What is SEO and how does it actually work? An explanation for beginners.
Updated: Aug 7
Table of Contents
What is SEO?
What is Google?
The different components of SEO
What is 'White Hat' and 'Black Hat' SEO?
What is important to achieve in SEO?
The components of an SEO strategy .
Keyword research explained.
Planning content for on-page SEO.
E.E.A.T. - Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Off-page SEO strategy.
SEO Reports.
What is SEO?
SEO, which is an acronym for 'Search Engine Optimisation', is the process of making the content on your website more understandable to search engines, whilst assisting users in finding your website and choosing whether or not to visit it from a search engine.
What is Google?
Google is a bot that functions as an index, storing all of the data found on websites worldwide. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the website owner to create authoritative and trustworthy pages that will rank higher in Google's index and appear first, making them more visible with the user in mind.
The different components of SEO
In general, SEO consists of two distinct parts, and it's crucial that an SEO strategy plan incorporates both of them. These are:
On-page SEO
Is the content, i.e. the words you place on the page itself.
Off-page SEO
Signals outside of your website that google is looking for to show that your content is important. ie, backlinks.
If you are building a new website, it is important to concentrate on your on-page SEO first, because you cannot rank a blank web page, you must get words on your page first and foremost. This is crucial because you have complete control of the content you create for your website.
The truth is; the more successful your website is, the less off-page SEO you will need to perform because your campaigns will be more successful and your time to rank will be shortened if you focus on improving your on-page SEO before tackling any off-page SEO.
What is 'White Hat' and 'Black Hat' SEO?
Google sets the rules for every website - called terms of service - to fall under, there is a difference between following these guidelines or not. If you are playing inside of these rules - the google guidelines - this is called 'White Hat SEO'. And if you are playing outside of google's guidelines this is called 'Black Hat SEO'.
coastal Pixel only practices white hat SEO.
When you practice outside of google's guidelines, you will be penalised. So any traffic or ranking you achieved by black hat SEO techniques will be removed. And worst case Google will de-index your website forever. End of business.
So, that is why white hat SEO is the only guidelines to follow. Longevity in a website is your goal, remaining evergreen for the length of your business.
The components of an SEO strategy
Technical SEO is the nuts and bolts of your site. Such as, site loading speed, structured data, image alt text, internal linking and much more. Basically what is on the inside of your site and you need to ensure there is nothing to prevent your site from ranking.
For example, anytime Google "crawls" a page on your website, you need to make sure that nothing prevents Google from "reading it", including broken links or "no index" pages.
Once a googlebot has crawled your page easily and quickly it can then get deeper into your site.
Keyword research explained
A large part of an SEO strategy is keyword research. This is the research going into which type of 'search terms' you need to rank for, and which would be more beneficial for your business.
Popular search keywords are sometimes difficult to win, so you'll need to find these important terms in addition to any additional supporting terms you need to win.
Part of your keyword research strategy should be to ask yourself, "which one of the key terms do you want to use as a target keyword"?. For example, which keyword term do you need to add a new page for.
One target keyword represents one page on your website
Ask yourself, which pages on your site are you optimising for your target keyword? If the answer is none, then you have a serious problem. Google ranks pages, not websites, so if you are not optimising a designated page for your target keyword then this will explain why you are not ranking for your terms.
Planning content for on-page SEO
Once you have your keywords, you need to schedule for how you are going to plan your content. Which keyword are you targeting first? Which pages are you building out first, and when will you go live with each page, etc.
It is important to create content that google will like, this is always with your user in mind. When creating content it is always key to think of the UX (user experience).
Also, ranking factors such as, how many times do you need to add keywords on the page so google will index, and understanding what the page is about to rank it higher in SERPS (search engine results pages).
E.E.A.T. - Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness
Basically means, should your website be indexed in the first place. Are you a real business? Are you a real website? These are factors that google will read that determines whether your website should be there at all.
You are responsible for the content you add to your site, ask yourself, should it be there? As google is essentially a 'bot' you need to add content that google can find, and identify that you are a real person, a real business that has a real site, and you should be indexed.
It is important to add NLP's to your site, name, location and phone number. This tell google that you are adhering to all the E.E.A.T. signals. Showing you are an entity, you exist and customers may contact you.
Off-page SEO strategy
Backlinks are primarily what off-page seo is about. Gaining a link to your site from a trustworthy and authoritative website relating to your content is crucial for these signals, a vote endorsing your content and business.
However, not all backlinks are equal, some are worth more. If you have a link from a lesser known website in your field, this is not as valuable as a link from a top expert or governing body in your field with more authority and editorial intent.
SEO Reports
It is important to track your website's performance. You want to see that your site is growing, some of the KPI's - Key Performance Indicator - you should look for is gaining keywords, sites that are doing well and growing healthy keywords. Healthy sites can rank for hundreds of keywords, not just your chosen one, so you need to be tracking this and gaining those keywords.
At the same time of gaining more keywords, you are gaining impressions - this means views on your site - and therefore, hopefully clicks. Once someone sees your site they will click through and read your content, the longer a site visitor stays on your site tells google that your content is authoritative.
You can track your web pages comprehensive reports in google search console and also google analytics, so you know where you were, where you are now and where you need to be with your projections.
And most importantly, reports will show that your site is healthy and doing ok.
Site audits provide a roadmap, and it is up to you to follow it.
Get a free SEO Audit for your Wix website with coastal Pixel today.
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