What is SEO and Why is it Necessary?

SEO has been gaining enormous importance in recent years, largely due to the benefits it has demonstrated for websites. The truth is that just having a website is not enough. The goal of the vast majority of websites is to obtain some benefit through traffic, such as selling a product or service, promoting a particular brand, encouraging users to become regular readers of content, among others. This raises the following question: if users cannot find the website, does it really exist?

In this article we will explain what SEO is, what it is for and some of the practices that can be implemented.

What is SEO

SEO means Search Engine Optimization. The goal of SEO is to use certain “legal ” optimization practices applied to the website, so that the likelihood of the optimized website being more easily found by users increases.

The use of the term “legal” in the previous paragraph was not without meaning. As in many other areas, SEO also has a “dark” side, known as black-hat SEO. This aspect of SEO uses practices that are not recommended, as the website may suffer heavy penalties from search engines. The mention of black-hat SEO was only to separate these two branches, making it clear that this article focuses only on white-hat SEO.

What is the SEO process

It will depend on case to case. The ideal is that any website that is created from scratch is accompanied by an SEO professional, so that it initially follows those that are considered good practices.

This does not mean that a website cannot be optimized retrospectively. The problem in this case is that it may not be possible to make certain changes at the programming level. It may be that it is a template and does not allow any changes. Or, the programmer who built the website may have to make many changes, which may not only require major changes to the code, consuming a lot of time, but also requiring more money to be invested in these changes.

The first step will always be to “design” the structure of the website. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a new site or the construction of a website for a company that just wants to update its existing website. It is necessary to structure this website, determining the pages it will have, so that structurally it is easy to navigate and as user-friendly as possible.

Next, content such as text needs to be created. This content should also follow certain SEO guidelines. Keyword research should be conducted on the area in which the brand operates. It is a good idea to analyze competitors’ websites to understand what they are doing, how they communicate, etc., and try to do better, as there is always room for improvement. The content created should be based on the keyword defined for that page, and each page should be optimized for only one keyword.

In addition to the content of the page itself, the title tag and meta description should be optimized. The title tag is simply the title of the page, which appears in blue on the search engine results page. The meta description is the text that appears just below the title tag.

These two fields are important. In the case of the title tag, not only is it considered a ranking factor, but it also helps both the user and the search engine understand what the page is about. In the case of the search engine, it helps it to display the page to those looking for the service or product that the page offers. In the case of the meta description, although it is not considered a ranking factor, it can help in terms of CTR (click-through rate), i.e., the more appealing it is, the more likely the user is to click on that result.

Another important factor that should also not be neglected concerns the site itself, that is, the site must be responsive, that is, it must be able to adapt correctly to any device where it is presented. Given that most searches are done on mobile, having a responsive website is very important.

Website speed is also important. In an age where users are unwilling to wait long for a website to load, having a fast website is essential. This is a ranking factor. Google penalizes sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. Some of the optimizations that can be made include not having images that are too large (if possible, up to 100KB), having a good server/hosting, or implementing, for example, lazy loading, among others.

Then there are other issues that are also important and that should be reviewed frequently, such as the errors that the website presents, and these should be corrected. There are some software on the market that allows this analysis.

Another important factor is backlinks, i.e., links that other websites have to my website. These links are seen as votes of confidence by search engines. In addition to passing on some “strength” to the website they point to, they give relevance to the website receiving the link. Although there are some bad practices in obtaining backlinks, they should be obtained without resorting to “tricks” such as buying them. The idea is that they should be obtained fairly. In addition, the more relevant they are to the website, the better. In other words, if a backlink comes from a site that is somehow related to the business model for the website to which it points, then it will have greater value. For example, if a hotel website has a backlink to a car rental company, there is context between them. On the other hand, if a dentist’s website has a backlink to a shoe store website, the weight will not be as great, as these businesses are not related. In short, the weight of the backlink will be greater the greater the complementary relationship between the business models.

A good idea for obtaining backlinks is to create quality content, such as blog articles. Blog articles not only help index more keywords, but can also serve as “gateways” for users who come across these articles. They should follow SEO best practices and be based on keyword research. In addition, they should be shared on social media or via newsletter to drive traffic to the website.

SEO and its periodicity

SEO results do not happen immediately, but may occur in the medium to long term. In addition, some results may not turn out as planned. This is because there are many uncontrollable factors that can influence these results, such as frequent updates to search engines, competition, or even user behavior. Therefore, it is important that SEO optimizations made to a website are closely monitored on a regular basis to ensure that you get the most out of this area.

Conclusion

For any brand/company that wants to be competitive in the digital environment, it is important that you implement good SEO practices on your website. In addition, any business, regardless of its size, can benefit from SEO.

Another aspect worth noting is that SEO must work in an integrated Digital Marketing strategy, that is, it must be inserted along with other areas such as social media, email marketing or paid platforms, so that you can get the most out of the digital environment.