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SEO Starter Guide: The Basics | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google Developers – A knowledge of basic SEO can have a noticeable impact. Explore the Google SEO starter guide for an overview of search engine optimization essentials. (developers.google.com)
What Is SEO – Search Engine Optimization? – Get started learning the basics of search engine optimization – how SEO works, why it’s important, the different types of SEO and much more. (searchengineland.com)
Beginner’s Guide to SEO [plus FREE quick start checklist] – Moz – New to SEO? Looking for higher rankings and traffic through Search Engine Optimization? The Beginner’s Guide to SEO has been read over 10 million times. (moz.com)
Search engine optimization – Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
SEO Global Home – For over 50 years, SEO has been an innovator in education, mentorship, positive peer pressure, high standards, and networks to turn untapped potential into newfound (seo-usa.org)
SEO for Beginners: An Introduction to SEO Basics – This must-read guide covers the meaning of SEO: what is SEO, why it’s important, how to rank higher, and how to get more organic traffic. (searchenginejournal.com)
Search Engine Optimization – Learn to Optimize for SEO – Learn what SEO is plus how to optimize your site to rank higher on Google and get more traffic—with tips, tools, and visuals. (wordstream.com)
What Is SEO? Search Engine Optimization Explained – Neil Patel – SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is the process of taking steps to help a website or piece of content rank higher on Google. (neilpatel.com)
(yoast.com)
What Is SEO? (A Fluff-Free Definition + Basics Explained) – SEO (search engine optimization) improves your website‘s visibility in search engines. Learn more here. (semrush.com)
What is SEO and how does it work? – https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/resources/toolkits/seo-keyword-research-toolkit?header-cta1 Download Now Download our SEO Keyword Research Toolkit Are you at the start of your SEO journey? Maybe you’ve heard that SEO can help drive traffic to y (digitalmarketinginstitute.com)
What is SEO? Basics of Search Engine Optimization – SEO stands for search engine optimization, which helps your page rank higher on Google and other search engines to drive more traffic to your site. (mailchimp.com)
Council Post: 10 Key Benefits Of SEO For Your Business – If you are looking to create long-term brand awareness, expand your target audiences and earn more revenue, search engine optimization is crucial. (forbes.com)
SEO Software All-In-One SEO Tools for full cycle SEO optimisation – Get all-in-one pack of SEO software — download free edition of SEO PowerSuite. SEO tools & free SEO advice for top rankings on Google & other search engines! (link-assistant.com)
Five Ways to Improve your Site’s Ranking (SEO) | Michigan Technological University – Follow these suggestions to improve your site’s search engine optimization and ranking and you will be googily rewarded: Use metadata, have a link-worthy site, publish relevant content, update your content regularly, and use alt tags. (mtu.edu)
SEO Basics: Beginner’s Guide to SEO Success – The basics of SEO are quite simple. And since most website owners have a limited understanding of it, knowing SEO basics can help you succeed. (ahrefs.com)
Yoast SEO – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org – Improve your WordPress SEO: Write better content and have a fully optimized WordPress site using the Yoast SEO plugin. (wordpress.org)
SEO Audits – Chrome Developers – These checks ensure that your page is optimized for search engine results ranking. (developer.chrome.com)
Courses & Lessons – On average, HubSpot’s blog attracts over 350,000 visits per day. In this free certification course, you’ll learn our principles for creating a successful SEO strategy. (academy.hubspot.com)
What Is SEO & Why Is It Important? – You’ve probably heard a hundred times that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a vital digital marketing tool. But do you really know how SEO works? Even if you have a basic understanding of what it entails, you may still not have a solid grasp on th (digitalmarketinginstitute.com)

If your site isn’t in Google

Although Google crawls billions of pages, it’s inevitable that some sites will be missed. When our crawlers miss a site, it’s frequently for one of the following reasons:

The site isn’t well connected from other sites on the web

You’ve just launched a new site and Google hasn’t had time to crawl it yet

The design of the site makes it difficult for Google to crawl its content effectively

Google received an error when trying to crawl your site

Your policy blocks Google from crawling the site

Source: developers.google.com

How do I get my site on Google?

Google is a fully automated search engine that uses web crawlers to explore the web constantly, looking for sites to add to our index; you usually don’t even need to do anything except post your site on the web. In fact, the vast majority of sites listed in our results aren’t manually submitted for inclusion, but found and added automatically when we crawl the web. Learn how Google discovers, crawls, and serves web pages.

The Search Essentials outline the most important elements of building a Google-friendly website. While there’s no guarantee that our crawlers will find a particular site, following the Search Essentials can help make your site appear in our search results.

