The very first concept that any online marketing professional understands is SEO marketing.

So, if you are also a beginner in the field of Digital Marketing, you must have heard about SEO as well.

However, if you are unsure about what it is and how it works, read on because we are going to unravel all the mysteries related to SEO.

SEO is a set of actions practised on search engines, which when implemented ensures greater visibility of websites by people.

The increased visibility comes as a result of achieving a higher ranking by the website over others in the Search Engine Result Page.

It may feel a little puzzling when you are new to the subject, but it is not that complex once you get to know about SEO Marketing more.

Here, we are going to enlighten all the newbies on the subject of SEO and SEO marketing and walk you through certain important areas that can improve your overall website ranking.

Let us start with understanding what SEO is-

世界卫生大会t is Search Engine Optimization?

There are around 1.3B websites present on the internet, how do you think people are able to get to the website they are looking for?

SEO like previously mentioned above is a way which enables website owners to drive the internet traffic to their website.

This consequence of SEO is something that is vital for businesses, so in that sense, SEO can be thought of as a powerful marketing technique.

SEO is a set of actions and to understand what is SEO in Digital Marketing, you have to understand the breakdown of the SEO actions, which are explained below:

• Marketing technique: Since SEO is the thing, which improves visibility and brings the traffic it constitutes a powerful marketing tool, which contributes to lead generation and conversions in a business.
• The technical part: There are certain steps that are implemented by an SEO specialist that enables a website to compete for traffic with others. These specialists are in demand nowadays since their work delivers a high ROI
• The ever-changing aspect: The SEO actions are always complementary to the mechanisms of Search engines. By this, we mean that SEO results are dependent on the algorithm of the search engines. Further, since the algorithms are changed from time to time, so are the SEO practices changed to produce results.

After understanding all these factors, you are now ready to understand what is SEO Marketing.

Actually, SEO Marketing is the immaculate use of different SEO techniques for promoting the online presence of any site, blog, business or brand.

In simple words use of SEO practices for the online marketing of any product, service, or company is SEO Marketing.

Next thing that you need to know here is how SEO Marketing works, so let us understand that-

How does SEO Marketing function?

When a person enters a query on Google, Google comes up with a list of websites relevant to the query.

For example, when you search for ‘Italian shoes’ the websites that are displayed on top are the ones who have implemented the best SEO practices.

Mainly search engines like Google deploy web crawlers, which crawl on every website collecting all the information on it, as specified by Google and the ones that match well with the Google algorithm criteria are displayed on top.

Using these practices, SEO Marketing Companies optimize the ranking of different online portals and businesses.

This is the organic way of promoting businesses that increase traffic, boosts lead generation and ultimately increases revenues.

Why should you use SEO Marketing?

SEO practices can deliver a large inflow of traffic to your website. A large inflow of traffic naturally means the generation of more leads and better chances of their conversion. This, in turn, will result in more sales taking place.

Further, when one implements SEO steps then you can reap the benefits of it without spending a dime. This is one of the most cost-effective methods of optimizing the online presence of any business.

In addition, it also gives results that are long-lasting and helps you enjoy great returns.

Why is SEO important?

With the advancement in the internet landscape, the first priority to get any type of information is through the internet. The traffic directed towards the internet is huge and is increasing constantly. This gives you a chance to attract your target audience towards your website.

Stating a famous quote, “The best place to hid a dead body is page 2 of Google’s search results”. This is because no one goes there. Therefore, just being on the internet is not enough, you have to mark your place on the first page of Google.

Here arises the need to have an SEO optimized website that helps your website to rank on the first page and direct qualified traffic towards your website. The traffic that you generate through SEO is organic & conversion oriented.

The more traffic that gets directed to your website increases your chances of getting more sales and conversions. In a nutshell, SEO is the backbone of the website that helps the websites to build trust & credibility.

Factors that play a key role in SEO Marketing

The ranking in the search engines depends on so many factors, but fortunately working on only a few of them can ensure a better ranking for you.

So, let us go through those factors and understand how they can help you in ensuring a better online presence-

Domain Authority

• Domain authorityis a measurement of trust that your website has gained based upon some factors like age and backlinks.
• Another important factor that influences the domain authority is the relevance of the domain name with the content it presents.
• It has also been observed that shorter domain names are favoured by search engines more than the long domain ones.

Keywords

• Keywords comprise another important factor for SEO Marketing. The right keywords can be brainstormed or even found out by use of keyword tools such as Google keyword planner.
• Keyword range from having low to high competition, based upon your keyword strategy you can use either low, medium or high competition keywords or a mixture of two.
• Moreover, if you want to improve your on-page SEO, you can include your keywords in the heading or subtitle of the contents.

Relevancy

• Today search engines have evolved to become smarter. Now, they can distinguish between sites having apples or oranges.
• It will serve you well if you stick to high-quality original content rather than a copied one because search engines can also figure that out.
• Sticking to one niche and producing original content will improve your ranking.

Links

• When you have relevant links on your website you can expect to get higher points on SEO.
• Between inbound and outbound links, the inbound links are more favoured by search engines.
• Again, if the links are of reputed and relevant sources then you get additional brownie points. One way in which you can secure links from some prestigious sources is through featuring in new sites.

Site Speed

• As it turns out, not only us but Google too prefers a site that loads up quickly.
• If you want to decrease the loading time of your website, you can opt for caching plugins like W3 Total Cache.

