![The power of information can help or hamper many people in today's world](https://www.netnewsledger.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/information-technology.jpg)
Thunder Bay – TECH – You’ve no doubt heard of search engine optimization, but how much do you really know about it? Here, we’ll discuss the basics of SEO and get you acquainted with some of the terms you need to know.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
So, what exactly is SEO? This acronym is the catchall term used for all of the methods you can use to increase and ensure the visibility of your website and its contents in the eyes of the search engine results pages, or SERPs. This can refer to behind the scenes things (on-page optimization) or things you do to promote your site’s visibility, such as social media marketing.
Is SEO really necessary?
In a word, yes. If you want to succeed, you’re going to have to optimize your site. You competition is doing it, so if you’re not, you’re going to be setting yourself up for failure. SEO will drive traffic to your site from the search engines. In other words, when someone searches for a keyword that your site is optimized for, your site will be returned in the results pages. The higher your site is ranked, the closer to the top of the results it will appear, and the more traffic you’ll receive.
What exactly do the search engines look for?
It’s a big complicated, but when a user searches for something in Google, the search engine determines what is important and relevant, and then searches for the answer based on those data. How they do this is the result of complicated algorithms. The important thing to know is that strategic optimization for certain keywords will dramatically improve your site’s chances of getting noticed.
Does content matter?
As the saying goes, content is king. It’s important that you regularly published good-quality content that is geared toward human readers, not just for the search engines. “Keyword stuffing,” or the practice of writing content that features an unnatural number of keywords while making flow and coherence secondary, will result in substandard content that will compromise the user experience. That will negatively impact your site’s traffic, too, because even if people are led to your site by the search engines, they won’t stay long and won’t likely return if your content is subpar.
Device compatibility
Be sure that your site is optimized to be viewed the same way across a variety of screen sizes. Google likes this type of responsive design, and users will respond favourably when they can view a website on their desktop, laptop, phone, and/or tablet and have the same calibre of experience every time.
These are just the basics of search engine optimization. If you are looking for a way to optimize your site without having to learn all of the ins and outs, it’s best to hire a professional search engine optimization company. They’ll take care of your optimization campaign for you.