SEO

We all know Google and ask it our questions. Whenever we search for a term in Google, it shows us different results. What makes us able to access relevant results in a fraction of a second? Based on what criteria does Google determine the order of displayed pages? Google takes various factors into account, but every site also takes steps to rank higher on the Google results page. These actions mean SEO of the site. In this learning block, we are going to get to know the concepts of SEO and after knowing what SEO is, we will know the principles of SEO and the work that needs to be done to SEO the site. In the first session of the SEO block, we will talk about the general concepts of SEO and we will tell you what causes you to see different results by searching for different words in Google, and you can also learn SEO training completely.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for  Search Engine  Optimization and means optimization for search engines  . SEO refers to the set of actions that are taken to increase the quantity and quality of incoming website traffic through organic search engines, which leads to an increase in site visits. The most famous search engine in the world is Google search engine. Bing and Yahoo are also other search engines. When you search terms in a search engine, the results are displayed on the search engine results page (SERP). For example, for the keyword “digital marketing training” the following results will be displayed on the Google search engine results page.

Some of the results seen in search engines are related to search engine advertisements. The most famous search engine ads are related to Google ads or Google Ads. It’s easy to distinguish advertising results from organic results because every search engine specifies it. The following figure shows the advertising results for the keyword “what is digital marketing”. These results   are marked with the “Ad” icon.

The rest of the results are related to organic results. You saw an example of it in the image related to the keyword “Digital Marketing Training”. In fact, organic results include all pages that are displayed by the search engine but are not advertising.

Now, if we want to explain more precisely what SEO is, we can say that SEO of a site includes the following:

• Create high quality content
• Optimizing content for specific keywords
• Create internal and external links
• Improving the performance of the site from a technical point of view

We will give complete explanations about each of the mentioned items in other lessons of the SEO learning block.

But what is the ultimate goal of doing these actions? These solutions are done with the aim of  increasing your site’s ranking in the search results  of search engines, especially Google  , and according to the set goals of the business. In the following, each of these mentioned items will be explained in more detail.

What is the importance of SEO?

Nearly 60% of all web traffic comes from Google searches. If you add traffic from other popular search engines (such as Bing, Yahoo and YouTube), as you can see in the figure, 70.6% of all traffic comes from search engines, and the rest of the web traffic comes from sources such as social networks and emails.

To show a better result in search engines, we should know that search engines like Google have become smarter, but they still need our help. For site optimization, providing better information helps search engines to correctly identify your content and display it in search results. But SEO of the site has other benefits.

1. Increase site traffic

The higher the content is displayed on the search engine results page, the more input it will receive and the more clicks and traffic it will receive.

2. Increase click rate

The higher your rank in search engine results, the higher the click-through rate (CTR) of your content. Click-through rate means the amount of users clicking on your content divided by the content’s visibility as a percentage in search results. You can see its formula below:

Click rate (percentage) = 100* (click/display on search pages)

For example, if your content is displayed 1000 times in a search engine and is clicked 1 time, the click rate is 0.1%. As shown in the picture, in the Google search engine, the click rate of the first to third ranks of the search results is 31.73%, 24.71% and 18.66% respectively, which is about 75% of the total click rate of the first page.

3. Increase brand credibility

Implementing strong and quality SEO on the website can increase brand credibility and influence other marketing measures. If you rank first to third in the results, you’ve shown your customers that you’re a major player in the industry. Also, this can indicate the popularity of your site, and for this reason, many users have searched for results on your site.

4. SEO as a long-term marketing strategy

Just as it takes time for you to rank high, it also takes time to drop. Therefore, SEO is a long-term marketing strategy. If Google’s algorithm doesn’t change or other competitors don’t change their SEO strategy, it’s not easy to push you down the search results.

Now that we have answered the question of what SEO is and know the importance of SEO, it is necessary to know how search engines like Google work.

How do search engines work?

