The first step to understand SEO is to understand what it is for and what web optimization consists of. We will explain point by point.
What is SEO for?
Search engine optimization: Search engine optimization is the refinement, development and promotion of the site, taking into account the requirements of search engines.
Why SEO is needed for online stores, corporate portals, and even landing pages with business card sites:
1. Search traffic growth
Despite the popularity of social networks and search engines, Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu and Yandex are in the lead in terms of most searched traffic.
For content projects: corporate blogs, media, information sites that earn from advertising, the share of search traffic, as a rule, is even higher. This can be verified using the number of visits and traffic the website receives.
Media, brands, and agencies are interested in search traffic not only because of its potential volume. An important difference from other channels is that you do not need to pay for each click and transition to the site, as in contextual and targeted advertising.
At the same time, of course, search traffic cannot be called free, because especially at the beginning you need to invest a lot in content, technical optimization, etc. But investments in SEO pay off in the long term (4 to 12 months).
2. Improve user experience
The main task of the search engine is to provide a high-quality answer to the user’s query. That is, choose among the many sites the most relevant, convenient, informative, authoritative. So, for example, search engines take into account when ranking:
- page load speed: the faster the page loads, the better the position in search (ceteris paribus);
- adaptability: ease of viewing on all devices, browsers, operating systems;
- site security – the presence of a connected https, the absence of viruses;
- matching words of the request with meta tags (title, description), as they contain additional information about the page for search engines;
- availability of revisions, information on payment, delivery, guarantees.
So when you do good SEO, you not only increase traffic to your website, but also improve user experience at the same time. Convenience and information give the visitor a reason to stay longer on the site, come back again and again, place orders, leave requests.
Growth of traffic and leads, improvement of on-site behavior can only be expected when using honest white hat SEO. The gray and black methods of search engine optimization, on the other hand, are very likely to lead to pesimization and penalties.
