What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
An essential component of effective digital marketing strategy, search engine optimization (SEO) is a multifaceted approach at improving a website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO involves optimizing various elements on your website to align with search engine algorithms, ultimately enhancing your chances of ranking higher and attracting organic search traffic and conversions.
If you’re an SEO beginner, we recommend brushing up on common terms related to the subject, like EEAT, PPC, schema, semantic SEO, and more. Read PhotoShelter’s SEO Glossary.
Understanding Search Engine Algorithms
Search engines like Google and Bing utilize complex algorithms to power their organic search capabilities. These algorithms determine the relevance of web pages in response to searchers’ queries. Algorithms consider many factors, like keywords, user experience, and on-page SEO and backlinks, to provide searchers with high-quality, relevant results on SERPs.
HTML code types supply search engines with crucial information for SERP display. HTML tags constitute code elements present in the backend of every webpage, emphasizing content segments pertinent to search and elucidating those segments for search engine crawlers.
Keywords and Search Queries: SEO keywords are terms added to online content to improve search engine rankings.
- SEO beginners will want to start with thorough keyword research. By identifying high-volume and relevant search terms through keyword research and incorporating them into your website’s content, meta descriptions, title tags, alt text and more, you can optimize your website’s content to align with user intent, improving its visibility to searchers and encouraging conversions.
- SEO beginners should also consider local SEO, which enhances a website’s visibility in geographically local search results. Local SEO could include optimizing your brand’s Google My Business profiles, encouraging customer reviews through Google or Yelp and tailoring website content to locally-specific keywords.
User Experience: User experience (UX) refers to the overall experience that a person has when interacting with a product, service or system, especially concerning its usability and trustworthiness. Search engines prioritize websites that offer a positive and seamless user experience for searchers.
Technical SEO involves optimizing the technical aspects of a website, such as speed, structure and indexing, to improve its search engine performance and overall visibility.
On-Page SEO Techniques: Optimizing on-page SEO is crucial. To do so:
- Use appropriate title tags, incorporate target keywords into your webpage content and create compelling meta descriptions.
- Leverage internal links to redirect visitors to related content within your site, improving user experience and keeping them engaged.
- And if you’re creating a PhotoShelter website, incorporate page titles and meta descriptions to further boost your SEO. Click here for tips on leveraging metadata to improve your SEO.
Backlinks and Off-Page SEO: The majority of what contributes to your search engine ranking are off-site page SEO factors, like backlinks, which are links on other sites that lead to a page on your site.
- Digital marketing and SEO strategy have a symbiotic relationship; effective branding, content creation, and influencer and industry peer relationships encourage others to share your site and boost your backlinking strategy.
- For more reading on how to leverage off-site SEO and backlinks to boost your SEO, check out our blog.
Rolling Out Your SEO Strategy & Other Helpful SEO Tips
Social Media and SEO Strategy: Sharing your website on social media and leveraging social signals, such as likes, shares and comments, can influence search engine rankings.
Measuring Success with Metrics and SEO Tools: Track the effectiveness of your SEO efforts using relevant metrics and tools like Semrush or Moz. Analyzing data allows you to refine your strategy and adapt to evolving trends.
Pay Per Click: A pay-per-click (PPC) strategy is slightly different from SEO. PPC ads sit on search engines and let you reach customers more immediately and customize your campaign.
Make a Checklist: Search Engine Optimization requires work on content and metadata within your website and marketing efforts outside of your website. Our checklist will guide you through making the most of the tools we offer when building out your SEO strategy.
To sum it up, search engines work by exploring and organizing the internet’s information, using algorithms to decide which websites are most relevant to what someone is searching for, and then showing those results to the user. Your results are more likely to come up if related to the user’s search, and you can increase relatability through search engine optimization, or SEO strategy.
PhotoShelter is designed to empower you and your brand, providing the tools and insights needed to optimize your website for search engines. Click here to check out all of our SEO resources, tips and more to help you start boosting your visibility today. Explore the comprehensive guide we’ve crafted and master the art of SEO.