Summary of post: Introducing SEO (beneficial for newbies or for pros whoād want to simplify it to their clients/bosses).
SEO will be separated into various parts (theory, implementation, technical, data analysis) so you can digest it step by step.
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
Now, re-read that and digest the words āsearch engineā and āoptimizationā. Now that your brain is loading, the combination of these words refer to āoptimizingā your website in āsearch engineā (e.g. Google and Bing) ranking results (a.k.a. SERPs = Search Engine Ranking Pages... Trust me, youāll best remember all these jargons.)
So how do we appear on SERPs? Before that, itās best to introduce the search engine first and how it works:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eKVizvYSUQ)
Given that youāve watched the video, it saved me time explaining the value of keywords and links. These are the core ingredients of SERP ranking performance. But, everything in moderation. Keyword stuffing and masking + low quality, massive back link acquisition are Black Hat SEO strategies/methods. SEO strategies can be classified into Black Hat, White Hat, and Gray Hat. To avoid being penalized by search engines primarily Google, White Hat strategies are best to avoid unnecessary issues for your website performance/health. White Hat strategies are compliant to both Google and users in terms of bringing authentic and quality content. Black hat strategies usually violate the rules or avoid the long processes of White Hat. Gray Hat is a mixture of using White Hat and Black Hat.
(Image source: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-whitehat-greyhat-blackhat-seo)
These strategies now exist since Google started policing SEO tactics by rolling out algorithm updates to the search engine logic so that users will get the best and correct results to what they are searching for. Why? Yahoo! used to be the number one search engine but because it was careless with its search result performance, users switched to Google and thus, the story of how Google rose and Yahoo! sunk. This story already serves a good moral story for various businesses (prioritize customersā/usersā well-being and your business will rise).
How did Google police SEO? It rolled out the popular Panda update first (for creators to strive in producing quality content rather than quantity). Penguin has similar logic as Panda but focused on links instead. Hummingbird is like a polisher for Panda. Google continues to roll out algorithm updates even without major announcements in order to continuously give its users/searchers the best experience. This may be daunting to some SEOs but not to White Hat SEOs because they optimize their website according to Googleās rules and wonāt be penalized by future algorithm roll-outs.
(Image source: https://avengering.com/en/what-is-googles-hummingbird-algorithm/)
Why are there Black Hat SEOs? They may be working for porn sites, gambling sites, and other shady websites and have no choice but to go for Black Hat. As mentioned earlier, keyword stuffing and keyword masking were old practices prior to Panda update. Keyword stuffing is the insertion of target keywords even without context to the sentence/paragraph (a.k.a. unnatural). Keyword masking is the insertion of various keyword texts (mostly placed at the footer of the website or web page) and has the same color as the background to look invisible to the users but will be visible to search engine bots/spiders/crawlers. (Remember, bots/spiders/crawlers are blind and text is their braille.) Low quality, massive backlink acquisition refers to link farms wherein you pay for link farms to have their empty websites (live links but without any content at all) direct/refer to your website. These are just some Black Hat methods, there are more but you may find another source for that as this website primarily focuses on White Hat SEO methods (forthcoming posts).
Why would you want your website to appear on SERPs?
Unlike SEO, Social is popular and easy. Itās fun. Email is direct to the inbox. SEM is instant, doesnāt take much time. Affiliate serves as PR / reviews and sounds more credible. So why SEO?
The search engine is the go-to of everyone when they search for everything. The user/buyer intent is already there so itās best to be there when that happens. Social, Email, SEM, and Affiliate have a similarly disruptive and cast-the-net-and-hope-for-bait type of logic like old school media marketing (TV, Radio, Print). SEO is just being present when users do research. Plus, your presence goes away on SERPs once your budget runs out on SEM. Social can be noisy and all over the place. Email can go to the spam folder instead (when not done correctly). Affiliate can vanish once those affiliates go on a detox or make mistakes and get discredited.
And so, Digital Marketing efforts are best started with SEO and have it at its core.
