Search Engine Optimization Concepts

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• SEO is the practice of making a website attractive to a search engine by presenting its code and content in a way that addresses a specific inquiry from a human searcher.
• Organic search refers to the process of obtaining natural or unpaid traffic from search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Paid search, also known as search engine marketing (SEM) or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, refers to the practice of paying search engines to display ads prominently on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Types of Searches

• Informational searches (Know): searchers looking for information.
• Navigational searches (Go): searchers looking for a specific website or page.
• Transactional searches (Do): searchers looking to perform a specific action.

Localization

• Searchers with results that are locally relevant, with proximity, and term ending “near me” impact keywords selection.
• Addresses, cities, and roads are examples of locally relevant information.

Personalized Searches

• Key aspect of organic search that depends on the search history.
• Emphasized in results of searches for well-indexed subjects, such as movies or countries, which feature a knowledge panel to the right of the main results.

On-Site Optimization

• Placing keywords and phrases within the web page, which can be in two elements:
  • Visible content, such as body text, content development, and header and proceeding content.
  • Source code, which is visible only to search engines and helps them identify the page’s subject.

Off-Site Optimization

• Key aspect of a website’s algorithm is the links that go into it from other sites, also known as “in-bound links”.
• A site with many links going into it must carry some legitimacy with those sites that include the links, increasing its search engine validity.

Keyword Research

• Definition: characters typed into the search box by the searcher.
• Keywords identification can be done in-house, sought from customers, or with technological aid.
• Generic products or services have bigger competition, and long-tail keywords can help address this issue.
• Intent interpretation and AI are used to understand intent phrases.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

• Zero-click searches: where people click after searching on Google, and searches result in users being presented with the information they’re looking for without clicking off the SERP.
• According to research, zero-click searches account for around 50% of all searches, with 10% going for organic and paid searches.
• Thus, 60% of searches are dominated by Google, and the rest of the search engines fight over the residual 40%.