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What is SEO? An introduction to SEO for absolute beginners

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Jannat Kashif
What is SEO? An introduction to SEO for absolute beginners

Do you know that more than 90% of the online experience of any user starts with a search engine? There are many search engines but the biggest one is Google. Other search engines are Baidu, Yahoo, Bing, and Yandax. This leads us to our main question as what is SEO? , an introduction to SEO will answer.

Users come to Google for getting information or searching for solutions to their problems. They can search services, products, or generic information about any topic. The main objective of a search engine is to serve the user with the best information about his problem. The words any user writes in the search bar are known as “query” or “keyword” inSEO terminology.

Two ways to rank on Google first page

SEM AND SEO

If you want to rank on the first page of Google and serve the users with the best information, you’ll need to either opt for search engine optimization or search engine marketing. In short, we call them SEO and SEM. Search engine marketing constitutes using paid ads to appear in front of the user (potential customer) and search engine optimization is about using organic methods to drive traffic to the website. SEO is a cost-effective method but needs long-term efforts to yield any result. However, Paid ads can yield quick results but they are often not sustainable as in the case of SEO.

SEO objective

The main objective of any search engine optimization technique or tactic is to secure any place on the first page of Google. There are a plethora of information websites on Google. But, only a handful of them is visited by the users searching online. The reason is, hardy any user goes into the 2nd or 3rd page of Google. So, for getting users on your website, it is crucial that it appears at top of SERP (Search Engine Result Pages).

SEO elements

There are two main elements of SEO that form the whole structure of an SEO campaign, “on-page SEO” and “off-page SEO”. Listed below is a brief description of both elements. In this guide on what is SEO- an introduction to SEO, we’ll cover these topics briefly.

On-page SEO

On-page SEO includes any tactics, techniques, and optimization that is done within the website. For example, there is the whole range of on-page elements which determine the SEO score of any website. The higher the on-page SEO score, the higher the chances of ranking that page. We’ll go into detail about in the future article.

Off-page SEO

Off-page SEO involves acts, techniques that are done off the website. It usually consists of backlinks which work as the votes of trust for the website. Backlinks prove to be a skeleton of SEO strategy and without backlinking, SEO building will collapse. We’ll go into detail about it in future articles.

Fundamental part of SEO

The fundamental part of SEO is keyword research and selection. This part only accounts for 60% of SEO success. If we choose the wrong keywords, all efforts of on-page and off-page SEO go useless. There will be no fruitful return on our SEO efforts without a solid keyword research strategy.

Keyword research

The process of finding the key phrases which users are typing in Google to look for information is known as keyword research. It is a crucial part of any SEO strategy. It may seem a simple process but carries nuances that only expert SEOs can understand. Ranking on the 1st page of Google for wrong keywords is a disaster for a business. Optimizing the website for quality keywords is the ultimate goal of SEO.

The most popular tools used for keyword research are Ahref and SEMrush.

SEO benefits for marketing

SEO can help in many business and marketing-related benefits. The benefits include an increase in traffic, brand awareness, more ROI (Return On Investment), and enhanced trust.

Learn SEO

If you want to learn SEO, here is the list of the best SEO books that you might find valuable. If you are a visual learner and prefer video, you might find this article on the best SEO courses interesting.

Best SEO books in 2021- written by industry experts

Best SEO courses in 2021- affordable and effective

SEO is important and should fit in the overall marketing strategy. It is a perfect option if you are a startup, freelancer, budding entrepreneur, or marketing person with a limited budget. We hope, now you have basic understanding of what is SEO. This introduction to SEO intended to discuss the fundamentals thoroughly.

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