How Exactly Does SEO Work?

You would not be blamed for wanting to know how SEO works before committing to it. Anyone would be baffled by the idea that the internet can be bent in to get desired results. It is almost preposterous actually. The bottom line of SEO is to improve search result ranking. This is the position in which the site appears when someone searches a relevant keyword. 

There are many factors used by search engines to determine which result comes first. The idea is that by checking some items on the list of factors the site will improve its ranking. Well, this would not make a big difference on its own. The search engine is looking to provide the best quality results for each search. Which means that at the heart of it all, SEO is about people. 

The Technical Part of How SEO Works

There are little bots running around on the internet. These little bots go around collecting as much information as possible from sites. This information the bots collect help them decide if the site should be suggested to a user when a particular keyword is entered into the search engine. Some of the aforementioned factors are things like load speed, social signals, links and more than 200 others. The aspect of SEO that deals with these factors is called on-site optimization. 

On-site optimization is all about the things you can do to the site to make it appealing to the bots. It is about codes and technical stuff that will not appear here to confuse you. The surprising part is that on-site optimization actually account for about a quarter of the entire SEO endeavor. As mentioned before, SEO is about people deep down. However, the part that is about people is built on this little technical art. In on-site optimization, one will find things like ALT tags and meta descriptions. 

On-site optimization will require a professional. The professional will build certain parameters that will appeal to the bot. These parameters will make the site more worthy to serve up to users when they come looking. Just to skim off the top. The content should be made relevant to the searcher. It should also be unique and good quality content. Internal linking also makes the website very attractive to the bots. Visitors spend more time on such a site as it offers information and good user experience. Link to the home page. Link to the category page. Make the site as user friendly as possible. 

Off-site Optimization

This is what you do outside of the site that helps enhance efforts of the on-site optimization. Off-site is all about human behavior. It is said that this makes a much bigger percentage of how SEO works. One of the key elements of this is backlinks. These are the links that lead to your website. Acquiring backlinks is entirely about people. It is about how people perceive the site. It is about how relevant the site and content therein is to the people. It is about ho much people trust the site. Then lastly, it is about the authority the site has. Only then can these people create backlinks by say sharing and embedding your link on their social media and websites. This vouches for the quality of your site. 

There are three ways of acquiring backlinks. The first is the natural way. Here a person embeds your link in their material without prompting. The second is manual. Where you use influencers and say customers to spread and share the link to the website. The third is self created. This will usually involve some quid pro quo which is highly frowned upon. The point is to get high value backlinks.

Then there are ways in which you can acquire off-site optimization without the links. Talk about your site. Talk to anyone who will listen. Leave notes to those who do not. Make noise about the site on social media. Use influencers. Influencers are a new brand of marketers who have pull on social media. They mention the site and have their followers stream in. Promote the website as much as possible. Someone is bound to be curious about the ruckus. 

How Does SEO Work Really?

Like any other kind of marketing endeavor, SEO takes steps to improve the product itself which is the site in this case. Then it moves towards getting the word out. SEO uses both technical manipulations and knowledge of human needs to make the website relevant.