Every day, 3.5 billion Google searches are made. With a figure like that, it’s safe to assume that people are already looking for anything your company provides online. But how can you make the most of all that potential? That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in.
SEO is only one component of a successful digital marketing plan, but it is a critical one. One of the most appealing aspects of SEO, which distinguishes it from other forms of digital marketing, is that people are already searching for something. When you buy Facebook advertising, you’re effectively interrupting someone who was aimlessly scrolling through their feed. When you publish to Instagram, users will see your post as they scroll through hundreds of photographs of friends.
You might get their attention, but it’s also possible that you won’t. When someone uses a search engine, on the other hand, they’re already seeking something. Putting yourself in front of people’s questions and providing an answer is what SEO is all about.
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a set of techniques for improving the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results.
Because organic search is the most common way for people to find and access online material, an effective SEO plan is critical for increasing the quality and quantity of visitors to your site.
How does SEO work?
Crawlers, often known as bots or spiders, are used by search engines such as Google and Bing to collect information on all of the content available on the internet. The crawler begins by visiting a well-known online page and then follows internal and external links to other sites’ pages. The crawler uses the content on those pages, as well as the context of the links it followed, to figure out what each page is about and how it’s semantically connected to all of the other pages in the search engine’s vast database, or index.
When a user writes or voices a query into the search box, the search engine employs sophisticated algorithms to provide what it considers to be the most accurate and relevant set of results for that query. Web pages with text, news stories, photographs, videos, local company listings, and other more niche sorts of content are examples of organic results.
Importance of SEO
There are currently about 2 billion websites, many of which are enterprises, brands, and companies striving to break into the internet world. SEO is the finest approach to making a lasting impression online, especially for small businesses or startups with limited marketing budgets.
There are numerous advantages to SEO, including:
- Increases organic traffic – Organic traffic is when someone visits your website by typing a query into Google and clicking on the listing in the search results. SEO raises your website to the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), making it much easier for users to find it. Furthermore, organic traffic brings in site visitors who are more likely to become clients.
- Organic traffic quality – If your SEO is not up to the mark, search engines may recommend your website for unrelated queries, which won’t help you convert customers. High-quality SEO takes advantage of the search engine’s efforts to match a user’s search intent to the SERP’s web pages.
- Has long-lasting results – While investing in online ads does bring immediate results, they only endure as long as your money for them. A smart SEO plan will aid you in the long term by pushing your website to the top of the SERP.
- Cost-effective – A good SEO strategy is almost as good as advertising but without the extra expenses.
Good SEO Practices
The following are some fundamental SEO techniques:
- Add Your Main Keyword Early On In Your Content – Search engines put more weight on terms that appear at the top of a webpage.
- Write Unique Titles, Descriptions, and Content – Avoiding duplicate content is one of the most important SEO best practices to keep in mind.
- Optimize Your Title Tag for SEO – Search engines pay close attention to the terms that you use in your title tag.
- Optimize Your Site’s Loading Speed – Google doesn’t normally reveal the ranking criteria in their algorithm, but they did mention loading speed, which makes it a significant ranking component.
- Optimize Images for SEO – Use relevant filenames and provide a descriptive image alt text.
Developing and implementing an SEO strategy can take a lot of time and work. However, it is less expensive than other marketing tactics and will pay off in the long run. Even if you have a fantastic web application, it may be a flop if you don’t use effective SEO because it will not appear in the SERP. One major issue is that most popular frontend frameworks, such as React, Angular, and Vue, employ client-side rendering, which means that search engines will not be able to see the HTML code.
I’m presently interning at a startup called easycompany https://easycompany.space/ where we’re attempting to boost our SEO as much as possible. At easycompany we were using React, but keeping the SEO in mind we decided to use Next.js which allows us to do server-side rendering of React web apps. We have already launched an app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=space.easycompany for travel aficionados that allows them to connect with other travellers.
– By Pranav Agrawal, Second Year Department of Computer Science Engineering