Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - 101

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website's visibility in search engines, like Google. It's a way to make sure that people who are looking for information on the web find your site when they search for keywords related to your business or industry. There are many benefits of SEO:

• Better rankings in organic search results can lead to more traffic and higher conversion rates for websites.
• Increased brand awareness and visibility across different channels such as social media platforms, blogs and news sites where content gets shared regularly by influencers who have large followings on these platforms - this helps increase engagement with potential customers as well as create an authority status within an industry which can lead directly towards increased sales conversions over time through organic traffic alone without needing any paid advertising campaigns!

Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process of finding out what people are searching for online, and then using that information to help you optimize your content for search engines. The goal of keyword research is to find keywords that have enough search volume (the number of times people search for them) and low competition (the number of websites competing for those same keywords). The more people who are searching for a keyword, and the fewer other websites competing with yours for it, the easier it will be to rank highly in Google's results pages when someone searches that particular term.

Keyword research can be done manually or automatically with tools such as Google AdWords' Keyword Planner or Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer tool

On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization refers to the process of optimizing the content of your website so that it can be easily found by search engines. It involves making sure that your site is up to date, has enough keywords and uses them correctly, has high quality links pointing back to it and more.

On-page optimization techniques include:

• Meta tags - meta tags are code snippets added within HTML code that provide information about a website such as its name or description. They're one of the first things Google reads when crawling through your site so they're important for SEO purposes!
• Content - you should always aim for quality over quantity when writing blog posts or articles because this will help improve user experience while also increasing traffic from search engines (and therefore rankings).

Off-Page Optimization

Off-page optimization is the process of improving your website's search engine rankings through activities that aren't directly related to content on your site.

This can include:

• Building links from other websites (also known as "backlinks")
• Getting social media sharing and engagement with your content

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the process of making sure your site is technically sound and optimized for search engines. It's important to have a good technical foundation because it can help you rank higher in organic search results, which means more traffic and conversions.

Technical SEO best practices include:

• Structuring your site so that it's easily crawlable by search engines (i.e., no duplicate content)
• Ensuring that all URLs are relevant, descriptive and unique across all pages on your website (i.e., no doorway pages)

Local SEO

Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website for search engines in order to rank higher in local search results. Local SEO is important because it allows you to reach customers that are looking for businesses in their area, but aren't necessarily searching for them on Google or another major search engine.

Local businesses can use a variety of tactics when trying to optimize their websites for local searches:

• Claiming and verifying business listings in directories like Yelp and Foursquare (and other similar sites) will help ensure that you show up when people search those platforms.
• Optimizing your website with keywords related to your industry or location will increase its visibility among potential customers who are looking specifically for businesses like yours nearby--and this includes using relevant meta tags, page titles and descriptions as well as creating rich snippets (like reviews) which show up directly under each listing within the SERPs themselves!

Mobile SEO

Mobile SEO is the practice of optimizing your website or app for mobile devices. This includes things like making sure that it's easy to navigate, that users can find what they're looking for and that the content is relevant to their needs.

Mobile search engine results have become increasingly important in recent years as more people use their phones to conduct searches on the go than ever before.

If you want to get found by mobile users, it's important that your site has been optimized for this purpose so that it shows up higher in search rankings than competitors who haven't taken these steps yet (or as high as possible).

Tracking and Reporting

Tracking and reporting is a vital part of any SEO campaign. Tracking helps you measure the progress of your site's performance over time, while reporting provides insights into how well your strategy is working. There are many different tools that can be used to track and report on SEO performance, including:

• Google Analytics (GA)
• Google Search Console (GSC)
• Ahrefs Site Explorer

SEO Tools

So you've read all of the above, and you're still not sure what tools are best for your business. Here's a quick rundown:

• Rank Tracker - This tool tracks your rankings across multiple search engines and provides detailed reports on their performance over time. It also lets you know if there are any changes in the SERPs that could be affecting your rankings.
• Keyword Research - This feature allows users to find keywords that have high search volume and low competition (low difficulty). It also helps them determine which keywords they should target first when optimizing their site for SEO purposes.
• Content Analyzer - This feature analyzes content quality so users can see where they need improvement or additional information before publishing new content online or updating existing pages on their site with new information about products/services offered by their company

Conclusion

You've reached the end of this guide, and hopefully you've learned a lot about SEO.

If you're looking to take your website to the next level, I highly recommend hiring an expert who can help make sure that your site is optimized for search engines. The best part about this strategy is that it's relatively inexpensive compared to other options such as PPC advertising or social media marketing.

If you want more information on how we can optimize your website for search engine results, please contact us today!