{"id":8947,"date":"2021-06-08T19:20:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T16:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adsterra.com\/blog\/?p=8947"},"modified":"2024-06-11T10:43:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T07:43:05","slug":"what-is-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogdev.adsterratech.com\/blog\/what-is-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is SEO And How It Works: A Beginner\u2019s Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of organically improving your ranking on a search engine result’s page. It involves optimizing your website so that search engines display your web pages as top results for relevant search queries.<\/strong> Let\u2019s take a look at the basics of SEO, its types, and why SEO matters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\r\n\tToo long? Ask AI to summarize<\/strong>\r\n\t
\r\n\t\t\r\n ChatGPT\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\r\n\t\t\r\n Perplexity\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\tClaude\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n

How do search engines work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Search engines perform three primary functions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Crawling<\/strong>: Involves using search engine spiders or web crawlers to go over the entire web for content. It’s similar to how a spider crawls its web in search of trapped insects or food bits. Search engine spiders are scripts or robots that find new, updated, and missing content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Indexing: <\/strong>Involves storing and organizing all content found as a result of crawling the web. Once your web page is indexed, it can be displayed on Search Engines Results Page (SERPs) to answer a user’s query. Every search engine processes and stores an index\u2014a database of web pages that can appear on search results.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Ranking: Search engines <\/strong>rank websites to provide the best results for a searcher’s query. This means that SERP lists websites in order of relevance to a query. When you search Google for electric cars<\/strong>, Google goes through its index for web pages that target the keyword electric cars.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
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    \"Google<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

    Then it arranges these web pages in order of relevance, hoping that the first results provide everything you need to know about electric cars. There’s a running joke about Google’s ranking algorithm’s excellence. The best place to hide a dead body is page 2 of Google search results<\/em>. This joke implies that most users find answers to their queries on Google’s first SERP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The basics of search engine optimization<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    A good SEO strategy starts with proper keyword research. Then, you start creating valuable content that meets a user’s search intent by providing answers to their queries.  But search engine optimization goes further and deeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let\u2019s start with the most important SEO Basic every beginner must know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Keyword research<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Keyword research involves finding search phrases that are relevant to your web content. By our definition, keywords are words and phrases that are commonly used in search queries. First, you must understand your target audience and how they search for products or services related to yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2022 Discover what people are searching for<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    What does your target audience ask Google? What search keywords do your competitors rank for? How many people are searching for it? How do they want answers\u2014in pictures, videos, or text content? Answering these questions is the first step in keyword research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2022 Use a keyword tool<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    If you’ve created a shortlist of search phrases your target audience is using, you can further your research using keyword tools. Keyword tools are websites and programs that help you discover both long-tail and short-tail keywords to target. These tools also help you see who is searching for your keywords<\/a> and how often people search per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2022 Understand long-tail keywords<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Long-tail keywords are search phrases that often contain up to four words. Using long-tail keywords helps you target searchers whose search intent matches your web page’s content. Long-tail keywords with low search volume frequently convert better because searchers are more specific and intentional in their queries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For example, the long tail keyword “best mountain bikes under $100<\/strong>” has a low search volume and keyword difficulty. Someone searching for mountain bikes is probably just browsing. But someone searching for “best mountain bikes under $100” wants to buy one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2022 Discover search intent behind keywords<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    There are four major categories of search intent:

    1. Informational intent: <\/strong>The user wants information such as a celebrity’s age or the number of countries in Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Navigational intent: <\/strong>The user wants to go to a particular webpage, such as Adsterra’s homepage or an ESPN blog post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. Transactional queries: <\/strong>The user wants to buy something or use a service, such as tickets to a music concert or spare car tires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. Commercial intent: <\/strong>When there’s a likelihood that a user can become a business lead or a customer. You can evaluate commercial intent by looking at the number of people that advertise on a specific keyword in Google Adwords.

    Use these categories to understand how to use keywords in your content. A person searching for how tall the Statue of Liberty is doesn’t want to go there themselves. So web pages offering tours to the Statue of Liberty are irrelevant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. On-site optimization<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    On-page SEO<\/a>, or On-site SEO, is the practice of optimizing your web pages to satisfy search intent and rank higher in search results pages. On-page SEO involves:<\/p>\n\n\n\n