SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is the process used to optimise a website's technical configuration, the relevance of its content, and the popularity of its links so that its pages can become easily found, more relevant, and more popular to users' search queries, and therefore, are ranked higher by search engines.
Search engines recommend SEO efforts that benefit both the user’s search experience and page ranking by highlighting content that meets the user’s search needs. This includes using relevant keywords in titles, meta descriptions , and headings (H1's), using descriptive URLs that contain keywords rather than strings of numbers, and using schema markup to specify the meaning of the page’s content, among other SEO marketing best practices.
Search engines help people find what they’re looking for on the internet. Whether it’s searching for a product, finding a restaurant, or booking a vacation, search engines are a common starting point for finding information. For business owners, they’re a great opportunity to drive relevant traffic to their website.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of orienting your website to rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP) in order to receive more traffic. The goal is usually to rank on the first page of Google results for search terms that are most relevant to your target audience. In this way, SEO is about understanding the wants and needs of your audience as well as the technical nature of your website setup.
Search engines provide results for every search query a user enters. They do this by probing and “understanding” the vast network of websites that make up the web. They run a sophisticated algorithm that determines which results to display for each search query.
For many people, the term “search engine” is synonymous with Google, which holds about 83% of the global search engine market. Since Google is the dominant search engine, SEO generally revolves around what works best for Google. It helps to have a good understanding of how Google works and why.
Google is designed to provide the best search experience for its users—the people who are searching. That means delivering the most relevant results, as quickly as possible.
The two main elements of the search experience are the search term (the user input) and the outcome of the search (the result).
Let’s say you search for the phrase “Gen-R8 Search Engine Optimisation.” This is a clear search with no ambiguity. Google understands what you’re asking and serves up a helpful page as the top organic result: Gen-R8's page.
From Google's perspective, this is a very good search result and a positive user experience, as the user is likely to click on the first result and be satisfied with it.
Google benefits from the trust and esteem that Internet users have for its search service. It achieves this goal by providing useful search results.
Google also offers businesses the option to pay for ad placement at the very top of search results pages. These items are preceded by the word “ad.” Google makes money every time people click on these pay-per-click (PPC) ads, which can be purchased through Google Ad's. You’ll mostly see these ads for more generic search queries.
Aside from the small “ad” label, these search results are almost indistinguishable from other search results. This is obviously intentional, as many users click on these results without realising that they are ads.
That’s what Google is banking on. Ad revenue accounts for more than 80% of the $279.8 billion Google generated in 2022.
So while search remains its core product, it relies on its ad business.
SERPs include both paid and “organic” search results, and organic results do not contribute to Google’s revenue. Instead, Google provides organic results based on its assessment of a site’s relevance and quality. Depending on the type of search query, Google will also include different elements on the SERP, such as maps, images, or videos.
The volume of ads on a SERP depends on what users are searching for. If you search for “shoes,” for example, you’ll likely find that a large number of results are ads. You’ll probably have to scroll all the way down to find the first organic result.
A query like this typically generates a lot of ads because the user is likely looking to buy shoes online, and many shoe companies are willing to pay to appear in AdWords results for that query.
On the other hand, if you search for something like “Atlanta Falcons,” your results will be different. Since this search is likely related to the American professional football team of the same name, the top results will be related to that topic. However, the query is less clear. The results will include news, a Knowledge Graph, and their website homepage. These three types of results at the top of the page indicate that Google doesn’t know the specific purpose of your search, but provides quick links to learn more about the sports team, check their latest news, and go to their website.
Since there doesn't appear to be any purchase intent behind the query, advertisers aren't willing to bid for the keyword, so there are no AdWords results.
However, if you search for “Atlanta Falcons cap,” this indicates that you may intend to purchase, so the SERP results will be different and will feature more sponsored results.
SEO aims to improve your ranking in organic search results. There are different practices to optimise AdWords, Shopping, and local results.
You might think that having so many competing elements in the SERPs pushes organic listings further down the page, but SEO can still be a very powerful and lucrative endeavour..
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