This document provides an overview of search engine optimization (SEO). It defines SEO as improving a website to increase its visibility in search engines when people search for related products, services, or topics. The goal of SEO is to help attract website visitors who may become customers or clients. It discusses how SEO differs from search engine marketing (SEM) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. It also outlines the importance of SEO, different types of SEO, how SEO works, and how to learn SEO.
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines whenever people search for:
What is digital marketing, and why does it matter? That’s precisely what I plan to discuss today.
Digital marketing means using digital channels, like search engines, social media, email, mobile apps, and websites, to promote a product or service. This umbrella term also includes marketing using digital devices such as TV or radio.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines whenever people search for:
Products you sell.
Services yoru provide.
Information on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience.
The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to be found and clicked on. Ultimately, the goal of search engine optimization is to help attract website visitors who will become customers, clients or an audience that keeps coming back.
What you’ll learn in this guide:
How SEO differs from SEM and PPC
Why SEO is important
SEO types and specializations
How SEO works
How to learn SEO
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.
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.
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
We are providing the services of Digital Marketing & SEO in Chishtian and all over the World.
For Further Info: 03333040913
www.digitalmarketingpublic.blogspot.com
Many people don't know what is seo and what are its advantages.This PPT will make one aware of search engine optimization (seo) and how one will profit from an seo technique.
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines whenever people search for:
What is digital marketing, and why does it matter? That’s precisely what I plan to discuss today.
Digital marketing means using digital channels, like search engines, social media, email, mobile apps, and websites, to promote a product or service. This umbrella term also includes marketing using digital devices such as TV or radio.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, SEO means the process of improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines whenever people search for:
Products you sell.
Services yoru provide.
Information on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience.
The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to be found and clicked on. Ultimately, the goal of search engine optimization is to help attract website visitors who will become customers, clients or an audience that keeps coming back.
What you’ll learn in this guide:
How SEO differs from SEM and PPC
Why SEO is important
SEO types and specializations
How SEO works
How to learn SEO
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.
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.
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
We are providing the services of Digital Marketing & SEO in Chishtian and all over the World.
For Further Info: 03333040913
www.digitalmarketingpublic.blogspot.com
Many people don't know what is seo and what are its advantages.This PPT will make one aware of search engine optimization (seo) and how one will profit from an seo technique.
SMO & SEO Training in Ambala ! Batra Computer Centre jatin batra
Are you in search of SMO & SEO Trainingin Ambala?
Now your search ends here... Batra computer centre provides you best training in SMO& SEO in Ambala Cantt. We provide you training in courses like Basics of Computer , C, C++,Php, Web Development, Web Designing, Seo, Smo etc.. We also offer you training in so many other courses also.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: AN ILLUSTRIOUS APPROACH FOR WEB BASED MARKETING I...Journal For Research
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines (Google, Yahoo & Bing) via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a website web presence.The whole process includes two steps:ON Page Optimization and OFF page Optimization. Promoting a web site by earning high organic rankings is one of the primary forms of Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a Return on Investment (ROI) strategy. Optimizing the website enables it to rank higher on major search engines. Search engine rank websites based on two major factors: Unique content that contains pertinent keywords, and link popularity - the number of quality incoming links & the back links to our website.
Presentation on Internet Marketing! Batra Computer Centrejatin batra
Are you searching for computer training in Ambala?
Now your search's ends here ..... Batra Computer Centre provides you training in Internet marketing i. e., SEO. We also offer many other courses like training in Basic Computer Course, Langauage C & C++, Training in Web Designinig, Training in Web Development etc..
This slide is made for computer science students to learn search engine optimization (SEO). By SEO , students can easily increase traffic on his website.
Techinfini's presentation on SEO(search engine optimization), SEM(search engi...TechInfini
There are thousands of same businesses. When someone searches something at search engine, he gets lists of sites related to that query. This presentation will show you, how SEO, SEM, SMO can help you for being on top in search results.
Search engine optimization and search engine marketing (SEM) are often lumped together, but in practice, they are very different. SEM is much broader and includes SEO. SEM requires you to learn new skills, including pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, advertising, and some customer relationship management because you have to market to both consumers and search engines.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a concept that has been around for less than two decades but has generated a huge job influx where marketers and men and women from almost every industry have made careers
Calgary Entrepreneurs Search Engine Marketing with Laura CallowUlistic Inc.
