You’ve probably have heard that, in order to get hits on your website, you need to use search engine optimization.

But what does that mean?

Search engine optimization (SEO) may sound complex, but it’s actually a fairly simple concept. Basically, SEO is creating web content that is designed to rank highly on search engine result lists.

Ranking on search engines is crucial because search is the #1 way that users discover content. The higher your website ranks on search engines, the more visitors you’ll get.

Ready to get more hits on your website? Here’s the deal on how search engine optimization works.

Understanding How Search Engines Rank Sites

At its core, SEO works by optimizing content on a web page so that it looks like the content that search engines rank highly. In order to understand SEO, then, you first have to understand search engines.

Every search engine uses a slightly different algorithm to search content on the web and rank results. At their core, however, these algorithms are rooted in a few key principles.

Links

There’s a reason the internet is called the “web”. Different sites on the internet are interconnected just like a large, complex spider web.

Search engines want to direct users to quality content. One way they do this is by looking at how websites are connected through links.

Essentially, search engines assume that content that has more links, or connections to other content, is more likely to be reliable.

By evaluating the links that connect sites to each other, search engines can determine what web content is referenced most often.

Keywords

While links give search engine information about what content is reliable, keywords tell them what content is relevant.

In order to understand what a web page is about, search engines use a process called “indexing.” By indexing, they search web content for particular keywords and then categorize the content accordingly.

Using search engine optimization effectively

Once you understand how search engines evaluate content, the next step is to tailor–or optimize–your web page so that search engines are more likely to find it.

There are a few important ways to do this.

Publish quality content

Search engines keep getting smarter. The engineers behind them constantly tweak the algorithms.

This makes it more difficult for websites to manipulate search results by making content for the algorithm, rather than for users.

That’s why the first step to any SEO strategy is creating quality content. At the end of the day, that’s what search engine are designed to look for.

Let your content drive your SEO strategy–not the other way around

Using targeted keywords and increasing the links between your site and other sites is still a crucial part of SEO. The way to achieve this goal, however, is through great content.

First, it’s important to make sure that the content you publish includes the keywords that searchers are looking for.

When searchers find your content, they will interact with it and share it across platforms. This increases your network, making it more likely that search engines will rank your page highly.

If you’re ready to use search engine optimization drive traffic to your website, contact us so we can get started. We can even give you a free quote based on your site’s specific needs.