Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), this word has been constantly navigating its path into the digital market. In a simplified analogy it can termed as one of the digital marketing tools, but what exactly it does and why it has been taken on as the vital element in the world of digital marketing?? Let’s narrow down the basic understanding of the term “SEO”, what exactly it entails and why is it important factor to succeed in the modern digital world?
What is it and How it works?
In a simplified terminology, SEO mainly entails tweaking a website to enhance its position on search engine results pages (SERPs). This results in reaching a larger number of potential customers and supporting the broader digital marketing initiatives of Visibility. The likelihood that a brand will attract customers increases with a website’s prominence on search engines. So now the question is whether SEO is supposed to be a one-time strategy adopted by the digital marketers? I would say, it’s a definite “NO” because any parameter in the current world cannot manipulate the search algorithms entirely on their benefit. The working of the SEO is not confined with a strategy but it’s navigated with lot of action, efforts and time with constant activity that is changed or drawn based on the expectations of the market and guidelines of Search Engines.
Delineating SEO terminologies
To understand the term “SEO” in a more comprehensible way, it’s important to understand the vital terms related to it.
Keyword Research: It is inclined with Identification and analysis of the search terms/ words basically a keyword that people search on search engines. By incorporating pertinent, high search volume, low competition keywords, informing, content creation and optimization is aligned. A website’s ability to target its content to the right clients and increase exposure in search results is facilitated by effective keyword research. In the ideology of ranking, it navigates shooting the pages right up the search engine rankings with help of relevant keyword strategy and generating organic and reliable traffic. For instance, if the focus is “Top ten booming elements of Fashion”, the keyword to be chosen should be fashion, stylist, new fashion trends, fashion tips, elevated fashion and so on. However, there are tools to take this up.
No Follow
Nofollow is an attribute added to a hyperlink instructing search engines not to pass authority or follow the linked URL. Nofollow links do not contribute to search engine rankings. They are commonly used for sponsored or user-generated content where website owners want to prevent the flow of authority to external links
Keyword Density
Keyword density refers to the percentage of times a keyword appears in relation to the total number of words on a web page. While keyword density was once a crucial ranking factor, search engines now focus more on the overall relevance and quality of content. Maintaining a natural and balanced keyword usage within the content is essential, ensuring it flows naturally and provides value to users.
Domain Authority (DA): A website’s potential for ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs) is predicted by the Domain Authority statistic, which Moz created. It is dependent on variables such as backlinks, the calibre of the material, and the authority of the website. A greater possibility of higher search engine ranks is indicated by a higher Domain Authority. The effectiveness of your SEO link building efforts will be well-understood by this straightforward yet extremely valuable score. This is a significant factor in ranking a page up rather it is the element that defines where a brand stands with its competitor. The higher the DA number, the higher the ranking.
Page Authority (PA): Page authority is the value that a search engine gives a website when it comes to SEO. Search engines are more likely to return a website early in organic search results the higher the value. A page’s ability to rank is determined by its PA score, which ranges from 1 to 100. Having more internal links and making pages interactive gives you a higher score
Google Analytics: Google offers Google Analytics; it can be termed as a potent online analytical tool specifically for tracking websites performance. It monitors and reports user behaviour, website traffic, and other crucial metrics for analyzing SEO performance. Website owners and digital marketers may use Google Analytics to gather insightful information about their website’s performance, spot audience patterns and make data-driven decisions that will improve their SEO tactics.
Algorithm:
Search engine algorithms are the foundation of SEO. To rank and assess the relevancy of web pages in search results, search engines like Google utilize a set of rules or calculations called an algorithm. To provide consumers with the most relevant and worthwhile results, these algorithms examine a variety of parameters, such as keywords, backlinks, user engagement, and website quality. The best order for websites to appear in search results is decided by algorithms used by search engines like Google depending on specific factors which is not in the control of businesses.
Backlinks: Inbound links, commonly referred to as backlinks, are links that lead from another website to your own website. They are essential to SEO since they let search engines know that a website is reputable and authoritative. This is because these links show that other websites think the content given by your website os useful enough to link to. High-quality backlinks from reliable and pertinent sources can benefit a website’s search engine rankings.
Crawler: A web crawler is an internet bot that investigates web sites to learn more about them and their contents to provide this knowledge to online users when they submit a search query to a particular search engine. Crawler is a fitting name for a bot because the internet is frequently referred to as the World Wide Web; nevertheless, other names for crawlers include SEO spiders, website crawlers, and web crawlers. Without a crawler having access to your website, the organic search process cannot be finished. Keep in mind that as an SEO, your goal is to make your website pages appear in search engine results. A crawler must visit your site for you to appear on the results page, regardless of your rank position.
Meta Description: Below the page title in search engine results is a summary or snippet called a meta description. An effective meta description can increase click-through rates and give readers a quick rundown of the page’s content. To get users to click on the search result and visit the webpage, meta descriptions should contain pertinent keywords and engaging information. Keeping your descriptions between 150 and 160 characters in length is the greatest advice for how long a meta description should be. However, don’t rely on these suggested lengths to remain constant as Google frequently adjusts the permitted lengths for meta descriptions without prior notice.
User Experience (UX): User Experience (UX) is the umbrella term for a user’s total interaction with a website as well as their happiness with it. Giving users a good experience is essential for SEO to draw clients to th website and keep website visits. You’ll lose visitors to your competitors if your website doesn’t offer the end user a great user experience and is simple to use.
