Key Takeaways
- SEO is a Superpower: It’s not just technical jargon; it’s the strategic process of helping your audience find you organically.
- The “Library” Analogy: Google is a digital library that Crawls (finds), Indexes (files), and Ranks (recommends) your content.
- The Big Three Intents: People primarily search for Products, Services, or Information. Your content must match one of these needs.
- Organic is King: With over half of all web traffic coming from organic search, ignoring SEO means missing the majority of your potential audience.
- Traditional Approach: True SEO involves a mix of Technical health, On-Page content quality, and Off-Page authority building.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In layman’s terms, SEO is a way of giving your website the “superpowers” to be found when people search for what you provide. It is a marketing strategy consisting of different tactics to help your site appear on search engines like Google and Bing.
Simply put, SEO helps a website rank higher in organic search results. Data shows that the #1 page on the first SERP of Google gets around 27.6% of CTR rate.
Now, what is an organic search result? These are the non-paid results you see on the first page of Google when you search for anything. Getting your website on that first page is hard work, but it’s worth it.
What Do People Search For?
When people go to Google, they are usually looking for three main things:
- Products you sell.
- Services you provide.
- Information you share.
Who doesn’t want to be the first one found when someone searches for exactly what they offer? Well, I definitely want to be found. So, how do we do it? How can we equip our website with these extraordinary powers?
How Do Search Engines Work?
Let’s look at Google as a massive library. A big digital library. But this library works differently than the ones we visited as kids. This library can be searched for absolutely anything that comes to your mind. The process of finding what you want in this online library works in four stages:
Crawling
Search engines use “crawlers” to read pages on the web through following links.
Rendering
The engine renders how the page looks when you visit it using code like HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.
Indexing
The engine analyzes the content and stores it in a massive database (Note: there’s no guarantee every page on your website will be indexed unless you want it to!).
Ranking
Complex algorithms look at a variety of signals to determine if a page is relevant and high-quality enough to recommend when a user types in a query.
TIP: This is largely about our Google library. Optimizing for other platforms like Bing, YouTube, or Amazon works differently, as they consider different factors.
Why SEO Matters?
We live in a digital world. Need anything? Our first thought is Google, and our fingers automatically start typing.
- Want to find a product? Search.
- Want to find information? Search.
- Want to answer a burning question? Search.
- A recipe? Search.
Data also suggest that around 32.9% of online users age 16+ discover new products, brands, and services through search engines. Organic search delivers a big share of all website traffic. If you are present on Google and wish to be found, SEO is the first thing you need to take care of.
The 3 Types of SEO
To make things easier, SEO is categorized into three very important parts:
- Technical SEO
Optimizing the non-content structure of your website (speed, mobile-friendliness, site map).
- On-Page SEO
Optimizing the actual content on your website for both users and search engines (keywords, SEO content, formatting).
- Off-Page SEO
Building authority and trust. This involves creating brand assets and earning “votes of confidence” from other sites (backlinks) that enhance your reputation and expertise.
Conclusion
This is just the tip of the iceberg. But if you keep these fundamentals in mind, optimizing your website to be found by the right people at the right time isn’t just possible—it’s inevitable. SEO is not just important if you want to flourish online, it is one of the most needed practices.
Don’t aim to be on the first page of Google, but to be in the top 3 organic results of Google. Additionally, don’t ever expect that you will start ranking better overnight, SEO takes time. Keep consistency with patience and your efforts will pay off.