Why SEO Matters: A Guide to Improve Your Website Traffic and Online Visibility

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a crucial role in boosting your organic traffic and helping your website rank better. SEO is about aligning your website’s content and quality according to your target audience’s search needs. It aims to provide the best possible user experience.

SEO activities are divided into two categories: “on-page” and “off-page”

On-page SEO: Also known as “on-site” SEO, it focuses on optimizing different pages of your website, helping you improve your website’s search engine rankings. Ranking on top of a search engine’s results pages is determined by numerous factors, including site accessibility, page speed, optimized content, keywords, and title tags. In simple terms, on-page SEO deals with optimizing the content and elements that you have control over and can change on your website.

Off-page SEO: Off-page SEO focuses on building your domain authority through backlinks from other websites. Imagine your website is like a library, and each page on your site is a book in that library. Backlinks from other websites are like recommendations or references from other libraries and community members. The more reputable and well-regarded these other libraries are (high-quality websites with authority), the more valuable their recommendations (backlinks) are perceived by the community (search engines). Therefore, backlinks from high-authority websites (such as Wikipedia or News websites) can significantly boost your site's credibility and ranking in search results.

You can check your website's Domain Authority using tools such as Moz's Domain Authority checker to gauge how authoritative your site appears to search engines relative to other sites on the web.

Achieving high rankings for your website can be exceedingly difficult, especially when considering that paid ads often appear above organic search results. However, studies suggest that many people prefer to click on links that are below the paid searches. Yes, SEO takes more time, effort, and—although it focuses on “free” organic traffic—resources.

But once you rank for your target keywords, you can reach more people and generate “passive” traffic that does not disappear the moment you stop paying.

Now let us Understand the Working Behind the Search Engine Ranking:

Search engines (such as Google and Bing) use the following stages to find and rank content:

1. • Crawling: Search engines use “bots,” or computer programs, to crawl a webpage and look for new or updated pages.
2. • Indexing: Next, search engines analyze each page and try to make sense of what the page is about. Then, they may store this information in their huge database of webpages.
3. • Serving results: When a user enters a query, the search engines determine which pages are the best, in terms of quality and relevance, and rank them in the search engine's results page (SERP).

Having covered the basic functions and processes behind SEO, let us delve into how your website can achieve top rankings.

How Does SEO Work?

Algorithm: The Ultimate Decider.

Many claim they can crack the algorithm with specific steps, but the reality is that no one truly knows its inner workings with absolute certainty. However, there are proven methods that consistently yield positive results.

1. Ensuring Relevance

Consider why Google is your preferred search engine. It is likely because of its ability to deliver highly relevant search results. Therefore, when starting SEO activities, your foremost goal should be to ensure your content resonates with your target audience's search queries. Relevance is not just about displaying pages related to "cars" when someone searches for it; it is about satisfying the user's search intent—the basic reason behind their specific query.

There are four main types of search intent:

1. • Navigational: Directing users to a specific website or page (e.g., “Inkorporated’s report-writing course”)
2. • Informational: Providing information on a topic or answering a question (e.g., “Inkorporated’s Insight page”)
3. • Commercial: Offering details about a product or service (e.g., “Inkorporated's content, editorial and design services”)
4. • Transactional: Facilitating a purchase or contact (e.g., “Inkorporated's contact us”)

Here is an example:

For instance, if you search for “best smartphones under ₹15,000,” you are not interested in general articles about smartphones or top-rated phones of the year. While both may be topically relevant, they do not meet your search intent. Google understands from user data that when you search for “best phones under ₹15,000,” you are looking to make a purchase within that budget range. Therefore, Google ranks pages that feature product listings or reviews specifically tailored to phones priced under ₹15,000—aligning with either a transactional or commercial search intent.

This approach ensures that your SEO efforts are not only relevant but also strategically aligned with how users search and engage online. Read our article on how to optimize content for both search engines and readers.

2. Providing Great Usability

Search engines prefer websites that are user friendly. Technical SEO plays a key role in achieving this goal by ensuring your site is not only crawlable and indexable but also meets high usability standards. Key factors include:

1. • Site Security: Your website should adhere to basic security standards, such as having an SSL certificate (using HTTPS instead of HTTP).
2. • Page Speed: Google prioritizes faster-loading pages in its search rankings because they offer superior user experience.
3. • Mobile Friendliness: With 'mobile-first indexing,' Google evaluates how well your content performs on mobile devices, emphasizing mobile SEO to ensure your site is easily navigable and readable on smartphones and tablets.
4. • Ease of Use: A clear and intuitive website structure enables visitors to find information quickly and navigate your site seamlessly.

Where to Start?

Begin by conducting a comprehensive site audit to assess your website's usability. Numerous online tools offer detailed reports focusing on various aspects of your site's performance. By prioritizing these aspects of technical SEO and usability, you can enhance your website's appeal to both users and search engines, potentially improving your rankings and user engagement over time.

3. Building Authority

Search engines often rely on off-page signals to assess the credibility and trustworthiness of a website.

One of the most influential off-page factors is the concept of authority, which is primarily determined by the quality and quantity of backlinks—links from other websites pointing to yours. Backlinks act as votes of confidence and endorsement from other sites, indicating to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. To enhance your site's authority through backlinks, focus on obtaining links from reputable and relevant websites within your industry or niche. Quality matters more than quantity here; a few high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites can have a more significant impact than numerous links from lesser-known sources.

Example:

Imagine you have published an in-depth analysis of the latest marketing trends, comparing their changes, impact, and performance. A reputable marketing agency or educational website finds your article informative and references it in its article about top marketing strategies for the year. It includes a backlink to your article, serving as a strong endorsement of your content's authority in marketing and advertising. Search engines, including Google, recognize this endorsement and may reward your website with higher rankings for relevant search queries, such as "best marketing strategies," thereby increasing your visibility to potential readers and customers.

How to Link to Different Websites?

1. • Create Link-Worthy content: Write and upload articles that provide substantial value and insights. Original studies, interactive pages, and free tools are fitting examples. Such content attracts attention from reputable sites that may link back to yours naturally.
2. • Guest Blogging and Contributing: Contribute posts and stories to other platforms and websites within your niche. Ensure your content is high-quality and relevant, encouraging these sites to link back to your website for further information
3. • Network Building: Establish connections within your industry or niche. Building relationships with influencers, bloggers, and webmasters can lead to natural backlinks as they reference your content in their own posts or articles.
4. • Broken link building: Engage in broken link building, a strategy involving finding broken links on other websites that originally linked to content related to your domain. You can then suggest replacing those broken links with links to your own relevant content.
5. • Use Press Releases and Public Relations: Distribute press releases about newsworthy events or developments related to your business. When picked up by news outlets or industry websites, these releases can lead to valuable backlinks.

I hope this article has given you a good overview of SEO. Always remember, SEO is not about tricking search engines; it is about convincing them to rank your site higher because you offer value. Avoid shortcuts because SEO is a long-term strategy; results do not appear overnight. SEO is an ongoing process since your competition is always active. Think of SEO as just one ingredient in your recipe for success. No amount of optimization can compensate for neglecting your core product or service, which is the heart of your offering.