What is SEO?

What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the foundation for successful website building. Basically, search engine optimization refers to the technique of building your website and your posts so that they rank high in Google search results.

Search engines like Google use web crawlers, also known as bots or spiders, to organize the millions of websites available on the Internet. They analyze these websites extensively to determine each page’s rank and relevancy.

The pages that are the most relevant appear at the top of a Google search and the pages that are not as relevant are rarely seen by anyone. Think about it. When was the last time you scrolled past the first page of a Google search? What about the 10th page?

Here is an excellent explanation from Google’s own Matt Cutts:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is basically a set of techniques to help Google identify what your website is about. This helps your page rank well in relevant Google searches, which creates free organic traffic to your website.

What is SEO? Good SEO is basically free advertising.

If you succeed with SEO, your website will essentially advertise itself in Google search results.

On LowIncomeRelief.com, the vast majority of our traffic comes from searches on Google and other search engines. I don’t pay for ads on Google. My site just ranks really, really well for its related keywords.

This is absolutely fantastic because it means that I don’t have to pay for much advertising at all. Google connects readers looking for this information directly with my website, which is absolutely full of well-researched, quality information on the topic. The readers get their answers, my website gets traffic and Google and I both have the opportunity to profit from the ad revenue. Everyone wins!

(Well, everyone except for the other people who are trying to blog on this subject…)

If you ask Google just about any question related to using your food stamps benefits at a restaurant, they’re going to send you to the Low Income Relief page about the Restaurant Meals Program.

Check out this nifty screenshot from a related Google search.

As you can see, Low Income Relief has the coveted top spot for this search term. The first three links on this page go directly to my website. I have to scroll past the map and restaurant directory before I see the next competing website.

That’s exactly why it’s the second most popular landing page on my website!

Quality SEO is mostly a matter of common sense.

Good news, guys. There are no magical fairies or unicorn farts involved in ranking well with Google. It isn’t a mystery. It’s not a secret club. It’s something that anyone can do.

In fact, good quality SEO is mostly a matter of common sense. It’s pretty obvious you need to use the keywords you want to rank for, right?

The biggest challenge that most people face with SEO isn’t using the techniques that help you rank well. In fact, the biggest problem most people have is that your SEO can only be as good as the quality of content you are providing. You need to remember that content trumps SEO every. single. time.

The algorithms want to show users the information they want to see, which means that ultimately the algorithms are designed to reward good content. There’s a reason why Google always advises content creators to focus on creating quality content when they roll out new updates!