What is SEO?
You've launched your own business, you have a website... and suddenly everyone's talking – you need to invest in SEO! There's only one problem... you have no idea what SEO is, do you?
We're here to help – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. However, this acronym doesn't fully capture the essence of website positioning , which is a lengthy process that requires patience and in-depth analysis of the website's code and search engine algorithm.
The goal of SEO is to achieve the highest possible ranking in search results for the queries we're interested in. Being in the top 10—or, in the case of Google, being on the first page of the search results—translates to a high chance of someone clicking on the link directing to our website, and thus, acquiring a new user or potential customer.
The foundation of the entire SEO process is website optimization, meaning aligning it with Google's guidelines. Guidance on how to do this can be found in official Google materials, among others . While quite general, it perfectly captures the essence of SEO.
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At this point, it's worth noting the specific nature of the algorithm responsible for generating search results. It's estimated that approximately 200 factors influence SERP (Search Engine Results Page) rankings. It's important to note that their weighting is not static and can change literally from day to day. Another important factor is the reluctance of Google engineers to share algorithm secrets with a wide range of website owners.
Much of the optimization, therefore, relies on years of observing search engine responses and painstakingly developing tools to help you achieve higher rankings. In fact, each new algorithm update can completely upend search engine results.
The beginnings of optimization
The foundation of optimization is unblocking our website for web crawlers and inviting them to yours. To make it easier for robots to evaluate our site, it's worth ensuring their comfort and limiting elements that could distract them. Where to start? By removing duplicate pages, which are often available at multiple addresses – for example, http://www.domena.pl , http://domena.pl , http://domena.pl/index.php , etc. A large number of duplicates creates chaos and can impact the page's reception by the algorithm.
After standardizing your address, it's worth ensuring your site appears in search results and preparing a suitable invitation for both internet users and robots – the page title and description. These two tags should also contain clues about the most important keywords. Ideally, they should be placed in the form in which internet users most frequently search.
In the beginning was the word
The modern internet relies on diverse forms of communication, yet Google's search engine is still dominated by words. Words carry information, and this information, in turn, is valuable to users. Armed with this knowledge and understanding your industry (or niche), it's worth creating content that will be relevant to both website visitors and Google. How should you go about it? First and foremost, ensure you include basic information about your business – a few words about the company, what you offer, and preferred contact methods. Properly framing these elements in sentences will help your website stand out in search results. However, this may not be enough to achieve high rankings.
So where do you get ideas for additional content? It's simple – from your website users and customers. They are the ones who can provide the most inspiration for your content! A good and effective practice is to gather your customers' questions and concerns and use them to prepare content that will dispel any doubts about your company's offerings or the specifics of your industry.
Content and maps
When preparing content, it's also worth considering its visual aspect and separating subsequent sections with subheadings – headings marked in HTML as h1, h2, h3… When planning text, it's worth including space for keywords. Google's robots carefully analyze their content, and the algorithm takes this into account and ranks higher in the SERPs those pages that maintain the correct heading structure (in the order h1, h2, h3 and maintain proportions – one top-level heading per page section) and saturate them with keywords.
To make our website even more transparent to search engines, we can't skip the step of "drawing" its map. A properly prepared sitemap.xml file makes it easier for robots to navigate the site and allows them to pinpoint the most important pages that should be ranked appropriately in the search engine. The sitemap.xml file can be "suggested" to robots by placing its address in the appropriate place in the Google Search Console. The Console is a tool that allows you to monitor how search engines view and analyze your website.
Summary of SEO activities
The above-mentioned activities are the foundation of website optimization , which any website owner can perform independently, sometimes with a little help from a specialist (as in the case of page copy redirects). For more advanced SEO maneuvers, it's worth engaging SEO specialists who can advise which actions may be most appropriate for a given industry. A good SEO specialist will also ensure that the website isn't overoptimized, which is possible. They will ensure reliable links, tags , and a number of other aspects crucial to the website's visibility.
We hope this answers your question about what SEO is . If you have any further questions, please let us know or message us on Facebook – we'll try to help!
Want to learn more about SEO? Take advantage of the lessons we've prepared for future conquerors of the most popular search engine's highest peaks!
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- the process of optimizing online websites and its importance in achieving high positions in search results,
- factors influencing SEO and the variability of search engine algorithms,
- preparing the website for indexing by robots,
- creating valuable content as the basis for effective positioning,
- the role of headings, keywords and sitemap in improving the visibility of the website.
