seoSEO is short for search engine optimization. It is basically the process of improving a website’s ability to show up higher on search engine result pages (SERPs). SEO is a comprehensive collection of principles, techniques and strategies that are used to optimize a website. SEO only pertains to the ‘organic’, unpaid search results that show up on an SERP, not including the paid advertisements.

SEO as an Internet Marketing Strategy

Search engine optimization is an important part of internet/online marketing, centered on leveraging the power of search engines. For most people, the internet is what search engines such as Google and Bing show them. As such, optimizing websites for search engines has become a much sought-after skill. Higher SERP rankings mean more people visit the site which potentially means more leads and sales. There are two main aspects of SEO; on-page, and off-page.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to optimization practices performed on the website. It involves working with the elements on the web pages of the website being optimized. These techniques include:

  • Keyword Research: Choosing the most relevant keywords on which the website should show up on SERPs.

  • Meta Details Development: Writing Meta title, Meta keywords and Meta descriptions for each web page to tell search engines what the page is about.

  • Website Content Writing: Writing original content for the website pages and blog, weaving in relevant keywords naturally for higher rankings.

  • HTML Optimization: Improving website’s structure, standardizing URL, reviewing internal links, optimizing robots.txt, testing & improving website load time and correcting HTML code errors.

  • Sitemap Creation: Creating HTML and XML sitemaps.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO involves optimization tasks that are not performed on the website itself. With the exception of search engine submission, all off-page SEO activities need to be performed continuously for continued optimization. Off-page SEO techniques include:

  • Search Engine Submission: Submitting a website directly to search engines. Also called indexing, the submission effectively tells a search engine about the existence of a website.

  • Link Building: Creating/posting links to the site being optimized on other websites. The number and quality of external links directing to a website affect its ranking. Link building is one of the most important aspects of off-page SEO.

  • Articles Marketing: Writing articles related to the topic/purpose of the site being optimized, and publishing them on article directories. The articles will contain relevant keywords and link back to the site being optimized.

  • Press Release Marketing: Writing and publishing press releases (PRs) related to the business that owns the site being optimized. PRs are excellent tools for creating buzz about a business/site, which improves the website’s rankings.

Search engine optimization continues to be a powerful online marketing strategy that is employed by business of almost every industry. SEO experts utilize a range of skills, knowledge and techniques to improve the rankings of their clients’ websites.