What is SEO?
If you’re a frequent reader of the blog, you might be thinking, “Wait a second—haven’t you been talking about SEO this whole time?” And, it’s true that I’ve explored many advanced topics in SEO like keyword research, backlinking and technical SEO.
But, recently I was inspired to take a step back to answer the basic question: “What is SEO, really?” These three letters, S-E-O, are thrown around a lot in many different contexts, so it can be a bit confusing to grasp at first. I want to simplify it for you! Remember—there are no stupid questions when it comes to digital marketing and managing your website.
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What does SEO stand for?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. These words make the process sound very technical like you’re flying a spaceship or something like that! But the basic idea of SEO is actually very simple.
SEO is about trying to get good, valuable information to people through a search engine.
So, how does that work?
Search engine optimization is the actual action of marketing and getting your website found in a search engine like Google. There are specific actions that you can take (I’ll get to them in a minute!) that help your website appear more frequently and higher up in search engine results.
Just so you know, the word “SEO” can also refer to a person who does SEO work. So, if you hear someone say “I’m an SEO,” now you know what that means. Personally, I call myself an SEO expert or SEO goddess.
Example of how someone might find you on Google
Imagine your ideal client: he or she is out there wanting your service. But first, she has to find you! If she’s like most people, she’ll start with a Google search of a few keywords—perhaps “online nutrition course.” Then she’ll browse through the top search results.
If you’re engaging in SEO, your website is more likely to appear among the top search results when someone searches keywords related to your service. In other words, good SEO makes it easier for people to find you.
These days, most SEO is done with Google in mind, but you can also do SEO for other search platforms like Bing.
The symbiotic relationship between your website and your SEO
Your website drives your SEO and your SEO leads people to your website. In that way, SEO is a huge tool for maximizing your reach.
Think about your intention with your website. For most of the people that I work with, their intention is to create great content that helps people. They hope that their website helps them to grow their business, make more money, and impact more people.
When this is your goal, SEO just becomes a natural part of everything that you’re already doing. You want to create a great website and a great website experience, so you’re going to want to use the tools at your disposal—including SEO—to make that happen. SEO feeds into the purpose and intention of your business.
The four pillars of SEO
Here’s where we’re going to get into some slightly more technical stuff. There are four main things that you should be thinking about when you’re considering your SEO. I call these four things the four pillars of SEO: Technical, content and keywords, backlinking, and UX/UI.
Technical
The first thing you should be thinking about when you start looking at improving your SEO is the technical side of your website. When I say “technical,” I’m talking about your website code, your site speed, your links, and your website security. You want to make sure that your website is working the way it is supposed to—you don’t have crazy errors happening when you try to load it or something.
As the website owner, you have to decide whether you want to learn about the technical side of things. If you’re having problems or your website backend is simply stressing you out, you might want to think about hiring a web developer or web designer.
Keywords and Content
When most people talk about SEO, they’re talking about keywords and content, so this is the part that you may already be familiar with. An important part of SEO is targeting specific phrases or keywords and creating content like blog posts around them.
For many business owners, this pillar feels like the most actionable one. You probably feel inspired to write content around the work that you do.
The important thing to remember about keywords, though, is that they’re not everything. I don’t recommend obsessing about keywords and writing blog posts that you’re not excited about simply to target them.
Instead, write the great content that you know your clients need and you’ll likely find that you’re hitting some keywords naturally. Often, I’ll start working with clients who have had websites for several years and I’ll see that they’re already naturally ranking on some keywords.
Backlinking
The third pillar of SEO is all about collaboration. Backlinking means getting your website to appear on other people’s websites with a link back to you.
Backlinking is not what a lot of people think about when they think about SEO. You may want to focus just on your own website, but your website is not an island. And, you don’t want your website to be an island. Rather, collaborate with other businesses so that their websites contain links to yours.
There are many different ways to collaborate with other businesses to generate those backlinks. For example, when I’m a guest on another podcast, that show will link back to my website very naturally in the show notes. Just remember to double check that those links work every time you collaborate on something!
Backlinking is key because when your website is linked to other authoritative websites in your industry, your website appears more trustworthy and authoritative as well to Google.
UX/UI
The final SEO pillar uses some more terms that sound scary but are really pretty straightforward. UX stands for user experience and UI stands for user interface design. Both of these are related to how a user experiences your website.
You’ve probably been on a website that just feels amazing. There are some that feel like a five hotel where everyone is anticipating your needs and you’re just gliding through. That kind of website has amazing UX, and amazing UX is something that you can enable for your website as well.
There are certain design rules and principles that make a website easier to use. These rules include guidelines around the search bar, the size of the text, the navigation, and even how blog posts are outlined. To some extent, UX/UI is invisible. However, when it’s not working well, it’s obvious—you’ve probably been on a site before that is super frustrating and impossible to use.
UX/UI is important to your SEO because you want your visitors to stay on your website and have a good experience. If you are doing everything else right in terms of SEO but people can’t figure out how to use your website, then they’re going to leave and all the traffic you generated is going to go to waste. In fact, poor UX/UI can actually sabotage your ranking in Google because Google will see that people simply click in and out quickly.
Put the four pillars of SEO into action
For your site to rank in Google, all four pillars need to be in play. But, you don’t necessarily need to work on them all at the same time—that’s overwhelming. Instead, think of them as connected. When one gets out of balance, it’s time to focus on that one and let the other ones just float there. Remember that your website is a living and breathing thing. You can adapt it as your business grows and evolves.
I hope this provides some clarification for all of you who are just getting your feet wet in the world of SEO. For next steps, check out the Homegrown Traffic SEO course. This is where I teach my 4-step methodology for getting ranked on Google. Full course details + curriculum here: https://courses.digitalbloomiq.com/homegrown-traffic-seo-course.
In this conversation, Cinthia Pacheco and Jen Vasquez discuss various aspects of SEO, focusing on site migration, canonical issues, content management, and keyword optimization.