What is SEO and How it Works

If SEO sounds completely strange to you, you have nothing to worry about. This acronym is made up of words: Search Engine Optimization. In this short article, you will learn what is SEO and what are the main ways of positioning websites.

Website optimization

Website optimization is defined as “the art of creating and continuously improving websites in order to increase visitor’s satisfaction”. These causes reducing the bounce rate, i.e. leaving the website without any additional action, and improving conversion, e.g. sales.

The definition presented above is rather a vision of the future. For now, websites are created largely with search engines in mind. The acronym SEO itself suggests this type of approach.

What is SEO and UX

Another strange-sounding abbreviation. UX comes from words: User Experience. The user experience, or rather the user impression is crucial. Why is the user’s “first” impression so important? Research shows that the user decides whether to stay on or leave the website within the first few seconds. So we have really little time to encourage the visitor to stay longer.

Therefore, the way to use, page navigation, should be as easy as possible. Of course, the visual look of the site is no less important. I mean the visual elements like the menu, sidebar or the type of font used.

All these elements have an influence to a better, more optimized website. It will also help users find the information they are looking for, which will make them to spend some more time on our website. Ultimately, we can also expect the “valuable actions”, i.e. subscribing to an e-mail list, asking for contact or a purchase.

What is SEO for Search Engines

The general idea of optimizing websites was created with search engines in mind. Therefore, once we make sure that the information on our blog is valuable, the navigation is simple and intuitive, and the pictures attract attention, we need to make sure that the search engine algorithms show them to as many users as possible.

When we enter our query – a keyword in the search box, the search engine’s algorithm searches all pages available on the Internet and displays to us those that best match the phrase entered. For technical reasons, it is not possible, for example, for Google to do this in real time. Therefore, all websites are indexed earlier and ready for specific user’s queries.

What factors is Google ranking based on?

How does Google’s algorithms work is one of the company’s top secrets. Besides, the methods of cataloging websites used by Google are constantly evolving. All this to ensure that users have access to the best information they are looking for.

There is, however, a light in the tunnel for web developers. Google publishes guidelines that define factors for certain elements of algorithm operation. In official messages, we will find information about valuable content that should be on the website. Very important is also mentioned earlier UX.

However, it is known that the number of the so-called backlinks, i.e. links from other websites is one of the most important factors. It is not only about the number of these links, but also about the quality of the pages they come from.

What else is important for SEO

Technical factors also play an important role. The speed of loading the page, or securing the domain with an SSL certificate. The speed of the page might depend on many factors, such as the type of server on which our website is located or the content itself.

Positioning of websites is a very broad topic. It is impossible to cover all the issues in a few words. To answer the question of what it SEO, you need to look for information in many sources.

If you are a WordPress user, I encourage you to use the free Yoast SEO plugin. You can download the plugin in the user’s panel or on the creator’s website. The plugin on a regular basis when creating a new post, suggests actions that should be taken to improve the SEO of our post or website.

Read this article in Polish: SEO co to ? Optymalizacja strony internetowej.