SEO is an important component of today's business strategy. When done properly, SEO helps you get significant traffic to your website and more chances to convert into customers. SEO is also a great tool to increase brand awareness, solidifying your position as the leader.

It sounds complicated, but understanding SEO will help you solve several headaches when you no longer have to rely too much on advertising. In this article, let's get an overview of how SEO works and the concepts within it.

What is SEO?

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization, also known as Search Engine Optimization, is a set of measures to improve the ranking of a Website's search engine (popular like Google, Bing, Yahoo). How search engines like Google work are to show website results to users based on the relevancy and trustworthiness of the website. And SEO is an attempt to prove to search engines that your website is trustworthy and most relevant to customers on a certain topic.

To get started with SEO, you'll need to go from user search intent (Search Intent) to understanding the intent behind each search query. It is also the first step to research and creates useful content that meets user intent.

Besides creating great content, for effective SEO you will need an optimal strategy to maximize visibility on search engines, help reach your target users and encourage them to do so do action.

Some key concepts:

Keywords:

Keywords are specific words and phrases used in a search. Applying keywords effectively is very important because it is the link that leads customers to find your website.

Keywords need to be used thoroughly and consistently in your content. When it comes to keyword research, the best opportunities lie in words and phrases that have a high search rate and low competition.

Content:

Content contains keywords. Content that is highly rated by Google must be educational, understandable, interesting, and relevant.

For example, if you own an interior design business, you could publish a series of blog posts on how to choose colors for your living room, choose the right lighting, and the trends of the year. When home decorators looking for that information, your blog pops up — providing an opportunity to build relationships with new potential customers by providing helpful resources. When potential customers are ready to decorate their homes, you will be at the top.

Backlinks play a big role in establishing authority for your website. However, do not confuse quantity with quality. A link from an authoritative source will overtake links from untrusted sites. Your focus should be on creating quality content that people want to share. Diversify your content offerings to include: videos, blogs, infographics, podcasts, white papers, and more.

Off-Page SEO:

Off-page SEO is a collection of tips to optimize factors outside the website, including link building (Link Building), Marketing on Social Media channels, Social Media Bookmarking, ... to help Websites to Top Google, pull back. Traffic.

For example, backlinks are an important tactic. Having a lot of links from reputable sites helps search engines know that your site is valuable and high quality, helping to build brand credibility and discoverability.

SEO based on location (Location-Based SEO):

Location-based SEO, or local SEO, describes optimizing your content to appear for a specific area. This focus is extremely important as more and more people rely on their mobile devices to perform searches.

For example, if you open a new hardware store, local SEO will help people in your area find you when searching for hardware stores. This requires you to use local keywords, claim directory listings, and create a page for your business on Google Maps.

Search Engine Marketing:

While search engine marketing (SEM) shouldn't be the foundation of your SEO strategy, you can explore to reach new customer segments. SEM's paid efforts include Google Ads, Native ads, display ads, etc.

White hat and black hat SEO:

These terms are no longer unfamiliar when describing SEO tactics.

Black hat SEO refers to methods of breaking search engine rules in an attempt to rank higher. This form is mainly focused on search engine algorithms and is less concerned with how humans will interact with the page. Black hat techniques include keyword stuffing, link farming, hidden text, and hidden links. This short-term route can produce quick results, but be wary of possible long-term risks and damage — search engines often ban and remove violators.

White hat SEO refers to activities that follow search engine rules to rank higher. Commonly used techniques include keyword usage, keyword analysis, writing meta tags, and linking to and from quality websites. White hat SEO is a long-term investment and will continue to serve your site well into the future.

Epilogue:

Take the time to research what your potential customers are looking for, and how to help them get there through the content you provide. At its core, SEO is about relevance and trust. Invest in content creation, research, and search engine optimization, and you'll get free traffic and conversions.