Laura Callow from Intuit and Stuart Crawford from Bulletproof InfoTech hosted June's Calgary Entrepreneur Meetup with our topic on Search Engine Marketing. This was a great presentation on what small business owners can do immediately to grow their business online.
I can speak from experience that Bulletproof InfoTech does a tremendous amount of marketing online to bring our quality IT support services to business in Calgary and laying the ground work for those in search of Central Alberta IT services.
Comprehensive guide to search engine optimization for Ecommerce includes a 7-point SEO checklist, and 3 critical SEO mistakes common with Ecommerce websites. Lots of free tools, resources, and SEO trade secrets from the Ecommerce Marketing Institute.
Search engine optimization - SEO is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to your web site from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. via "organic" or un-paid search results.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
SMO & SEO Training in Ambala ! Batra Computer Centre jatin batra
Are you in search of SMO & SEO Trainingin Ambala?
Now your search ends here... Batra computer centre provides you best training in SMO& SEO in Ambala Cantt. We provide you training in courses like Basics of Computer , C, C++,Php, Web Development, Web Designing, Seo, Smo etc.. We also offer you training in so many other courses also.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: AN ILLUSTRIOUS APPROACH FOR WEB BASED MARKETING I...Journal For Research
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines (Google, Yahoo & Bing) via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings. In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a website web presence.The whole process includes two steps:ON Page Optimization and OFF page Optimization. Promoting a web site by earning high organic rankings is one of the primary forms of Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a Return on Investment (ROI) strategy. Optimizing the website enables it to rank higher on major search engines. Search engine rank websites based on two major factors: Unique content that contains pertinent keywords, and link popularity - the number of quality incoming links & the back links to our website.
Presentation on Internet Marketing! Batra Computer Centrejatin batra
Are you searching for computer training in Ambala?
Now your search's ends here ..... Batra Computer Centre provides you training in Internet marketing i. e., SEO. We also offer many other courses like training in Basic Computer Course, Langauage C & C++, Training in Web Designinig, Training in Web Development etc..
This slide is made for computer science students to learn search engine optimization (SEO). By SEO , students can easily increase traffic on his website.
Techinfini's presentation on SEO(search engine optimization), SEM(search engi...TechInfini
There are thousands of same businesses. When someone searches something at search engine, he gets lists of sites related to that query. This presentation will show you, how SEO, SEM, SMO can help you for being on top in search results.
Search engine optimization and search engine marketing (SEM) are often lumped together, but in practice, they are very different. SEM is much broader and includes SEO. SEM requires you to learn new skills, including pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, advertising, and some customer relationship management because you have to market to both consumers and search engines.
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a concept that has been around for less than two decades but has generated a huge job influx where marketers and men and women from almost every industry have made careers
Calgary Entrepreneurs Search Engine Marketing with Laura CallowUlistic Inc.
Laura Callow from Intuit and Stuart Crawford from Bulletproof InfoTech hosted June's Calgary Entrepreneur Meetup with our topic on Search Engine Marketing. This was a great presentation on what small business owners can do immediately to grow their business online.
I can speak from experience that Bulletproof InfoTech does a tremendous amount of marketing online to bring our quality IT support services to business in Calgary and laying the ground work for those in search of Central Alberta IT services.
Comprehensive guide to search engine optimization for Ecommerce includes a 7-point SEO checklist, and 3 critical SEO mistakes common with Ecommerce websites. Lots of free tools, resources, and SEO trade secrets from the Ecommerce Marketing Institute.
Search engine optimization - SEO is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to your web site from search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. via "organic" or un-paid search results.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Why You Should Replace Windows 11 with Nitrux Linux 3.5.0 for enhanced perfor...SOFTTECHHUB
The choice of an operating system plays a pivotal role in shaping our computing experience. For decades, Microsoft's Windows has dominated the market, offering a familiar and widely adopted platform for personal and professional use. However, as technological advancements continue to push the boundaries of innovation, alternative operating systems have emerged, challenging the status quo and offering users a fresh perspective on computing.
One such alternative that has garnered significant attention and acclaim is Nitrux Linux 3.5.0, a sleek, powerful, and user-friendly Linux distribution that promises to redefine the way we interact with our devices. With its focus on performance, security, and customization, Nitrux Linux presents a compelling case for those seeking to break free from the constraints of proprietary software and embrace the freedom and flexibility of open-source computing.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Le nuove frontiere dell'AI nell'RPA con UiPath Autopilot™UiPathCommunity
In questo evento online gratuito, organizzato dalla Community Italiana di UiPath, potrai esplorare le nuove funzionalità di Autopilot, il tool che integra l'Intelligenza Artificiale nei processi di sviluppo e utilizzo delle Automazioni.
