What is SEO? Optimizing Websites for Search Engines

Search engine Optimization(SEO) is the practice of increasing the optimization of a website. That results in growing of traffic of that particular website and higher ranking.

What SEO really does in addition to optimization of a website for search engines?

We will discuss this issue further in the following post on Site Story.

SEO is the short for Search Engine Optimization, and as you see; the definition shows the content in many aspects. In the following discussion we try to answer all of your basic questions about SEO.

Today; simple accessing to high speed internet, wide diversity of gadgets and watches, etc. encourage companies, sellers, service agencies and in other words; people engaged in different parts of industry, production or distribution of goods to utilize websites to introduce their products online to their customers.

But is that enough to have only a website to inform customers about our services or products? Do we need SEO at all? What is the importance of SEO?

As a matter of fact, the rate of consumers who search for their needs on the internet has raised considerably these years, as they can achieve the following goals:

• Having a wide choice
• • Ease of comparing different products and services of many companies online without being forced to call them (in many situations, the operators which reply customers calls; do not have enough informative knowledge of the products to present to customers)
• Considerable saving of time, energy and transportation costs

Now imagine that in your business field of activity, hundreds of companies are giving services to customers. A typical example can be smartphone sellers. If someone googles the phrase :”buying smartphone” what will he be faced? For sure; he will bump into too many search result pages and in each page, there are at least 10 sites available which present that product or news about that, criticize it or compare different models of that smartphone.

In this particular example, as there is the word “buy” in the user’s search box, the first four or five pages are probably devoted to the sellers of the product; and other issues related to the smartphone like criticism, news, etc. will appear on the next pages.

Now guess what will the buyer do next? Probably your answer is: checking the sites in order from the first page one by one and compare different information in them to extract the data he needs.

You are right! This is the nature of human being that whenever there is no significant difference factor between the search results, he goes through beforehand adjusted options.

Also, experiments and researches show that the portion of traffic on the first Google search result are several times more than second result on the first page; and it is critical to the point that the second page practically receives too much low views; if receives any.

That’s how optimization for SEO shows its importance. Because the more your website gets higher ranks and traffic, the more your sale percentage is likely to be increased.

In the last 10 years, with rapid growth of websites which all present the same products or services (of course with different quality, price and details), along with considering the fact that the better deserves to be seen more than others; SEO gained its importance.

Suppose that the user could find his answer or anything that he searches for in the first Google result; then we should congratulate the site which earned the first rank in the Google search results as it has been successful in attracting the user.

How SEO works? Which factors are essential in that? Do we need special tools?

The answer to the second question, is No. As a matter of fact, although there are many different tools to help us analyze sites faster, they are not essential when you are getting professional gradually in optimization of websites. Of course, sometimes using tools is inevitable to finish the project faster; something to notice is that most of the tools which are used in SEO analysis are free and accessible on the internet. For optimizing websites for search engines; we should pay attention to many factors; from the appearance of the site to essential or non-essential standards, which are usually ignored by website designers.

There are more than 200 vital factors in SEO which we try to explain them briefly on this blog. All the issues, news, tutorials and the materials about SEO optimization for search engines, website designing, etc. are completely free of charge and there is no requirement for subscription/etc. to access these informative data we release here for you.

Now I try to explain the whole path to start and continue site optimization in the simplest way possible.

1. Knowing the services, content and product in the targeted website for optimization

What is the first step in SEO? Brief reply: being familiar with the targeted website for SEO.

Knowing the services, products ,contents and materials presented by the site is the first step of optimization. Even if you are not familiar with the site goals; you can still perform the optimization but you should know that may this optimization won’t lead to increasing the customers and the site traffic; because you may use key words or phrases which although correct, but not used by common people or not searched a lot on Google.

So, in SEO website, the first and most important step is knowing the content of the site. Of course, there is no need to get university degrees for the content of the site you are working on. General and basic information of the site content is enough in this step.

2. Spotting major competitors which already possess SEO websites

What is the next step after knowing the content of the website?

Obviously, being aware of procedure on which the competitors got high ranking in Google search, can be a nice pattern as a starting point.

Consider you have a travel agency. After gathering information about tours, visas, facilities, etc. you should know about the content of the competitor’s sites which have earned higher ranks.

How their sites are organized; on which key words they have focused more; and many more.

Of course, we do not recommend copying the contents of those sites, and even warn you about this matter; to know the reasons, please follow our posts on the Site Story blog. Meanwhile, do not forget to consider investigating about targeted sites keywords. That means which keywords should be optimizes on the SEO site.

4. Providing a suitable content

Providing contents is the most important part of SEO and site optimization. The content you are reading at present is about 2000 words that elements are discussed in that in a suitable way.

A suitable and interesting content with a reasonable length has a lot of advantages about providing content we will present informative data on the Site Story and the next post. Please stay tuned with us.

5. Link Building and analysis of competitors websites

Google has repeatedly emphasized that the link plays a critical role in SEO (and then the content itself). So, you have to be aware of this. Not only Just building links for your website on the internet is not enough, but also of it is not a good quality link, then you will achieve disappointing outcomes and your website might be dramatically dropped in Google search results or even completely disappear.

If you are not professional in this field, we recommend to consult with a specialist to achieve desired results.

There are a lot of tips to have a link , including important tips on link building, purchasing a link and websites which you receive links from.

Just by checking this SEO blog time to time, you will access lots of informative information which help you in many ways.

Up to now, I tried to give you a general idea about SEO and importance of utilizing good quality links. In future, I promise to share whatever I know about this issue with you.

6. Reviewing the results and performance of SEO and continuous analysis of website rank

Many people forget this part. What is the last and most important part of SEO?

We hear a lot that SEO is a continuous and permanent job. I also totally agree with that. Your flawless activities may lead to a SEO website with a high ranking in a specific time, but one thing you should remember is that your competitors are always struggling to regain their rank, as well as those who are in lower ranks that try to improve their SEO level and optimize their sites. So, if you stop working, you will use ground!

There are numerous tools which help you to see your rank for various keywords in search engines. Although many of these tools are free and easy to access, we recommend that you, as a specialist; occasionally search your targeted SEO keywords and monitor your rankings. If you see that your dropping in Google search results, just keep calm and try to review all available and effective factors. Start from important issues, such as links and content. Then, every other detail.

Perhaps:

• Your links have lost their quality
• The content of your competitors’ SEO site has improved a lot so that Google marked that better than yours
• Your content is outdated and has not been updated for a long time
• There has been a problem with your site’s hosting server which made your website out of access or the speed of reaching the site is reduced, and many more.

Remember, if you have been in the top position once, you can be in hat place again and again.

This is not the whole story. The SEO weblog of Site Story activated on Saturday , Farvardin 28th, 1395 in order to create a dynamic, friendly and free atmosphere for communicating, sharing information and discussing in the field of SEO and site optimization. We believe that exchanging knowledge will add to that. So, we try our best to boost general knowledge of SEO, meanwhile we earn from Site Story.

We always appreciate any criticisms, comments and suggestions in the field of SEO and we try to use them in a positive way and boosting our profession. In summary; we need your help to make a comprehensive SEO progress.

This is the first post on SEO blog of Site Story

Stay tuned with us.