SEO – what is SEO marketing

What is SEO?

SEO means Search Engine Optimization, i.e., optimization for search engines, although it is quite a complex process. SEO services are not only the optimization of the content on the website in terms of technical or content aspects but also many activities beyond the website itself.

Why is SEO important?

SEO is essential primarily because once the results are achieved, the profits will take effect in the long run, unlike paid ads that disappear after the campaign ends.

When to start SEO activities?

Ideally, before creating the website, if all activities are planned before going to the creation stage, you increase the chance for a better effect (higher positions, greater visibility of keywords, more traffic) and, in a way, reduce the costs of the project itself, because you will avoid, e.g., problems with rebuilding the current website structure, creating URL mapping and other procedures that are necessary for the event of implementing an ill-considered website structure.

SEO activities

SEO is optimization activities directly on the website (on-site) and activities outside the website (off-site).

It is important not to focus only on one of the above areas because only their correlation can compete for the most searched keywords.

Keywords from the so-called “Long tail” with low competition we can strengthen and good technical optimization efficiently enough to generate organic traffic from them. However, apart from the technical features, the domain needs external links to compete with the competition at the highest level. On-page SEO

On-page SEO

I wrote a little more about the technical aspects in the article: SEO audit (linked at the end of the post). Here I would like to mention that proper technical optimization is critical because if it is not done correctly – it may even make it impossible to optimize the SEO of the website.

What you need to pay attention to when optimizing on-page is primarily:

Content optimization

● Proper selection of keywords and saturation of the existing content or writing a new one, considering the analysis and proportions of the selection of keywords.

● Creating subpage titles taking into account keywords

● Optimization of meta descriptions (keywords, CTA, Emoji, etc.)

Code and structure optimization

● Create relevant URLs

● Image optimization (including image alt attributes)

● Internal linking optimization

Off-page SEO

In the case of Off-page SEO, first of all, you should take care of the following:

● Appropriate selection of external links (their thematic connection with the domain, value to competition, etc.)

● Supervision over the created link profile

● Verification of the indexation of obtained links

In addition, it is good to compare the value of external links with domains competing in a given industry to know the direction and the current situation and initially be able to estimate what links and how many of them should be obtained to stay ahead of the competition in this respect.

What influences effective SEO?

Effective SEO is influenced by virtually all on-site and off-site optimization activities. The right combination of On-page SEO and Off-page SEO can generate converting organic traffic effectively.

SEO techniques

There are various techniques related to SEO optimization; they are, in fact, characterized by a degree of deviation from Google’s recommendations. There are three specific SEO grades: White, Gray, and Black hat SEO.

White Hat SEO

It is characterized by the fact that all activities are performed following Google’s recommendations. No “unconventional” actions are taken that could expose the website to a penalty imposed by the search engine, conventionally called a “filter.”

Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO is the opposite of White Hat SEO and exposes the website to a search engine penalty – characteristic activities include:

● cloaking (showing search engine robots a different version of the website than users)

● hiding the content

● Keyword Stuffing

● acquiring links from inappropriate sources (worthless back office, link exchange systems, etc.)

● doorway pages (creating subpages for specific keywords and then directing the user to others)

● indexation of unjustified subpages to artificially increase the size of the website in the index

● artificially boosting the click-through rate from the search results (CTR)

Gray Hat SEO

This type of optimization is a balance between wholly prohibited techniques and allowed and recommended techniques, i.e., techniques that are not explicitly prohibited or recommended – this description seems to be a good characteristic of Gray Hat SEO.

By the way, mixing black and white results in gray, but in this respect, it would not be a good equivalent because, theoretically, Gray Hat SEO does not use the techniques typical of black hats.

An example of techniques that can be assigned to Gray Hat SEO is, for example:

● acquiring incoming links from appropriately crafted, expired domains related to the target website – I would also describe this technique as “gradual,” in which, at the lowest risk level, the risk of a penalty is negligible (I have never received it personally, and I have many years of experience with this technique)

● artificial refreshing of the content without significant changes – to change the date to a newer one, statistically generating a higher CTR

● artificial comments on the website, additionally saturating the subpage with keywords. You can read more about SEO techniques and tools in the article: SEO audit.

Marcin Gaworski

SEO expert with over 10 years of experience in the industry. He has worked for many international companies known globally, creator of the Boostsite.com algorithms.