📕 Vedremo insieme alcuni esempi dell'utilizzo di Autopilot in diversi tool della Suite UiPath:
Autopilot per Studio Web
Autopilot per Studio
Autopilot per Apps
Clipboard AI
GenAI applicata alla Document Understanding
👨🏫👨💻 Speakers:
Stefano Negro, UiPath MVPx3, RPA Tech Lead @ BSP Consultant
Flavio Martinelli, UiPath MVP 2023, Technical Account Manager @UiPath
Andrei Tasca, RPA Solutions Team Lead @NTT Data
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
SAP Sapphire 2024 - ASUG301 building better apps with SAP Fiori.pdfPeter Spielvogel
Building better applications for business users with SAP Fiori.
• What is SAP Fiori and why it matters to you
• How a better user experience drives measurable business benefits
• How to get started with SAP Fiori today
• How SAP Fiori elements accelerates application development
• How SAP Build Code includes SAP Fiori tools and other generative artificial intelligence capabilities
• How SAP Fiori paves the way for using AI in SAP apps
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
The Metaverse and AI: how can decision-makers harness the Metaverse for their...Jen Stirrup
The Metaverse is popularized in science fiction, and now it is becoming closer to being a part of our daily lives through the use of social media and shopping companies. How can businesses survive in a world where Artificial Intelligence is becoming the present as well as the future of technology, and how does the Metaverse fit into business strategy when futurist ideas are developing into reality at accelerated rates? How do we do this when our data isn't up to scratch? How can we move towards success with our data so we are set up for the Metaverse when it arrives?
How can you help your company evolve, adapt, and succeed using Artificial Intelligence and the Metaverse to stay ahead of the competition? What are the potential issues, complications, and benefits that these technologies could bring to us and our organizations? In this session, Jen Stirrup will explain how to start thinking about these technologies as an organisation.
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
Climate Impact of Software Testing at Nordic Testing DaysKari Kakkonen
My slides at Nordic Testing Days 6.6.2024
Climate impact / sustainability of software testing discussed on the talk. ICT and testing must carry their part of global responsibility to help with the climat warming. We can minimize the carbon footprint but we can also have a carbon handprint, a positive impact on the climate. Quality characteristics can be added with sustainability, and then measured continuously. Test environments can be used less, and in smaller scale and on demand. Test techniques can be used in optimizing or minimizing number of tests. Test automation can be used to speed up testing.
Climate Impact of Software Testing at Nordic Testing Days
Seo.docx.pdf
1. Search Engine Land
Search Engine Land » SEO » Search Engine Land’s Guide To All Things Search » What Is
SEO – Search Engine Optimization?
What Is SEO – Search Engine Optimization?
What is SEO - search engine optimization
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” In simple terms, SEO means the process of
improving your website to increase its visibility in Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search
engines whenever people search for:
Products you sell.
Services yoru provide.
Information on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience.
The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to be found
and clicked on. Ultimately, the goal of search engine optimization is to help attract website
visitors who will become customers, clients or an audience that keeps coming back.
What you’ll learn in this guide:
How SEO differs from SEM and PPC
Why SEO is important
SEO types and specializations
How SEO works
How to learn SEO
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.
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.
2. 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.
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:
How Wikipedia Turned PPC / Paid Search Into SEM
Does SEM = SEO + CPC Still Add Up?
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.
3. 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.
Top stories (news).
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.
Types of SEO
There are three types of SEO:
4. 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.
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
In SEO, your content needs to be optimized for two primary audiences: people and search
engines. What this means is that you optimize the content your audience will see (what’s
actually on the page) as well as what search engines will see (the code).
The goal, always, is to publish helpful, high-quality content. You can do this through a
combination of understanding your audience’s wants and needs, data and guidance
provided by Google.
5. When optimizing content for people, you should make sure it:
Covers relevant topics with which you have experience or expertise.
Includes keywords people would use to find the content.
Is unique or original.
Is well-written and free of grammatical and spelling errors.
Is up to date, containing accurate information.
Includes multimedia (e.g., images, videos).
Is better than your SERP competitors.
Is readable – structured to make it easy for people to understand the information you’re
sharing (think: subheadings, paragraph length, use bolding/italics, ordered/unordered lists,
reading level, etc.).
