By Kausik Biswas


If you have a website, you might have heard of SEO or search engine optimisation. But what exactly is it, and why is it important for your website? In this article, we will explain the basics of SEO and how it can help you attract more visitors, customers, and revenue.


What is SEO?


The full form of SEO is search engine optimisation. It is the process of increasing your site's visibility and relevance for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. This involves various aspects, such as:


Keyword research: finding out what words as well as phrases your target audience uses to find your products, services, or topics.


Content creation: producing high-quality, relevant, and engaging content that matches your keywords and provides value to your visitors.


Technical optimisation: ensuring that your website is fast, secure, easy to crawl, and user-friendly.


Link building: acquiring links from other reputable websites that point to your site, which signals trust and authority to search engines.


Analytics and reporting: measuring and analysing your site's performance, traffic, conversions, and other metrics.


Why is SEO Important?


SEO is important because it helps you reach more potential customers who are looking for what you offer. Through optimising your site for search engines, one can do the following:


Increase your visibility: SEO helps to increase your site's ranking in search engine results pages, that means more people will view your website when they find relevant keywords.


Increase your traffic: It helps you drive more organic (free) traffic to your site, which means more visitors who are interested in your content and offerings.


Increase your conversions: SEO helps you convert more visitors into customers, subscribers, or leads by providing them with relevant and valuable information that matches their intent and needs.


Increase your revenue: This helps you generate more sales, revenue, and profit by attracting more qualified customers who are ready to buy from you.


How to Do SEO for Your Website?

SEO is not a single-time thing but a continuous process which requires constant monitoring, updating, and improvement. To do this for your website, you need to:


Perform keyword research: Utilise tools such as Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush to find out what keywords your target audience uses for finding your products, services, or topics. Choose keywords which are relevant, popular, and have low competition.


Create content: Write high-quality, original, and engaging content that matches your keywords and provides value to your visitors. Utilise headings, subheadings, bullet points, images, videos, as well as other elements to make your content easy to read and understand. Include a clear call-to-action (CTA) at the end of each page or post that tells your visitors what to do next.


Optimise your content: Use your keywords in strategic places on your content, such as the title tag, meta description, URL, headings, body text, image alt text, etc. Don't overuse or stuff your keywords; use them naturally and sparingly. Write synonyms and variations of your keywords to avoid repetition and increase relevance.


Optimise your website: Make sure your site is fast, secure, easy to crawl, and user-friendly. Use a responsive design that adapts to different devices and screen sizes. Use HTTPS protocol to encrypt your data and protect your visitors. Use a sitemap and robots.txt file to inform search engines how to crawl and index your website. If there is any broken links or errors on your site, fix them.


Build links: Get links from other reputable websites that point to your site. You can do this through producing valuable content which others want to share or link to, contacting influencers or bloggers in your niche, guest posting on other sites, participating in forums or social media, etc. Avoid buying or exchanging links; only get natural and relevant links that add value to both parties.


Analyse and improve: Utilise tools such as Google Analytics or Search Console to measure and analyse your website's performance, traffic, conversions, and other metrics. Identify what works effectively and what needs improvement. Test different elements of your site and content to see what generates the best results. Keep learning and updating yourself on the latest SEO trends and best practices. 


Here are some current statistics about SEO that one should know:

  • 68 per cent of online experience starts with a Search Engine. (Source: BrightEdge)

  • Google has 91.07% of the search engine market share. (Source: Techjury)

  • Organic search generates 53.3% of all website traffic. (Source: BrightEdge)

  • 86% say video helped them increase traffic. (Source: Techjury)


Conclusion

SEO is a powerful method to grow your website's visibility, traffic, conversions, and revenue. By following the steps above, you can start optimising your website for search engines and achieve better results. However, this is not a quick fix or a magic bullet. It takes time, effort, and patience to see the benefits. 


29.08.23

Kausik Biswas is a digital marketer, blogger, and YouTuber from India. He has professional skills and expertise.