SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the practice of optimizing a website or online content to improve its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), like Google. The goal of SEO is to increase the quantity and quality of traffic to a website through organic (non-paid) search engine results.
There are several key elements involved in SEO:
- On-page SEO: This includes optimizing the content and HTML source code of individual pages, like:
- Using relevant keywords.
- Crafting compelling meta titles and descriptions.
- Structuring content with proper headers (H1, H2, etc.).
- Optimizing images (file names, alt text, and size).
- Ensuring mobile-friendliness.
- Off-page SEO: This focuses on factors outside the website that can influence search rankings, like:
- Backlinks (links from other websites to your content).
- Social media engagement.
- Online reputation.
- Technical SEO: This deals with the technical aspects of your website that can affect its search engine ranking, like:
- Site speed.
- Mobile optimization.
- URL structure.
- Crawlability (ensuring search engines can index your site properly).
- Fixing broken links.
- Content SEO: Quality content that answers users’ search queries is a critical part of SEO. It should be valuable, informative, and relevant to your target audience.
By optimizing for SEO, you improve your chances of ranking higher in search results, which can lead to more visitors, potential customers, or engagement with your content.