For search engines, some key content elements to optimize for are:
Title tags
Meta description
Header tags (H1-H6)
Image alt text
Open graph and Twitter Cards metadata
Off-site optimization
There are several activities that may not be “SEO” in the strictest sense, but nonetheless
can align with and help contribute indirectly to SEO success.
Link building (the process of acquiring links to a website) is the activity most associated with
off-site SEO. There can be great benefits (e.g., rankings, traffic) from getting a diverse
number of links pointing at your website from relevant, authoritative, trusted websites. Link
quality beats link quantity – and a large quantity of quality links is the goal.
And how do you get those links? There are a variety of website promotion methods that
synergize with SEO efforts. These include:
Brand building and brand marketing: Techniques designed to boost recognition and
reputation.
PR: Public relations techniques designed to earn editorially-given links.
Content marketing: Some popular forms include creating videos, ebooks, research studies,
podcasts (or being a guest on other podcasts) and guest posting (or guest blogging).
Social media marketing and optimization: Claim your brand’s handle on any and all relevant
platforms, optimize it fully and share relevant content.
Listing management: Claiming, verifying and optimizing the information on any platforms
where information about your company or website may be listed and found by searchers
(e.g., directories, review sites, wikis).
Ratings and reviews: Getting them, monitoring them and responding to them.
Generally, when talking about off-site, you’re talking about activities that are not going to
directly impact your ability to rank from a purely technical standpoint.
However, again, everything your brand does matters. You want your brand to be found
anywhere people may search for you. As such, some people have tried to rebrand “search
6. engine optimization” to actually mean “search experience optimization” or “search
everywhere optimization.”
SEO specialties
Search engine optimization also has a few subgenres. Each of these specialty areas is
different from “regular SEO” in its own way, generally requiring additional tactics and
presenting different challenges.
Five such SEO specialties include:
Ecommerce SEO: Additional SEO elements include optimizing category pages, product
pages, faceted navigation, internal linking structures, product images, product reviews,
schema and more.
Enterprise SEO: This is SEO on a massive scale. Typically this means dealing with a
website (or multiple websites/brands) with 1 million+ pages – or it may be based on the size
of the organization (typically those making millions or billions in revenue per year). Doing
enterprise also typically means delays trying to get SEO changes implemented by the dev
team, as well as the involvement of multiple stakeholders.
International SEO: This is global SEO for international businesses – doing SEO for
multiregional or multilingual websites – and optimizing for international search engines such
as Baidu or Naver.
Local SEO: Here, the goal is to optimize websites for visibility in local organic search engine
results by managing and obtaining reviews and business listings, among others.
News SEO: With news, speed is of utmost importance – specifically making sure you get
into Google’s index as quickly as possible and appear in places such as Google Discover,
Google’s Top Stories and Google News. There’s a need to understand best practices for
paywalls, section pages, news-specific structured data, and more.
How does SEO work?
If you found this page via Google search, you likely searched Google for [what is seo] or
[seo].
This guide is published on Search Engine Land, an authoritative website with great expertise
on and experience in the topic of SEO (we’ve been covering all SEO changes, big and small
since 2006).
Originally published in 2010, our “what is SEO” page has earned a whopping 324,203 links.
Put simply, these factors (and others) have helped this guide earn a good reputation with
search engines, which has helped it rank in Position 1 for years. It has accumulated signals
that demonstrate it is authoritative and trustworthy – and therefore deserves to rank when
someone searches for SEO.
But let’s look at SEO more broadly. As a whole, SEO really works through a combination of:
People: The person or team responsible for doing or ensuring that the strategic, tactical and
operational SEO work is completed.
Processes: The actions taken to make the work more efficient.
Technology: The platforms and tools used.
7. Activities: The end product, or output.
Many other things factor into how SEO works. What follows is a high-level look at the most
important knowledge and process elements.
Six critical areas, in combination, make SEO work:
1. Understanding how search engines work
Simply, if you want people to find your business via search – on any platform – you need to
understand the technical processes behind how the engine works – and then make sure you
are providing all the right “signals” to influence that visibility.
When talking about traditional web search engines like Google, there are four separate
stages of search:
Crawling: Search engines use crawlers to discover pages on the web by following links and
using sitemaps.
Rendering: Search engines generate how the page will look using HTML, JavaScript and
CSS information.
Indexing: Search engines analyze the content and metadata of the pages it has discovered
and add them to a database (though there’s no guarantee every page on your website will
be indexed).
Ranking: Complex algorithms look at a variety of signals to determine whether a page is
relevant and of high-enough quality to show when searchers enter a query.
