The most important thing to a business is reach. Back in the old days, the way to do it was through advertising. But nowadays we have the internet and at the heart of the Internet are Seach Engines. Search Engines are designed in a certain way so that relevant results come at the top. So, Search Engine Optimization, SEO for short, is the process by which a business, organization, or person can boost their desired Webpage in the Search Results.

How can I make my site relevant?

There are various techniques that are used to boost your site to the top. Some of the techniques are mentioned below.

You have to configure your site’s metadata properly. Metadata is data that is not included in your actual Webpage but they help Search Engines like Google to understand what your Website is about. Things like Page titles and descriptions about the page are Metadata. So accurate and relevant keywords there would bring more traffic to your site.

• Another great tactic is to put the relevant information into the URL itself. The title of the topic can work great in this case. For example- example.com/what-is-seo.html
• Nesting your pages in a directory structure is also a good idea, like putting all your blogs about a certain topic.
• Nowadays, the SEO features are built into the Hosting Service/Website Builder itself. So, checking their tutorials and checking the websites, and configuring them is a good idea.
• There is also ALT Text for images that helps Search Engines understand what the image is about. So filling accurate alt texts for the images is a great idea.
• Link Building is also a good strategy for SEO. Linking other pages of your website to the desired page boosts your ranking.
• Another very important step to do is keyword research. Researching what keywords are relevant and including them properly in the proper places has proven to be highly successful.

Blackhat and Whitehat SEO? Like most things in this world, even this feature is being taken advantage of by some scrupulous site owners who use illegitimate tactics to boost their sites in Search Results, they are doing Blackhat SEO and people who use legitimate techniques to boost their engagement are doing Whitehat SEO.

Although Blackhats might win in the short term, if we want to make our website’s fame last long, we have to stick to legitimate techniques.

Advantages of SEO Now that we know a little about how to do SEO let’s learn why it is important.

• As you already know, the world before SEO ran on advertisements. But advertisements cost money. So, for a small business or individual, it's not always viable. Doing Search Engine Optimization is free for this reason, it is a great option for small business owners.
• Consistency in the audience count is also a good reason to do SEO. If we resort to other mediums to get an audience, we won’t get a consistent audience with that. But if we focus on SEO, we will get organic viewers who will stay for a while if our site gets indexed higher.
• If sites like Google organically boost your site, it has the potential to be viewed by billions which is unlikely in other mediums of advertising.

Things to keep in mind while doing SEO Doing SEO is more an art than a science. There is no predetermined or proper way to do this. You have to become more familiar with the topic, gain more experience, and explore new ideas and approaches to do it.

Some things to keep in mind -

It is very important to understand the searcher’s intent and format the website and answer their concerns properly. You have to be able to predict what your Page or Website would solve for someone. You have to be aware of the metrics and why your Pages are getting views or aren’t getting views.

There will come a lot of difficulties in ranking for a certain keyword. So you have to understand and change your tactics carefully.

To conclude, SEO has great potential to take your content to a large audience. You just have to keep up and acquire new skills once in a while to keep up with the moving world.