Search engine optimization boosts visibility. It helps your web content rank high on the SERP? (search engine results page) on Google. Your content needs to be well-written. It should be readable by humans and search engines. This strategy increases “organic” traffic. You do not need to pay for this traffic. It is not like marketing or advertising.
Everyone thinks of Google as a tech company. Google is not a tech company. Really, they are a marketing and advertising company. That is how they make most of their money. That is why they won’t reveal exactly how a Google search works, why they will not tell you exactly how to get to the top of Google’s SERP, and why they change their SEO guidelines regularly.
When you search on Google, you are searching Google’s databases. If Google has not indexed your website, it will not show up on Google’s SERP. This grants Google the authority to decide which websites are seen and which are not.
When you make a search on Google, you type in search terms. Hopefully, Google will provide relevant results based on those search terms. These search terms in SEO are called keywords. Keywords must be used in your text and meta tag if you want your webpage to be seen as a relevant result on the SERP. Good SEO writing with the right keywords can even make your web page rank higher so that it is seen near the top of Google’s SERP.??
That means you need to research and know the right keywords to use. One method that may help you do that is to use a keyword generator. It is important to use the right keywords the right number of times. Too many can be worse than too few for both the number of relevant keywords and the number of times they appear in text. Remember, you are still writing for humans first and for robots second. Besides, robots can tell when something is written for them, and that is ranked lower.
Google uses sitemaps to build its databases. It follows links from “trusted” websites. These links can be on known pages, either from the same or a different website. Google crawls the web and indexes websites in its databases. It uses complex algorithms for ranking.
Technical SEO ensures Google can find, crawl, and index your webpage. Google needs permission for this. You need a well-crafted robots.txt file and the correct meta tag for indexing. This allows Google to find your web content and add it to their databases.
If you are interested in the technical aspects of SEO, you should try a free course.
E-E-A-T is Google’s initialism for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust. Basically, they want to see that the content is actually helpful and provides value.
They prefer it to be created by an expert on the topic and reward experts. They want that information to come from primary sources with firsthand experience. They want to see it on an authoritative website. They want to know if it is a trustworthy website. They also prefer to see it is timely and regularly updated.?
Of the standards set forth by Google’s E-E-A-T, trust is central and the most important. Using AI can be acceptable so long as it is still fact-checked. Google really does decide who can E-E-A-T and who can not because their web page will not show near the top of the SERP. They set up a system where they do not want content created just to rank up on a Google search. At the same time, you have to create content to do exactly that.
SEO is as much art as it is technical. There are things you can do to put the best SEO into practice both on your website and off your website. For example, you should form a lot of quality backlinks on other trusted websites. Not only does that give people more exposure and opportunity to go to your website by clicking those links, but it also makes your page rank higher.
Remember that Google is really in the business of selling ads and marketing. They would prefer you to pay them for results. That is better for Google than your becoming successful through SEO best practices. At the same time, they created the need for SEO.?
While results are never guaranteed, SEO can be better than advertising. SEO is better because it reaches people who are searching for your page, even if they do not realize it, and people who use ad blockers. For more information about SEO, you should read some books. Here, you can find the best SEO books for 2024 to learn more about it.?
