Doing an online business or own a website, you must have heard of Search Engine Optimization, simply called SEO. You must also be aware of SEO as an essential digital marketing technique for organic online visibility and quality business leads. But what exactly is SEO, why it is important, what are the best SEO practices and Future of SEO, are you aware? If not, then this SEO guide will help you understand meaning, significance and Future of SEO.

What is SEO?

“Optimize Your Website – Make It Easier To Crawl, Index and Understand for Search Engines to Increase Its Online Visibility on Relevant Search Terms.” R. Dave

SEO is the practice of making your website search engine friendly to increase the quantity as well as quality of online visits through organic search results. A higher ranking on search engine’s organic results on a search term increases brand recognition along with its visibility online. This way the brand gets more opportunities to convert qualified visitors into customers.

Any website is built with a vision to benefit its end users, and optimization means working towards making the user experience better. Search engines like Google are one of those users which help other online users to discover your content. Briefly speaking, SEO is a practice of helping search engines find, understand as well as present your content.

Why is SEO important?

SEO Increases Visibility, Rankings and Web Traffic

SEO increases organic traffic to your website, which means it brings in qualified leads. It is easier to sell your products or services to the relevant and interested visitors.

When searching for something online, be it a product or a service, users tend to choose from the results showing on the first page, and preferably one among the top 5 search results. SEO helps in getting more online visibility by ranking higher on search results, making searchers click on your website and convert them into customers.

Enhanced User Experience

A well-optimized website enhances the user experiences by communicating the details of products / services offered, their benefits, their availability and attainability and answers any queries related to them.

SEO practices include to make the site more user friendly, that includes many factors besides product/ service description such as website loading time, proper navigation, contact details and so on.

Increases Trustworthiness and Brand awareness

Users tend to trust the brand recommended by the Search Engines, especially those ranking high on organic results.

Getting organic traffic is not a cakewalk. Ranking on the first page of a search engine requires attaining a high score on the ranking parameters of search engines. When a business ranks higher on organic search results it solidifies the trustworthiness of the brand. And ranking higher on search results on different search terms related to the product or service being offered increases the brand awareness.

What Are the Main SEO Practices?

On-Page SEO

Also called On-site SEO, On Page SEO means making the contents of the webpage/website (by contents we mean textual content, images and other elements on the page) search engine and user friendly. It implies providing the search engines signals about the webpage in different ways and providing information to the end customer adequate information.

Off-Page SEO

Also called Off-Site SEO, Off- Page SEO includes search engine optimization techniques that involve making the website popular on other online platforms. It includes creating backlinks, social media optimization, etc.

Local SEO

Local SEO has grown very popular lately. With the increasing popularity of “near me” searches, it becomes essential for a business catering to a local area or limited area to get the business listed on online Maps such as Google Maps. Search engines pull the user’s location to make suggestions to the online queries looking for products/services that are within a certain range so that they can make a quick decision. For example, if someone is looking for a restaurant nearby on Google, it provides results according to the location, reviews and ratings of the restaurants listed on its Maps.

SEO doesn’t yield immediate results but is essential for longevity of an online business.

SEO Guide: What is SEO, Its Importance and Its Important Elements