But optimizing for Google search is different from optimizing for search other platforms like
YouTube or Amazon.
Let’s take Facebook, for example, where factors such as engagement (Likes, comments,
shares, etc.) and who people are connected to matter. Then, on Twitter, signals like recency,
interactions, or the author’s credibility are important.
And further complicating things: search engines have added machine learning elements in
order to surface content – making it even harder to say “this” or “that” resulted in better or
worse performance.
2. Researching
Research is a key part of SEO. Some forms of research that will improve SEO performance
include:
Audience research: It’s important to understand your target audience or market. Who are
they (i.e., their demographics and psychographics)? What are their pain points? What
questions do they have that you can answer?
Keyword research: This process helps you identify and incorporate relevant and valuable
search terms people use into your pages – and understand how much demand and
competition there is to rank for these keywords.
Competitor research: What are your competitors doing? What are their strengths and
weaknesses? What types of content are they publishing?
Brand/business/client research: What are their goals – and how can SEO help them achieve
those goals?
8. Website research: A variety of SEO audits can uncover opportunities and issues on a
website that are preventing success in organic search. Some audits to consider: technical
SEO, content, link profile and E-E-A-T.
SERP analysis: This will help you understand the search intent for a given query (e.g., is it
commercial, transactional, informational or navigational) and create content that is more
likely to earn rankings or visibility.
3. Planning
An SEO strategy is your long-term action plan. You need to set goals – and a plan for how
you will reach them.
Think of it your SEO strategy as a roadmap. The path you take likely will change and evolve
over time – but the destination should remain clear and unchanged.
Your SEO plan may include things such as:
Setting goals (e.g., OKRs, SMART) and expectations (i.e., timelines/milestones).
Defining and aligning meaningful KPIs and metrics.
Deciding how projects will be created and implemented (internal, external or a mix).
Coordinating and communicating with internal and external stakeholders.
Choosing and implementing tools/technology.
Hiring, training and structuring a team.
Setting a budget.
Measuring and reporting on results.
Documenting the strategy and process.
4. Creating and implementing
Once all the research is done, it’s time to turn ideas into action. That means:
Creating new content: Advising your content team on what content needs to be created.
Recommending or implementing changes or enhancements to existing pages: This could
include updating and improving the content, adding internal links, incorporating
keywords/topics/entities, or identifying other ways to optimize it further.
Removing old, outdated or low-quality content: The types of content that aren’t ranking well,
driving converting traffic or helping you achieve your SEO goals.
5. Monitoring and maintaining
You need to know when something goes wrong or breaks on your website. Monitoring is
critical.
You need to know if traffic drops to a critical page, pages become slow, unresponsive or fall
out of the index, your entire website goes offline, links break, or any other number of
potential catastrophic issues.
6. Analyzing, assessing and reporting on performance
If you don’t measure SEO, you can’t improve it. To make data-driven decisions about SEO,
you’ll need to use:
Website analytics: Set up and use tools (at minimum, free tools such as Google Analytics,
Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools) to collect performance data.
9. Tools and platforms: There are many “all-in-one” platforms (or suites) that offer multiple tools,
but you can also choose to use only select SEO tools to track performance on specific tasks.
Or, if you have the resources and none of the tools on the market do exactly what you want,
you can make your own tools.
After you’ve collected the data, you’ll need to report on progress. You can create reports
using software or manually.
Performance reporting should tell a story and be done at meaningful time intervals, typically
comparing to previous report periods (e.g., year over year). This will depend on the type of
website (typically, this will be monthly, quarterly, or some other interval),
SEO is ongoing
SEO never ends. Search engines, user behavior and your competitors are always changing.
Websites change and move (and break) over time. Content gets stale. Your processes
should improve and become more efficient.
Bottom line: There’s always something you can be monitoring, testing or improving. Or, as
Bruce Clay put it: SEO will only be done when Google stops changing things and all your
competition dies.
How to learn SEO
Now that you understand more about what SEO is and how it works – how can you learn
more?
Reading (or, if you prefer, watching or listening to) the latest SEO news, research, best
practices and other developments should become one of your regular habits, whether it’s
daily, weekly or monthly. You should also invest in attending at least one or two events per
year.
The expectations and behavior of searchers are constantly evolving, which means
algorithms are constantly changing to keep up. That, in combination with new breakthroughs
in technology (look no further than the explosive rise of ChatGPT in late 2022 and the
sudden addition of generative AI to search results in 2023).
Here are some trusted resources and tips to help you grow as an SEO professional.
