I. What is SEO and Its Benefits?
1. Definition of SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which refers to the process of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords. Search engines, such as Google, Bing, Ask, Yahoo, etc., are tools that people use to find information by entering keywords.
SEO involves a set of techniques and actions designed to ensure that search engines can locate your website and rank it higher than other websites for the same keywords entered by users.
More specifically, when a user types a keyword into a search engine, it returns a list of websites related to that keyword. The ultimate goal of SEO is to have your website appear in the top positions of this list, thereby encouraging users to click on your website first.
2. Benefits of SEO for Businesses
The primary benefit of SEO for businesses is increased website traffic through user clicks.
Furthermore, SEO helps improve the ranking of a website in search results when users query keywords related to the business.
As website traffic increases and rankings improve, a business’s potential customer base grows, leading to significant increases in sales.
Additionally, the brand value of the business becomes more familiar and trusted among customers, establishing a strong market presence and facilitating the expansion and growth of the business.
To develop a well-optimized website for SEO, thorough preparation is required, starting from the analysis of design requirements to the organization of the website structure, followed by the identification of important criteria for testing the website for both technical aspects and user experience. Therefore, even if you need to quickly design a website, basic error control factors should not be overlooked before proceeding with website development.
3. Common SEO Terminology
– Title tag: The title of a webpage, reflecting the content it presents and containing keywords. It is a crucial element to consider in SEO.
– Meta tag: Similar to the title tag, meta tags describe your website for search engines to read and include in search results. Meta tags include two key elements: Meta Description and Meta Keywords.
+ Meta Description: Describes the content of your website. It appears in search results, influencing whether users click to visit your site.
+ Meta Keyword: Lists the keywords present on your website.
– Heading: Header tags (from H1 to H6) emphasize the important content of your webpage to search engines.
– Keyword Density: The percentage ratio between the frequency of a keyword or phrase and the total word count on a webpage.
– Anchor text: The text is displayed as a hyperlink, which is used by users to link to your site.
– Traffic: The number of visits to your website.
– Traffic rank: A metric that ranks a website based on traffic and the number of visitors compared to all other websites worldwide.
– URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The specific address associated with each resource on the internet, used to reference this resource.
– XML Sitemap: A file that lists all the links on your website.
– Sitemap: A file/page that lists all the information sections on your website, along with brief descriptions of those sections.
– Authority page: A webpage deemed more credible than others on the same topic, as recognized by search engines.
– Duplicate content: Refers to a URL containing content that is duplicated or nearly duplicated from another website. Duplicate content can hinder the search ranking of a webpage.
– Backlink : The most crucial factor influencing a website’s search ranking; a backlink is a link from another website pointing to your site.
– Internal Link: A link between pages within the same website.
– Domain Age: The age of a domain since its registration; the older the domain, the more credibility it typically has.
– Domain Keyword: A domain name containing keywords, an important factor in Google’s ranking of a website.
– Index: The process by which Google bots capture website data and store it in Google’s database. Only when a website is indexed does it appear in search results.
– Black hat: Refers to non-standard SEO techniques (or those who use them) employed by webmasters to deceive search engines and boost a website’s ranking.
II. SEO Methods
To successfully conduct SEO, it is important to know that there are two basic SEO methods: SEO On-page and SEO Off-page. Only by successfully combining both methods can effective SEO results be achieved.
1. SEO On-page
SEO On-page involves applying techniques within your own website to optimize it for search engines, making the site more user-friendly and boosting its ranking on search results. This method encompasses numerous techniques, such as:
– Creating high-quality content: Each piece of content should be optimized for SEO, with attention to title tags and meta descriptions, ensuring they are comprehensive yet concise. Avoid keyword stuffing to prevent penalties for spam, which can severely impact the website’s ranking.
– Optimizing Title tags and Meta tags, including heading tags from H1 to H6.
– Using the ALT attribute for IMG tags: Adding appropriate keywords to the image descriptions can enhance the quality of your website.
– Organizing internal links: Properly structuring internal links is vital for effective SEO On-page. The selection and setup of internal linking require careful and thorough research. Successfully implementing this aspect is not easy and often requires experience and time.
Successful SEO On-page significantly impacts the overall effectiveness of an SEO campaign. Therefore, it is important to understand and carefully apply the techniques in each step of the SEO On-page process.
=> SEO On-page techniques should only be implemented after the website structure has been optimized. Do you know what an optimized website for SEO and user-friendliness looks like? Explore more in other articles or contact us for specific advice.
In summary, SEO on-page techniques heavily depend on optimizing the technical aspects of website programming, effectively managing website content, and scientifically building a comprehensive internal link system.
2. SEO Off page
Contrary to SEO On-page, SEO Off-page involves actions taken outside of your website after completing SEO On-page. In its simplest form, SEO Off-page is the practice of building links from external sites pointing to your website. However, these links must not only be numerous but also of high quality. While increasing the number of inbound links was once a primary focus, today, the quality of these links is increasingly important to achieve the desired results.
Common SEO Off-page techniques include submitting links to directories, blogs, and reputable websites. This process can be time-consuming and costly, requiring a planned approach to specific keyword groups for SEO and the creation of high-quality content to place backlinks on the internet.
=> Achieving effective SEO Off-page is challenging, requiring high-level techniques, precise planning, and an extensive resource system. If your SEO efforts are not yielding the desired results, please contact us for consultation and to identify any shortcomings in your SEO process.
III. How Search Engines Work
As previously mentioned, common search engines include Bing, Ask, Yahoo, and, most importantly, Google—the tool most frequently chosen for SEO.
1. Components of a Search Engine
To function and deliver results from user queries, a search engine consists of three basic components:
– Data collection component: For Google, this is called Google Spider, a scanning program that identifies new websites, tracks changes on existing websites and detects non-existent links to create accurate indexes on the internet.
– Indexing component: Based on the collected data, this component builds keywords, phrases, websites, and related information on specific topics.
– Processing and Calculation component: This part helps the search engine deliver search results when a user queries a keyword. A website’s ranking is determined by approximately 200 different factors, with content and website quality, as well as backlinks, being the most crucial.
2. How Search Engines Operate
– Data Scanning and Listing: The search engine scans and gathers data from websites worldwide. Despite its sophistication, a search engine is ultimately a machine, recognizing website content through title tags, meta tags, and keyword listings, which it organizes to deliver results for future related searches.
– Index Building: After a search engine collects data from your website, it stores this information in its system, a process known as Indexing. Only after this process is complete can your website appear in search results. If a search engine has not indexed your website, it will not appear in user search results.
– Data Processing: When a user conducts a search, the search engine processes the stored data, comparing the queried phrase with the websites stored in its massive database.
– Relevance Calculation: The search engine then calculates the relevance of the queried phrase to the websites it is comparing, filtering out the most relevant websites to the user’s query.
– Result Delivery: Finally, the search engine returns a list of the most relevant websites, displaying them on the user’s browser. The higher a website appears in this list, the better its quality in relation to the searched keyword. Achieving this position is the ultimate goal of SEO activities.
In conclusion, SEO is a set of activities and techniques aimed at elevating your website to the highest rank in search engine results for specific keywords.
Successfully implementing SEO is not easy; it requires extensive knowledge, advanced techniques, and a costly resource system. Even the best SEO techniques are ineffective without the appropriate resources. However, despite the challenges, the benefits that SEO brings to a business are substantial.
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