Search Engine Optimization Concepts

Study Notes

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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%.