Every time I mention the word SEO, I’m greeted with the question of “What is SEO?” As a person who is very much into SEO and everything that encompasses it, I often make the mistake of making general assumptions that everyone I interact with are conversant with SEO. Well, simply put, SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization and basically refers to a process through which a website can improve its visibility and ranking in search engines through incorporating various strategies and techniques. The basic purpose of SEO is to ensure that a site is easily found by search engines and ranks high in various search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.
SEO is basically broken down into two important aspects. These are:
On page SEO is concerned with the technical aspects of a website. It’s concerned with the technical elements of a web page such as contextual texts, HTML codes, and images, speeds of a site, link building and many more.
Off page SEO on the other hand, is all about building effective back links, increasing exposure through Social Media Marketing. It helps in increasing engagement with customers on your website and ultimately increasing visibility online. With off page SEO, you are able to promote your products and services online in any of the popular social media networks, increase exposure through social bookmarking, link building and many more.
What are the types of SEO available?
At a glance, we can say that there are two major types of SEO. These are: white hat SEO and black hat SEO. However, there is a third type of SEO known as grey hat SEO. Probably, if you are new into the SEO world, you are probably feeling like these terms are alien. Why then don’t we get to it and provide an explanation for each of the above terms?
White hat SEO is a terminology used to refer to ethical SEO practices. It’s the good kind of search engine optimization that Google expects each website to employ. It refers to strategies, practices and techniques that ascribe to Search engines guidelines and rules. By utilizing white hat SEO, you are rest assured that your site won’t attract any form of penalty from Google and you will enjoy high rankings on search engines.
Black hat SEO on the other hand, refers to the use of unethical SEO practices and techniques that go against the outlined guidelines and rules set out by Google. They are designed to help a website get quick traffic and by extension financial gains. However, these unethical practices could get your website delisted or banned from search engines and should never be encouraged.
Grey hat SEO is a combination of the black and white hat SEO strategies with the aim of fooling Google to believe that the website is natural. Like the above two types of SEO, its designed to improve a websites ranking and if not done by an SEO professional could lead to catastrophic results.
Why is search engine optimization important?
The benefits of SEO for your business are manifold. Can you imagine a situation where your business cannot be located or your business phone number is nowhere to be seen? Do you know how badly this will affect your business? With a percentage of 93% of searches done online, ensuring that your business website is easily accessible online should be your number one concern. Search engine optimization is important because it helps in:
- Increasing your sites ranking
- Improving your sites visibility
- Increasing traffic to your site
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