Visibility: When searches are made using desktop computers, the SEO Visibility shows how visible a website is in the natural search results. It is an index that also enables problem analysis and optimization potential identification. Given that a URL in the first position in the search results often receives an average click through rate of between 35% and 45%, you should aim for this number.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP): When a user types in a certain term or keyword phrase, a search engine delivers a list of results known as a SERP. Where your site appears on Google’s home page is determined by the SERPs. For illustration, suppose you look for inspiration on “how to start a website” and google gives you answers. SO this is the SERP for “how to start a website”.
XML Sitemap: An XML Sitemap is a file that lists all the URLs of a website and provides additional information about each page to help search engines crawl and understand the site’s structure. XML Sitemaps serve as a roadmap for search engine crawlers, ensuring that all necessary pages are discovered and indexed. Including an XML Sitemap on a website can improve its visibility in search engine results and assist in the proper indexing of web pages.
Schema Markup: The language search engines use to read and comprehend the material on your pages is called schema markup, commonly referred to as structured data. When we talk about language, what we really mean is a semantic vocabulary (code) that enables search engines to describe and more importantly classify the content of web pages. This may lead to improved search engine results features and User Experience with the help of rich snippets, information panels, and other aesthetic upgrades that can raise the prominence of search listings and their click-through rates.
Ranking: The position of a page in the search engine results is referred to as SEO ranking. A search engine like Google displays pages in a ranked order when a user submits a query into the search bar. More traffic is likely to be sent to your page the higher it appears in the search results. The likelihood that a page’s link will be viewed increases with its position in the search results, increasing traffic and visibility. To simplify it more it can be said as:
Better Ranking= More customers or visitors
Let’s get more clarity with one of the common examples, search “best gaming laptop” on search engine and thus the image highlights the organic ranking on this SERP. Clearly, the Verge will have more chances of visibility.
Title Tag: An internet page’s title is indicated using a title tag, which is a website element. This is like telling Google what Title to give on SERP. The list of outcomes in blue font after conducting a search on Google is a Title Tag. You will miss out on a ton of worthwhile internet traffic if your title tag doesn’t entice readers to click. If our title tag isn’t good, it won’t get clicks, it won’t matter whether you’re listed #1 in Google’s search results.
Quality and Total Backlink (QB and TB): The value of a backlink is its quality, and the greater the score or quality, the more positive an impact it will have on the evaluation of your domain, which will influence the growth of your domain authority and page authority. On the other hand, Total Backlink is the data of numerous Backlinks or connections that enter your site. A Do follow or Non follow link context that is collected from other websites might be used for the link.
Page Quality (PQ): The concept of page quality holds that the quantity and calibre of backlinks pointing to your website together make up the page’s overall quality. (PQ) rating task comprises of a URL and a grid to note your observations, which will direct your research of the landing page and the website connected to the URL. Assessing how well a page accomplishes its objectives is the ultimate objective of page quality assessment.
MozTrust (MT): In a simplistic approach, MT is created by Moz and its basic need is to evaluate a website’s credibility and authority. Higher scores indicate more trust, which is measured on a scale of 100 points. Most Trust is a type of trust that is basically equivalent to the so-called Moz Rank, which determines how popular and trustworthy your domain is based on how many people visit it.
Spam Score (SS):The DMCA, copying content, or search engine penalties all contribute to your website’s spam score, also known as SS, which is the accumulation of a score that is harmful for your website. Three categories—Mild (1-30%), Medium (31-60%), and High (61-100%)—are available for this spam score. If a site has a high Spam Score, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is spammy or worth visiting because not every business can try to keep their website at the level of a good SEO score cause its really time consuming and costly. You notice how small size firms send a lot of mails and get spams but that’s just an organic way of promotion.
On-Off page (OS): OS is a measure of the degree to which your website’s domain, articles, and other content are of a calibre that allows you to display all your actions. The usage of keywords, the calibre and applicability of the material, and the website’s layout and navigation are examples of on-page aspects that are under the website owner’s control. Contrarily, off-page factors are components that are external to the website and include things like the quantity and quality of backlinks leading to the website and the availability of social signals.
Header Tags: They are in general termed as HTML tags that are used to separate headers and subheadings from the rest of the material on a webpage, from H1 to H6 in declining order of significance. H1 is the page’s principal heading and title, and you typically only require H1 through H4. H2 is a supporting point and subheading. H1s are usually the titles, and they are listed in order of importance from H1 to H6. A webpage’s readability and SEO are both enhanced by header tags.
Canonical URL: As the below image highlights, selecting the representative -canonical- URL of a piece of material is the process of canonicalization. As a result, when Google discovers multiple (or nearly identical) pages on a website, it chooses one canonical URL to serve as their common denominator. Your page will then be given priority during indexing and ranking. This is a technical aspect of Google itself to allow people to read the best from your duplicate content.
External links: External links are hyperlinks that point from one website to another. They can be valuable for SEO when they come from reputable and relevant sources. Search engines consider external links as signals of a website’s authority and relevance, which can positively impact search engine rankings.
Inter and Intra linking: Links are necessary for your content to rank. If your articles and web pages are linked to some other articles on the internet, Google will find them more easily. They can create a hierarchy on your website, enabling you to give the most crucial pages and posts more “link value” than other, less significant ones. Consequently, implementing the proper internal linking strategy might improve your SEO. Google and other search engines depend on internal linkage to function properly. Yet why? To finding material on websites and ranking it in search results, Google follows links. A post or page that receives a lot of links is an important or valuable piece of content, according to Google. Both internal and external links are considered in this.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of the explanation. Being one of the new individuals in the digital market, this understanding of the SEO and terms will not help in building that foundation that you need but can help you in making the start. In the process of understanding, you would also take the rollercoaster of SEO being a bit challenging, but this explanation of the terminologies would surely help you in searching for opportunities rather than crying for challenges. So here’s to achieving the greater rankings with the effective target audience and a simplified optimisation.