Website Design

• Clean, responsive and functional websites consist of the best-optimized sites. Since today internet browsing is done in all types of devices, Google also favours those sites that are compatible enough to load on every device easily.
• Therefore, having a mobile-friendly website is a good way to optimize your website. If you are using WordPress and want to achieve fast loading of your website on mobiles too, you can opt to install AMP plugin.
• However, if you are not using WordPress consider learning about ‘accelerated mobile pages project’ of Google.

URL Structure

• When it comes to URL structure, search engines favour the URLs, which are uncomplicated and easy to understand.
• Additionally, the URL needs to be descriptive as well as to the point. According to reports, it has been found that short URLs are better, but still, you should not compromise on including your keywords in the URL to have a good SEO Marketing.

Length of the Content

• Length of the content is another important factor that influences SEO. It has been found that when website articles or blogs are of greater length they rank higher. This means when you go for writing a blog post you should go for writing in details on the subject.
• Google has always rewarded long-form content and now in the year 2018, you can’t expect to rank good if you do not have at least 1500-2000 words in a post.

To understand SEO Marketing more comprehensively, you need to delve into two categories of SEO. They are On-Site SEO & Off-Site SEO. Let us understand both of these separately-

On-Site SEO Marketing

Different on-site Seo elements are-

Title Tag

• Title tag lets search engines know what is the essence of the whole page
• It is of 70 characters or less and it will include your main keyword and brand name associated with the particular page of any site
• Title tags are put in between at the top point of the HTML code of a web page

Meta Description

• Short description of your page that lets the search engine know more about your page
• It is shown in search results of search engines and you should incorporate your keywords in it to make it SEO compatible

WordPress use

• Using WordPress will ease down the task of adding title labels and Meta description to your pages
• It has free plugins like All in One SEO, Scribe SEO, SEO by Yoast, and Platinum SEO that will help you ensure the right integration of all on-site SEO elements

标题标签s

• Three different levels of HTML header labels play a very important role in ensuring the SEO of a site page. These tags break site content into different sections that help in boosting SEO ranking of any page

• labels are used for main heading while
  and
  tags are used for subheadings on the page
• These tags separate content for search engines and site visitors that increase Search Engine Ranking

Internal & Outbound Links

• Internal link building is again one of the most important factors in effective SEO marketing
• Internally connecting different relevant pages of your site via the content of a particular page will play an effective role in increasing the SEO ranking of your site
• Connecting other sites relevant to your page-content is termed as outbound linking and it is also very important for SEO Digital Marketing

Image Name and ALT Tags

• Adding captions to images is again a very important SEO practice and you should try to incorporate your keywords while naming pictures
• You should also use ALT tags for images and in this, again using focus keyword will increase SEO compatibility of your site

Off-Site SEO Marketing (Link Building)

In addition to on-site SEO practices, using off-site SEO techniques is very important in optimizing the online presence of your site. Some of the most popular off-site SEO practices are-

• Integration of SEO & Social Media
• Mobile Site Optimization
• Mobile App Streaming
• Social Community Group
• Blog Posts
• Forum Posting
• Social Bookmarking
• Social Media Engagement
• Exchange of Links
• Link Baiting
• Cross-Linking
• Photo Sharing
• Video Promotions
• Local Listings and Yellow Pages
• Press Release Promotion
• Classified Submission
• Business Listing
• Q & A
• Document Sharing
• CSS, W3C, & RSS Directories Submission
• Widget or Gadget Development
• PPC Ad Campaign
• Localizing Pricing and other Information
• Combining through Reports and Accessing ROI
• Compiling reviews from Multiple Sources

You may find a detailed explanation of all theseoff-page strategies here.

Final Thoughts!

When you implement the discussed SEO Marketing practices on your website, you will see improvement in the site traffic.

But keep in mind that SEO is not a magic wand that will show its effects overnight. It will take its own time to show positive results. You should also be aware of the elements ofSEO infographicsfor a better understanding of the SEO Landscape.

SEO is also quite affordable compared to paid search advertising or PPC. Because when you choose SEO, you do not have to pay anything if you do it yourself. PPC, which involves paying for ads, constitutes an additional expense and its effect stops immediately you stop paying for ads.

On the other hand, SEO practices are easy to implement and have long-lasting effects. You can easilylearn SEOand become a pro SEOers. Enrolling in an2018beplay will help you understand SEO Marketing on hands-on projects. SEO Marketing Course Syllabus includes-

• SEO History & Basics
• On-Page & Off-Page SEO Practices
• Keyword Research & Competitive Analysis
• Keyword Planner tool (Search volumes, Competition, Business priority)
• SEO relevant Website Design Practices,Site schema (rich snippets) & architecture
• Link-Building Practices
• Content marketing basics & its importance
• Social Media backlinking (Quora, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest)
• Online Reputation Management & Influencer outreach
• SEO Tools-Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster, Google Analytics setup
• SEO Site Audit & Algorithm Update
• SEO Analytics
• Career in SEO

Wrapping Up

SEO is a crucial component of any digital marketing as it determines the rank of your website on the Search Engine Results Page.

So, this was all about SEO Marketing. However, there is another sub-set of Digital Marketing that is extensively used by a majority of marketers which is Pay Per Click. Read this Quora Answer to know the搜索引擎优化和PPC的区别.

This further leads to an increase in online visibility and organic traffic which is more conversion oriented.

To get an in-depth understanding of SEO, enroll in the2018beplay and master SEO skills.

Still having any confusion about SEO Marketing meaning for your site? Share with us in comments and our experts will guide you in the process.