Google Search Console provides tools to help you submit your content to Google and monitor how you’re doing in Google Search. If you want, Search Console can even send you alerts on critical issues that Google encounters with your site. Sign up for Search Console.

Here are a few basic questions to ask yourself about your website when you get started.

Is my website showing up on Google?

Do I serve high-quality content to users?

Is my local business showing up on Google?

Is my content fast and easy to access on all devices?

Is my website secure?

Source: developers.google.com

What Is SEO – Search Engine Optimization?

GA4 ‘auto-migration’: Here’s why you should opt out

Source: searchengineland.com

How is SEO different from SEM and PPC?

SEM and PPC are two other common terms you will read about a lot here on Search Engine Land and hear about in the larger search marketing community.

Read on to learn more about both of these terms and how they’re related to SEO.

Source: searchengineland.com

SEO vs. SEM

SEM stands for search engine marketing – or, as it is more commonly known, search marketing.

Search marketing is a type of digital marketing. It is an umbrella term for the combination of SEO and PPC activities meant to drive traffic via organic search and paid search.

Put simply, search marketing is the process of gaining traffic and visibility from search engines through both paid and unpaid efforts.

So how do SEO and SEM differ? Technically they aren’t different – SEO is simply one-half of SEM:

SEO = driving organic traffic from search engines.

SEM = driving organic and paid traffic from search engines.

Now, this is where things get a bit confusing.

Today, many people use SEM interchangeably with PPC (which we’ll talk about in the next section).

This idea seems to undercut SEO. However, SEO is marketing, just like PPC is marketing.

Here’s the best way to think about SEO and SEM:

Imagine SEM is a coin. SEO is one side of that coin. PPC is on the flip side.

Source: searchengineland.com

Search engine marketing (SEM) is an umbrella term for a type of digital marketing that uses both organic and paid searches to increase online visibility. SEM combines the practice of search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) activities with the intention of driving more website traffic through higher rankings in search engine results pages. SEM provides visibility via technical, creative, and analytical strategies which can include things like keyword research, content writing, content optimization, link building, and more. While SEO focuses on achieving better organic search rankings over time, PPC allows you to purchase website clicks from major search engines at the very top of their results pages.

The two approaches are very different but they are inherently complementary since SEO can help drive overall organic website traffic while PPC helps ramp up short-term awareness campaigns. Furthermore, combining SEO with other digital marketing efforts such as social media campaigns and email outreach can provide even greater reach for your business which ultimately drives long-term success for your online presence. It is important to note that many tactics used for SEO are also applicable to SEM – it’s just a matter of utilizing them in a cost effective manner to maximize your ROI from both tactics alike.

Types of SEO

There are three types of SEO:

Technical SEO:Optimizing the technical aspects of a website.

On-site SEO:Optimizing the content on a website for users and search engines.

Off-site SEO:Creating brand assets(e.g., people, marks, values, vision, slogans, catchphrases, colors) and doing things that will ultimately enhance brand awareness and recognition (i.e., demonstrating and growing its expertise, authority and trustworthiness) and demand generation.

You maintain 100% control over content and technical optimizations. That’s not always true with off-site (you can’t control links from other sites or if platforms you rely on end up shutting down or making a major change), but those activities are still a key part of this SEO trinity of success.

Imagine SEO as a sports team. You need both a strong offense and defense to win – and you need fans (a.k.a., an audience). Think of technical optimization as your defense, content optimization as your offense, and off-site optimization as ways to attract, engage and retain a loyal fanbase.

Source: searchengineland.com

SEO vs. PPC

PPC stands for pay-per-click – a type of digital marketing where advertisers are charged whenever one of their ads gets clicked on.

Basically, advertisers bid on specific keywords or phrases that they want their ads to appear for in the search engine results. When a user searches for one of those keywords or phrases, the advertiser’s ad will appear among the top results.

So again, if we think of search marketing as a coin, SEO and PPC are two sides of the same coin – SEO is the unpaid side, PPC is the paid side.

Another key point: it’s important never to think of it as “SEO vs. PPC” (i.e., which one is better) because these are complementary channels. It’s not an either-or question – always choose both (as long as your budget allows it).

As we mentioned before, the terms SEM and PPC are used within the industry interchangeably. However, that isn’t the case here on Search Engine Land.

Whenever we mention “SEM,” it will be because we’re referring to both SEO (organic search) and PPC (paid search).

If you’re curious about the history behind how “SEM” came to mean “PPC” at the exclusion of SEO, you can dig deeper into these articles:

Source: searchengineland.com

SEO and PPC are both digital marketing channels for businesses that aim to increase visibility in search engine results. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, refers to the organic development of website content to appear higher up in organic search results. PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click, a type of paid advertising where the advertiser pays whenever their ad is clicked by someone. This means that with PPC, it’s possible to get your ads displayed higher in the results almost immediately because bidding on relevant keyphrases helps your ads compete well with other advertisers.

