Search Engine Optimization often referred to in its short version as SEO refers to the practices you can undertake to improve your website’s visibility when individuals search for your products or services. This process takes place each time someone uses a search engine such as Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, and others.
Why is SEO Important?
No question about it, it’s a race for the top in terms of competing with other websites in getting to the top of the search page results. Your goal is to get your website to be the first option that any surfer encounters when looking for a product or service that you provide.
How Does SEO Work?
Search engines including Google and DuckDuckGo use bots to crawl through pages on the web. These bots literally go from website to website, collecting information about available pages that people are searching for. Then they catalogue their findings in an index. The index is like a global archive.
What Are Algorithms?
After the bots have crawled through pages on the web and have indexed their findings, algorithms are then activated to analyze the webpages that the bots catalogued in the index. From here the algorithms get busy considering hundreds of ranking factors, to determine the order the pages should appear in the search results.
SEO Tools and Consultants
Unlike paid search ads, you can’t financially incentivize search engines to give your website a higher organic search ranking. So, you’ll need to develop an SEO strategy. SEO strategies can include subscribing to software like @yoast that will guide you through the steps on how to achieve higher rankings before posting content. Or you can hire an SEO consultant to help your business achieve top results when people search for your product or service online.
Elaine Allan, BA, MBA
Technology & Business Blogger
Vancouver, BC, Canada