Search engine optimisation, or SEO, is the process of improving a website’s technical setup, content relevancy, and link popularity so that its pages are more accessible, relevant to user search queries, and popular with users in general. As a result, SEO helps search engines rank these pages higher.
By presenting material that satisfies user search demands, search engines advocate SEO actions that help both the user search experience and page’s rating. This comprises, among other SEO best practises, the inclusion of pertinent keywords in page titles, meta descriptions, and headings (H1), the use of descriptive URLs that include keywords rather than a list of numbers, and the use of schema markup to explain the meaning of the page’s content.
People may locate what they’re seeking for online with the aid of search engines. Search engines are a typical starting place when you require information, whether you’re looking into a particular product, finding a restaurant, or making travel arrangements. They provide an excellent chance for company owners to send targeted visitors to your website.
The process of positioning your website to appear higher on a search engine results page (SERP) in order to draw in more visitors is known as search engine optimisation (SEO). For search phrases that are most important to your target audience, it is common to try to rank on the first page of Google results. Therefore, understanding your audience’s desires and requirements is just as important to SEO as knowing the technical details of how to set up your website.
Here are the fundamentals.
How Are Search Engines Operated?
Any search phrase entered by a user will provide results from search engines. To achieve this, they explore and “understand” the web’s huge network of websites. For each search query, they execute a complex algorithm to decide which results to show.
Why SEO prioritises Google
Many people associate the word “search engine” with Google, which has roughly 92% of the market for search engines worldwide. Because Google is the most popular search engine, SEO strategies often centre on how Google functions. It’s helpful to comprehend precisely how and why Google functions.
How Google Feels
Google’s users, or searchers, are meant to have the greatest possible search experience. That entails delivering the most relevant results as soon as feasible.
The search phrase (user input) and the search results (output) are the two main components of the search experience.
Take the example of searching for “Mailchimp guides and tutorials.” This search is precise and unambiguous. Google recognises your query and provides Mailchimp’s own page with that title as the top organic result, which is helpful.
Because it’s probable that the user will click the top result and be pleased with the outcome, Google views this as a very excellent search result and a great user experience.
How Google Generates Income
Google benefits from users’ confidence and appreciation of its search engine. It does this by providing relevant search results.
Additionally, Google gives companies the option to purchase an advertorial placement at the top of search result pages. These entries are denoted with the term “Ad”. These pay-per-click (PPC) adverts, which you buy via AdWords, are the source of revenue for Google. Particularly on more general enquiries, you’ll notice these adverts.
These search results hardly stand out from other search results save from the little label. Since many people click on these results without realising they are advertisements, it is obvious that this is done on purpose.
The company Google depends on this. Over 80% of the $182.5 billion that Google made in income in 2020 came from advertising. Thus, it is dependent on its advertising revenue even if search services are still its key offering.
What Makes Up Search Results?
Paid and “organic” search results may be seen on SERPs, however organic results don’t bring in money for Google. Instead, Google presents organic results based on its evaluation of the quality and relevancy of a site. Google will also show other components on the SERP, such as maps, photos, or videos, depending on the kind of search query.
Depending on what consumers have searched, there may be a lot of adverts on a SERP. For instance, if you searched for “shoes,” you would probably notice that many of the top results were advertisements. In reality, the first organic result is likely to be farther down the page than you expect.
Due to the likelihood that the searcher is trying to purchase shoes online and the abundance of shoe manufacturers ready to pay for a place in the AdWords results for this query, a query like this often produces a large number of adverts.
On the other hand, your search results will be different if you type in “Atlanta Falcons,” for example. The top results are related to that because the professional American football team with that name is mostly associated with this search. But the question is still not very obvious. You may see their homepage, knowledge graph, and recent news. These three types of results at the top show that Google doesn’t know exactly what you were looking for, but it still offers fast links to find out more about the team, read their most recent news, or visit their website.
There are no AdWords results since there doesn’t seem to be any purchase intent behind the term, which discourages marketers from placing a bid.
The SERP results alter to include more sponsored results if you adjust your search to “Atlanta Falcons hat,” which tells Google that you may be purchasing.
Position of SEO
Increasing your position in organic search results is the aim of SEO. AdWords, shopping, and local results optimisation all include various techniques.
Although it can seem that there are too many competing factors vying for space on SERPs, pushing the organic rankings down, SEO can still be a highly effective and profitable strategy.
Google handles billions of search queries every day, so organic search results represent a pretty sizable portion of the pie. To acquire and maintain organic rankings, some initial and continuous expenditure is necessary, but every click that directs visitors to your website is totally free.