It’s important to not think of SEO and PPC as competitors – they both have advantages over one another depending on what a business hopes to achieve through their respective campaigns. SEO can help bring target customers more organically whereas pay-per-click allows businesses to more easily focus their attention on specific keywords and phrases that are more likely to generate leads quickly. Both methods should be used holistically so businesses can experience the most success in leveraging search engine marketing tools within the digital domain. When it comes to digital marketing, SEO and PPC are two sides of the same coin. On one hand we have SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which refers to gaining organic visibility on search engine results pages by optimizing content and/or technical factors in order to rank as high as possible. On the other hand we have PPC (Pay Per Click), which is a type of paid digital marketing where advertisers pay money whenever their ads get clicked on by users who are searching for specific keywords or phrases.

It’s important to remember that both SEO and PPC are essential elements of an effective search marketing strategy – they’re complementary channels that should be used together in order to maximize overall click-through rates and conversions. While SEO requires more upfront investment in terms of time and resources, PPC can provide a major advantage when it comes to getting quick results with minimal effort. However, if you want to make sure your marketing efforts truly pay off in the long run, you should consider determining the best balance between investing in both strategies.

Why is SEO important?

SEO is a critical marketing channel. First, and foremost: organic search delivers 53% of all website traffic.

That’s one big reason why the global SEO industry is forecast to reach a staggering $122.11 billion by 2028. SEO drives real business results for brands, businesses and organizations of all sizes.

Whenever people want to go somewhere, do something, find information, research or buy a product/service – their journey typically begins with a search.

But today, search is incredibly fragmented. Users may search on traditional web search engines (e.g., Google, Microsoft Bing), social platforms (e.g., YouTube, TikTok) or retailer websites (e.g., Amazon).

In fact, 61% of U.S. online shoppers start their product search on Amazon, compared to 49% who start on a search engine like Google. Also of note from that same research:

32% start on Walmart.com.

20% start on YouTube.

19% start on Facebook.

15% start on Instagram.

11% start on TikTok.

Trillions of searches are conducted every year. Search is often the primary source of traffic for websites, which makes it essential to be “search engine friendly” on any platform where people can search for your brand or business.

What this all means is that improving your visibility, and ranking higher in search results than your competition, can positively impact your bottom line,

SEO is also incredibly important because the search engine results pages (or SERPs) are super competitive – filled with search features (and PPC ads). SERP features include:

Knowledge panels.

Featured snippets.

Maps.

Images.

Videos.

People Also Ask.

Carousels.

Another reason SEO is critical for brands and businesses: unlike other marketing channels, good SEO work is sustainable. When a paid campaign ends, so does the traffic. Traffic from social media traffic is at best unreliable – and a fraction of what it once was.

SEO is the foundation of holistic marketing, where everything your company does matters. Once you understand what your users want, you can then implement that knowledge across your:

Campaigns (paid and organic).

Website content.

Social media properties.

SEO is a channel that drives the traffic you need to achieve key business goals (e.g., conversions, visits, sales). It also builds trust – a website that ranks well is generally regarded as authoritative or trustworthy, which are key elements Google wants to reward with better rankings.

When done correctly, SEO can help your business achieve success in many ways. For example, it can help you target the right people and introduce them to your products or services, as well as increase brand awareness by putting your name in front of potential customers. Additionally, SEO can provide valuable data that can be used to improve the user experience on your website and optimize for better performance. Finally, SEO can help you build relationships with your customers, by providing them with the information they need to make an educated decision.

To sum it up, SEO is a powerful marketing tool that has the potential to bring significant benefits for your business. It’s a long-term investment that pays off in the form of increased website traffic, conversions, and brand awareness.

Technical optimization

Optimizing the technical elements of a website is crucial and fundamental for SEO success.

It all starts with architecture – creating a website that can be crawled and indexed by search engines. As Gary Illyes, Google’s trends analyst, once put it in a Reddit AMA: “MAKE THAT DAMN SITE CRAWLABLE.”

You want to make it easy for search engines to discover and access all of the content on your pages (i.e., text, images, videos). What technical elements matter here: URL structure, navigation, internal linking, and more.

Experience is also a critical element of technical optimization. Search engines stress the importance of pages that load quickly and provide a good user experience. Elements such as Core Web Vitals, mobile-friendliness and usability, HTTPS, and avoiding intrusive interstitials all matter in technical SEO.

Another area of technical optimization is structured data (a.k.a., schema). Adding this code to your website can help search engines better understand your content and enhance your appearance in the search results.

