What Is SEO? A Guide to Search Engine Optimization

Some changes might take effect in a few hours, others could take several months. In general, you likely want to wait a few weeks to assess whether your work had beneficial effects in Google Search results. Get expert help, starting with a custom SEO strategy for your business. Learn how to format your content for visibility in AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. Discover how algorithmic signals can impact your content visibility. How ecommerce brands can report on paid media performance using KPIs, attribution models, MMM, and incrementality testing to drive smarter, data-backed marketing decisions.

• But the query is much more commercial in nature and will for sure generate more revenue which is why Google is showing buying guides instead of Walmart product page.
• Your website must be optimized to make sales or at least drive a customer to get in touch so you can make a sale.
• SEO plugins are great because they give you recommendations on what exactly you need to do to optimize the content for specific keywords.

In addition to the on-page SEO elements that your organization has control over, there are also off-page SEO factors that can impact your ranking. You need to make sure that these users are able to view, read, and navigate your website from their mobile devices. Not only do sub-headings make your content easier for visitors to read, but they can also help improve your SEO. You can also freshen up your content by updating posts, rewriting them to make them more effective, or adding new information and statistics over time.

Some of the best rank tracking tools out there can help you identify the pages ranking well for your keyword, like Ahrefs. Then, use your header tags to target your keyword, plus help users find the information they need. SEO helps websites like yours improve their online visibility — without the cost of pay-per-click (PPC) or social media advertising. With that kind of visibility, you can reach your target audience at the perfect moment, as they search for products or services you offer. Search engine optimization (SEO) is optimizing a website to improve its visibility in organic search results, like on Google. Common optimizations for SEO include improving page speed, researching keywords, and creating content.

That said, using unique, well-written meta descriptions can have a positive impact on the number of clicks you ultimately receive. When you rank in search, Google (and other search engines) takes elements of your page to display in search results. These elements can not only influence how many people click on your result, but in some cases, they can also influence how well you rank. Perhaps most important is how your site performs on mobile devices. While you may look at your site on a desktop computer, the majority of web users now access most sites through search via their phone.

Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google to help website owners monitor and maintain their site’s presence in Google search results. Understanding their roles and importance is key to maximizing their advantages. However, speed can also affect rankings indirectly by increasing the bounce rate. Page speed is a direct ranking factor, a fact known even more since Google’s Algorithm Speed Update. A meta description is an HTML tag used to describe the content of a web page. It’s important for SEO because Google might use them as snippets for your pages in the SERPs.

With this understanding of how search engines rank pages, let’s explore how SEO works. It has a complex algorithm, which takes into account hundreds of ranking factors. They work together to determine the most useful and relevant results. To understand the basics of SEO, it helps to understand how search engines work.

Is SEO a good career?

I recommend typing a few different keywords into Google until you have a list of about 10 keywords. Differentiates real visitors from automated bots, ensuring accurate usage data and improving your website experience. SEO Anomaly In lesson 3, you’ll dive into case studies—the backbone of your portfolio.

Introduction to Off-Page SEO

When a user searches for “how to pair a JBL Bluetooth speaker” Google will present results from pages or videos that contain instructions of some kind. Thus, it is important to know what SEO keyword research is and perform it efficiently. We have listed some of the best practices to improve SEO and keep you ahead of the competition. Thus, creating SEO-friendly content with these factors in mind can significantly boost your search results. SEO is all about using different methods to demonstrate a website’s value to Google so that it can rank highly in search results.

In addition, you want to make sure that each piece of the content focuses on just one or two keywords. When strategically placing your SEO keywords and phrases on your pages, it’s important to avoid over-optimization. This should include your keyword and also provide enough details to tell the reader what the content is about. Start off by creating a few blog posts and work to build a following on social media.

Avoid selling or over-promotion on online forums, which can backfire by creating distrust. Use free tools like Grammarly, Readability Test, and Hemingway Editor to proof your content. These tools can help you find grammar and spelling errors, plus opportunities for improving your content’s readability, which you should tailor to your audience. Search engine optimization is also helpful because of its targeting capabilities. Whether you’re looking to reach people in a specific town (like Los Angeles) or people in the awareness vs. decision stage, you can do so with SEO.