay for greater visibility, like, say, Google ads, it doesn’t equip you for the days when you’re low on budget. But with SEO, you gain long-term results. Meaning, with quality content, user experience, and others that come under SEO, your visitor score will continue to gradually increase for months or even years after initial efforts.

4. Cost-Effective Strategy:

Paid advertising gives you instant results, but for that to continue, you need to also maintain and gradually increase your budget, which is not the case with SEO, as you reap long-term, steady benefits.

5. Gives You a Competitive Edge:

Proper SEO provides you a huge competitive advantage; having a higher ranking than your competitor signals you are a more trustworthy source than them.

In the digital-first world where most customer journeys begin with a search engine, SEO is a requirement, not an option.Regardless of if you are an entrepreneur, a new brand or digital marketer, the better you understand SEO, the better you will be suited to enhance visibility, increase traffic consistently, increase credibility, and leverage onto a competitive advantage. You will be able to accelerate the adoption of the most effective and tested strategies specific to your respective niche, when you collaborate with an authentic SEO agency in Bangalore. SEO is not a paid program as a marketing strategy, you don’t have to spend money continually, as the focus is a sustainable marketing strategy based on quality, effective content and structure relative to users.