Plus, web hosting services, CMS (content management system) and site security all play a role in SEO.

Content optimization

Content optimization is the process of making sure your website content is as high-quality and relevant to your target audience as possible. Content optimization involves writing compelling titles and meta descriptions that draw readers in, as well as ensuring each page has unique content that covers all aspects of the subject. It also involves optimizing the content for keywords and phrases that are commonly used by people searching for that topic.

Content optimization is also about making sure your content is up-to-date and relevant to ensure it stands out in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Content optimization involves constantly updating content to make it evergreen and fresh.

Link building

Link building is a key part of SEO, as it shows Google that your website has value. When other websites link to yours, it’s a sign that your content is useful and informative. The more links you have to your website, the higher you’ll rank in the SERPs.

Link building involves creating relationships with other websites and publishers so they link to your content. This could be through guest blogging or creating high-quality content that others want to link to.

The basics of search engine optimization

Ever heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? It’s a theory of psychology that prioritizes the most fundamental human needs (like air, water, and physical safety) over more advanced needs (like esteem and social belonging). The theory is that you can’t achieve the needs at the top without ensuring the more fundamental needs are met first. Love doesn’t matter if you don’t have food.

Our founder, Rand Fishkin, made a similar pyramid to explain the way folks should go about SEO, and we’ve affectionately dubbed it “Mozlow’s hierarchy of SEO needs.”

Chapter 3: Keyword Research

Understand what your audience wants to find.

Our approach targets users first because that’s what search engines reward. This chapter covers keyword research and other methods to determine what your audience is seeking.

Chapter 4: On-Site Optimization

Use your research to craft your message.

This is a hefty chapter, covering optimized design, user experience, information architecture, and all the ways you can adjust how you publish content to maximize its visibility and resonance with your audience.

Indexing is a crucial part of optimizing a website for search engines. It involves getting pages to appear in the organic search results section of leading search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo!. These search engine crawlers scan the web for pages and prioritize them based on relevance. This process allows users to find the most pertinent information quickly and efficiently.

In order to get indexed, websites have traditionally been required to submit their URL’s manually using services like the Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ for editorial review. However, since these services closed their doors in 2014 and 2017 respectively, websites are now able to get indexed by simply being linked from other search engine-indexed pages which eliminates the need for manual submission. As an added bonus, Google also offers a free link submission service which makes it easy for webmasters to share their content across multiple platforms.

White hat versus black hat techniques

SEO techniques can be classified into two broad categories: techniques that search engine companies recommend as part of good design (“white hat”), and those techniques of which search engines do not approve (“black hat”). Search engines attempt to minimize the effect of the latter, among them spamdexing. Industry commentators have classified these methods and the practitioners who employ them as either white hat SEO or black hat SEO. White hats tend to produce results that last a long time, whereas black hats anticipate that their sites may eventually be banned either temporarily or permanently once the search engines discover what they are doing.

An SEO technique is considered a white hat if it conforms to the search engines’ guidelines and involves no deception. As the search engine guidelines are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note. White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see. White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to the online “spider” algorithms, rather than attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose. White hat SEO is in many ways similar to web development that promotes accessibility,

Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines or involve deception. One black hat technique uses hidden text, either as text colored similar to the background, in an invisible div, or positioned off-screen. Another method gives a different page depending on whether the page is being requested by a human visitor or a search engine, a technique known as cloaking. Another category sometimes used is grey hat SEO. This is in between the black hat and white hat approaches, where the methods employed avoid the site being penalized but do not act in producing the best content for users. Grey hat SEO is entirely focused on improving search engine rankings.

Search engines may penalize sites they discover using black or grey hat methods, either by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from their databases altogether. Such penalties can be applied either automatically by the search engines’ algorithms or by a manual site review. One example was the February 2006 Google removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany for the use of deceptive practices. Both companies, however, quickly apologized, fixed the offending pages, and were restored to Google’s search engine results page.

Optimizing content for search engines

When it comes to optimizing content for search engine rankings, the most important factor is relevance. Content should be written around a particular topic or keyword in order to make it easier for web crawlers to identify and index the page. Additionally, keywords should be used throughout the content in a natural way that reads well and adds value to the user experience. It is also important to use the right keywords in the right places. For example, using a keyword in the page title or meta description can help tell search engines what the page is about and help it rank higher for that keyword phrase.

Creating quality content is also essential for SEO success. Content should be well-written, informative, and interesting. Additionally, content should be continually updated to keep readers interested and to ensure that search engine crawlers continue to come back. Finally, content should be optimized for specific keywords in order to maximize its chances of ranking highly for those terms.

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