Search engines are like libraries of the digital age. Instead of storing copies of books, they store copies of web pages. When you type a word or phrase into a search engine, the search engine looks through all the available pages and tries to show the most relevant results. Algorithms are used for this work and to obtain correct results. No one knows exactly how these algorithms work, but with the clues Google has given us, we can get good results. In the article “How Search Algorithms Work”, Google stated that, in order to obtain the most useful information, search algorithms depend on various factors, including the  words and phrases searched for ,  the relevance of the site’s pages ,  the field of work and expertise of the site ,  location and settings. Users  pay attention.

The importance of each factor varies depending on the nature of the search term. For example, for time-sensitive content such as news, content recency is more important. For sites where location is important, such as a dentist’s website, the results displayed will vary based on users’ location. Also, the displayed results are different according to the user’s previous searches and his choices.

In simple words, SEO can show search engines that your content is the best result for the desired topic. The reason for this is that all search engines have the same goal:  to show the best and most relevant results to their users . How to do this depends on the search engine in question. Due to the more accurate Google algorithms and the display of better results, this search engine is the most popular search engine in the world and is the most important for site SEO. In order to show better results to users, Google uses various algorithms such as Rank Brain, Mobile Algorithm, and Hummingbird Algorithm to display the most relevant results from millions of pages in a fraction of a second. The types of Google algorithms and more explanation about them are explained in the upcoming sessions. Important factors for ranking pages are shown in the figure below.

Types of SEO

There are three types of SEO that you need to complete your website SEO strategy: internal SEO, technical SEO, and external SEO. By breaking down your strategy and thinking about SEO as these three types, it will be much easier to organize and implement optimization programs.

In the image below, the necessary steps to optimize the site based on Maze site criteria are shown. Some steps are related to technical SEO and some are related to internal SEO. In the following article, the types of SEO are described in detail.

1. Technical SEO

Technical SEO is related to the non-content aspects of your website.

Technical SEO includes strategies to improve the structure of the site. Technical SEO improves site readability (which makes it easier for search engines to understand) and provides a good user experience. Creating user experience helps search engines to see the site better and understand it better. For the audience, improving the user experience can reduce the bounce rate and encourage more audiences to return to your site and increase direct input.

The types of actions that can be taken to improve technical SEO are related to the following:

• Improving site speed ( Site speed )
• Optimization for mobile ( Mobile-friendliness )
• Creating a suitable structure for the site ( Site architecture )
• Using structured data
• Site security ( Security )

2. Internal SEO (On-Page SEO)

Internal SEO is about the content on your website.

Internal SEO includes strategies for optimizing internal pages on a website. Internal SEO factors help search engines understand the topic of the content and realize that the website has an important resource that people want to find.

Internal SEO itself includes the following:

• Keyword research

Finding the best keywords for the purpose of creating content on a topic related to the desired keyword

• Content production

Publish high-quality content focused on the target keyword

• Content optimization with keywords

Use the target keyword in all the right places like main title, meta description, URL address, image alt description and title tag.

3. External SEO (Off-Page SEO)

External SEO techniques help to strengthen the connection of the website with other websites and increase the credibility of the site.

External SEO includes strategies to build credibility for a website. Most external SEO practices are about getting high quality links from other websites. A large amount of links from reputable sites to your site shows search engines that your site has value and credibility. You can earn this credit through all kinds of link building and guest posting.

Black hat SEO and white hat SEO

“White hat SEO” refers to SEO techniques that include determining the SEO strategy according to search engine rules. The main focus of white hat SEO is to provide more value to the audience.

“Black Hat SEO” refers to techniques and strategies that attempt to trick search engines. Black hat SEO can put websites at risk of being fined or penalized and removed from search results. This black hat SEO focuses on optimizing content for search engines only and does not consider user experience.

In the first session of the SEO learning block, we talked about what SEO is, its importance and factors affecting it, types of SEO, white hat SEO, and black hat SEO. In the next session, we will talk about Google algorithms. If you want to be informed about the publication of the next sessions, you can subscribe to the SEO Learning Block newsletter. If you have a question about SEO, share it with us.