Search Engine Land’s SEO resources
Search Engine Land has been covering SEO since 2006. In addition to news stories written
by our editorial staff, Search Engine Land publishes contributed articles from a diverse group
of subject matter experts featuring helpful SEO tips, tactics, trends and analysis.
We’re biased, but we highly suggest you sign up to receive Search Engine Land’s free email
newsletter featuring a roundup of the latest SEO news, and insights every weekday.
Search Engine Land also has multiple categories on topics dedicated to specific areas and
platforms which you may find helpful:
All SEO
10. Bing SEO
Content SEO
Ecommerce SEO
Enterprise SEO
Google: E-E-A-T
Google algorithm updates
Google Search Console
Google search features
Link building
Local SEO
News SEO
Technical SEO
Search Engine Land’s Guide To SEO
(Editor’s Note: We are currently updating this guide, with the goal of having the chapters
completely updated before the end of March 2023.)
Search Engine Land’s Guide To SEO walks you through the fundamentals of optimizing for
search so you can develop a solid strategy to drive organic traffic to your website.
Our guide explains these factors in more depth, and highlights tactical tips from experts on
search engine optimization that will help your website get more visitors from organic search.
Chapter 1: Types of Search Engine Success Factors: These are the on- and off-site factors
that can affect your search rankings. We’ll also look at niche verticals in SEO and toxic SEO
tactics to avoid.
Chapter 2: Content & Search Engine Success Factors: Keep these elements in mind to
create high-quality content that search engines and your target audiences will love.
Chapter 3: Site Architecture & Search Engine Success Factors: Let’s go behind the scenes
and look at the aspects of your site that make it easy for search engines to access and
influence user experience.
Chapter 4: HTML Code & Search Engine Success Factors: HTML tags and structured data
help organize information on your site and help search engines understand your content.
Chapter 5: Trust, Authority, Expertise & Search Rankings: How your users engage with your
site, as well as its reputation and authority, helps search engines determine if it’s worthy of
showing to users.
Chapter 6: Link Building & Ranking In Search Engines: Why backlinks are still important and
what they tell search engines about your content.
Chapter 7: Personalization & Search Engine Rankings: These are the user-specific
elements, such as location and intent, that can affect the results users see.
Chapter 8: Toxins & Search Engine Spam Penalties: Beware of SEO “shortcuts.” Getting
caught using these tactics can potentially result in a manual action penalty or even get your
site delisted from the search index.
Chapter 9: Emerging Verticals in Search: Voice, local, image and video search represent
new ways for users to find what they’re looking for. While they each provide nuanced
opportunities for brands, they’re still based on the fundamental principles of SEO.
Google’s SEO resources
Google Search Essentials: In this guide, Google discusses technical requirements, spam
policies and key best practices.
11. SEO starter guide: An overview of SEO basics, according to Google’s best practices.
Search quality evaluator guidelines: This document explains how Google instructs human
raters to evaluate the quality of its search results by examining the experience, expertise,
authoritativeness and trustworthiness of content and websites.
Developing your SEO skills
One of the best ways to learn SEO is to experiment. Hands-on experience is one of the
absolute best ways to advance your skills and deepen your SEO knowledge.
Build your own websites – and make them about topics you are passionate about. Try out
various tactics and techniques. See what works and what doesn’t.
SEO requires many other skills. Dig deeper into some of those in 13 essential SEO skills you
need to succeed.
Another way to advance your career is by attending a search conference. The Search
Engine Land team programs the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) conference series, which
has a dedicated SEO track that dives into various aspects of SEO and features some
excellent speakers and presentations. SMX Advanced takes place in June and SMX Next in
November.
Beyond that, there are several other options (free and paid) to learn SEO:
Websites, blogs and publications.
Books and ebooks.
Videos.
Podcasts.
Webinars.
Conferences, events and meetups.
Courses.
Training and certification programs.
Groups (e.g., social media, Slack).
Newsletters.
Following experts on social media.
Forums.
Just be careful. While there are many reliable resources, you (or your clients) will discover
some outdated or wrong SEO information at some point.
Bottom line: there are no “universal” truths or some big secret to SEO. The truth is, you have
to put in the work in all the phases of SEO to grow your visibility, clicks, traffic, authority,
conversions, sales and revenue.
This guide was written by Danny Goodwin, Managing Editor of Search Engine Land & SMX.
With more than a decade of experience in the search marketing industry, Goodwin reports
on breaking news and provides analysis and commentary on all things SEO.
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