SEO is the acronym in English for Search Engine Optimization (search engine optimization) and it is a practice that consists of optimizing your web pages so that they are positioned better in the search engine results pages (SERP).
SEO is an effective and inexpensive marketing strategy that helps to increase conversion rates.
To better understand what SEO is, this article will guide you through the fundamentals of search engines and SEO, explaining how search algorithms work and what factors influence the web positioning of your site.
At the end of the article, you will also find the best SEO practices and complete resources to expand your knowledge.
SEO vs. EMS: What’s the difference?
We have already seen what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) means. We will now briefly review the difference between SEO and SEM.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are marketing strategies that businesses use to reach their audience through search results.
The key difference is that SEO focuses on optimizing pages so they rank better through organic traffic. This refers to users who come from search engines such as Google either bing.
For its part, SEM uses payment strategies to increase the visibility of a web page in search engines. Paid traffic visitors come from clicking on ads generated on or other platforms.
While SEO takes some time to deliver consistent and long-lasting results, SEM offers almost instant results. You’ll quickly see how many clicks and conversions your ads are generating on search engines.
Despite being different, SEO and SEM go hand in hand. A good SEO foundation is necessary for a successful SEM strategy.
Optimizing your landing pages with keywords can improve your Google ranking and increase your site’s visibility.
What factors influence SEO and are most important?
As the main search engine, Google processes more than . Therefore, ranking high in Google results can drive significant traffic to your site.
For this reason, it is essential to pay close attention to Google’s ranking factors. Constantly evolving along with Google’s search algorithms, these factors help deliver the most relevant content for a better user experience.
From load time to page safety, here are the most important SEO factors you need to know:
- page speed. Defines the amount of time it takes for a web page to load. A page that loads quickly helps your site rank better in search engines. Regularly monitor your site’s performance and use speed analysis tools like Google and Google to gain insight into your site’s performance.
- Mobile Device Compatibility. An automatically adjusts web page elements to fit different screen sizes, providing an optimal experience for users on all devices. Responsive and mobile-friendly site pages will appear higher in search engines. Consult Google’s to measure the ease of use of your site.
- high quality content. It offers relevant and objective information to answer specific queries. Google evaluates content length, structure, relevant keywords, and information. Always create unique and original content to attract more users and increase the visibility of your site.
- Backlinks. Also known as inbound links, they are links to your website located on other sites, which serve as an indicator of your site’s authority. When a website or blog includes your link in their content, it marks your site as a relevant source. Pages with high-quality inbound links from credible sites can rank higher in search engines.
- user experience. Google measures the user experience through several indicators, such as the and the . When visitors arrive at a site and leave shortly after, Google considers the site irrelevant. On the other hand, if visitors stay for a while, it is a sign that the site provides valuable information.
- site security. It includes all the actions to protect a page and its visitors from cyberattacks. Thus, Google gives priority to sites protected by HTTPS. Meanwhile, a site that doesn’t have it is marked as unsafe and will most likely drive visitors away. Since security is a priority for all web users, it is essential to add a to your site.
How does SEO work?
Google and other search engines work to collect, organize, and display relevant information to answer user queries. To do this, they carry out three main processes:
- Tracking. Search engines rely on a team of web crawlersalso known as web spiders Or simply bot, which are responsible for finding updated content on the web. Web crawlers help discover and collect the information needed to index a page.
- Indexing. It refers to a process in which search engines store and organize collected web pages. Once web crawlers find information on a site, such as keywords and fresh content, they add the web page to the search index. When users search for relevant information, the search engine will retrieve the indexed web page.
- positioning. Indexed web pages will be displayed in search results from the most relevant content to the least relevant.
SEO improves your web presence by making your site more attractive to search engines. In other words, it is used to determine how well your site goes through this series of steps, from crawling to ranking.
For example, well-structured internal links on your pages make it easy for web crawlers to jump from one page to another. This allows them to explore your website in depth and index more content.
In addition, search engine algorithms also take into account other ranking factors, such as relevant keywords, internal link quality, and content freshness.
Therefore, optimizing your website content with these factors in mind can significantly increase your search rankings.
What are the different types of SEO?
Here is a brief summary of the four main types of SEO along with their core elements.
- SEO on page: Site content, keyword optimization, title tags, image alt text.
- SEO off page: Link building, influencer marketing, social networks, forums.
- technical SEO: Site speed, schema markup, internal links, SSL certificate.
- local SEO: Local keywords, business profile, customer reviews, local content.
In order for you to better understand SEO, the following sections will reveal the definitions of each type, how it works, and its application.
SEO on page
On-page SEO refers to the process of optimizing the individual pages of a site to increase their position in organic search engine results.
This type of SEO focuses on both the content of the page and the HTML source code, including the title tags, header tags, and meta description. Thus, the page will be attractive to web users and search engine crawlers.
On-page SEO also helps organize your page in a way that web crawlers can easily analyze the content and index it for relevant searches.
To guide you in on-page SEO optimization, we have gathered some of the main practices that you should know:
- site content. Google uses a framework known as EAT (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) to assess the quality of content, pages, and sites. Favor high-quality content from reliable authors and trusted sites. Therefore, to get a better position in the search results, you must ensure that your page meets these criteria.
- keyword optimization. Including keywords in your content helps the search algorithm identify the type of information you provide. Do keyword research with SEO tools like or to find a target keyword and build your content around it. Of course, make sure that the distribution of the keywords is natural to avoid Google’s penalty for .
- title tag. Also known as page title, appears as a clickable link that people see on search engine results pages. Determines the relevance of the page to the user’s search intent. A well-written headline will generate more clicks and drive more traffic to the page. Also, search engines like Google favor and rank higher for concise titles that contain keywords.
- header tags. Breaking content into pieces with header tags provides a better user experience and makes it easier for web crawlers to index the page. When users type their search terms, the search engine will search for any relevant information using these tags as a guide. This increases the chances that your page will appear higher in search engines.
- Alternative text of the image. Alt text is an attribute that describes a specific image that the site cannot display and is useful for users with vision problems. Screen readers use the alt text information to describe the image. This text informs the search engine that the image is a valuable piece of your content. This provides additional organic ranking opportunities for your page as it can appear in Google image search results.
- . Refers to the short description of the pages in the SERPs, which appear as snippets along with the page title and URL. Meta descriptions include keywords and accurately describe the information on the page. A good meta description can lead to more clicks and lower bounce rates if the content meets the user’s intent.
SEO off page
Off-page SEO refers to any action taken outside the site to improve its position in search results. It allows the search engine to know how the public perceives a site, a company or a product.
As a result, a well-constructed off-page SEO strategy can help your website increase its SEO and rank better in search engines.
These are some factors of this type of SEO that must be taken into account:
- link building. It refers to…
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