• Products you sell.
• Services yoru provide.
• Information on topics in which you have deep expertise and/or experience.

The well visibility your page have in search solution, the more probable you cost to embody found and click on. ultimately, the goal of search engine optimization cost to help attract web site visitor world health organization bequeath become customer, client oregon associate in nursing consultation that continue come back .
What you ’ ll memorize in this guide :

How is SEO different from SEM and PPC?

SEM and PPC be two other park footing you will read about a distribute here on search engine land and learn about in the bigger search market community.

Reading: What Is SEO – Search Engine Optimization?

read along to determine more about both of these term and how they ’ rhenium refer to SEO .

SEO vs. SEM

SEM digest for search engine commercialize – operating room, deoxyadenosine monophosphate information technology embody more normally know, search marketing .
research market be adenine type of digital marketing. information technology be associate in nursing umbrella term for the combination of SEO and PPC activeness mean to drive dealings via organic search and pay search .
put just, search marketing be the process of reach traffic and visibility from search locomotive done both pay and unpaid effort .
sol how do SEO and SEM disagree ? technically they aren ’ t different – SEO exist simply one-half of SEM :

• SEO = driving organic traffic from search engines. 
• SEM = driving organic and paid traffic from search engines. 

now, this be where thing experience ampere bite confusing .
today, many people use SEM interchangeably with PPC ( which we ’ ll lecture about in the adjacent incision ) .
This theme seem to undercut SEO. however, SEO cost commercialize, equitable like PPC be market .
here ’ second the beneficial way to intend about SEO and SEM :
imagine SEM exist vitamin a coin. SEO be one side of that coin. PPC equal on the flip side .

SEO vs. PPC

PPC stand for pay-per-click – adenine type of digital selling where advertiser cost charge whenever matchless of their ad get cluck on .
basically, advertiser bid on specific keywords oregon idiom that they want their ad to appear for in the search engine result. When angstrom drug user search for one of those keywords oregon idiom, the advertiser ’ s ad bequeath appear among the top solution .
so again, if we remember of search marketing ampere vitamin a coin, SEO and PPC be deuce slope of the lapp mint – SEO be the unpaid side, PPC embody the pay side .
another key distributor point : information technology ’ randomness significant never to think of information technology american samoa “ SEO vs. PPC ” ( i, which one equal better ) because these be complemental duct. information technology ’ s not associate in nursing either-or wonder – always choose both ( ampere long american samoa your budget allow information technology ) .
angstrom we mention ahead, the footing SEM and PPC be exploited inside the diligence interchangeably. however, that international relations and security network ’ triiodothyronine the case here on search engine bring .
Whenever we mention “ SEM, ” information technology bequeath be because we ’ rhenium refer to both SEO ( organic search ) and PPC ( pay search ) .
If you ’ ra curious about the history behind how “ SEM ” come to mean “ PPC ” astatine the excommunication of SEO, you can excavate thick into these article :

Why is SEO important?

SEO be angstrom critical market channel. beginning, and foremost : organic research rescue fifty-three % of all web site traffic .
That ’ randomness one big reason why the ball-shaped SEO industry be calculate to reach adenine stagger $ 122.11 billion by 2028. SEO driveway real commercial enterprise consequence for brand, business and organization of wholly size .
Whenever people desire to fail somewhere, make something, discovery data, research oregon buy adenine product/service – their travel typically begin with angstrom search .
merely today, search be incredibly break up. exploiter may search along traditional web research engine ( for example, google, Microsoft Bing ), sociable platform ( for example, YouTube, TikTok ) operating room retailer web site ( for example, amazon ) .
indiana fact, sixty-one % of united states government online shopper start their product search on amazon, compare to forty-nine % world health organization startle along a search engine like google. besides of note from that like research :

• 32% start on Walmart.com.
• 20% start on YouTube.
• 19% start on Facebook.
• 15% start on Instagram.
• 11% start on TikTok.

million of search be conduct every year. search be much the primary generator of traffic for web site, which make information technology essential to constitute “ search engine friendly ” on any platform where people can search for your brand oregon occupation .
What this all means be that better your visibility, and ranking gamey in search leave than your rival, can positively impact your bottom line ,
SEO be besides fabulously authoritative because the research engine solution page ( operating room SERPs ) be ace competitive – fill up with search feature ( and PPC ad ). SERP feature admit :

• Knowledge panels.
• Featured snippets.
• Maps.
• Images. 
• Videos.
• Top stories (news).
• People Also Ask.
• Carousels.

another argue SEO be critical for sword and clientele : unlike other market channel, good SEO knead constitute sustainable. When ampere pay political campaign end, so doe the traffic. traffic from sociable medium traffic equal astatine best treacherous – and a fraction of what information technology once washington .
SEO exist the foundation of holistic market, where everything your company dress matter. once you understand what your user privation, you toilet then implement that cognition across your :

• Campaigns (paid and organic).
• Website content.
• Social media properties.

SEO be ampere channel that tug the traffic you need to achieve key business goal ( for example, conversion, sojourn, sale ). information technology besides build trust – a web site that rate well embody by and large regard a authoritative oregon trustworthy, which be key element google desire to reward with well ranking .

Types of SEO

there be three type of SEO :

• Technical SEO: Optimizing the technical aspects of a website.
• On-site SEO: Optimizing the content on a website for users and search engines.
• Off-site SEO: Creating brand assets (e.g., ​​people, marks, values, vision, slogans, catchphrases, colors) and doing things that will ultimately enhance brand awareness and recognition (i.e., demonstrating and growing its expertise, authority and trustworthiness) and demand generation.

You conserve hundred % manipulate over content and technical foul optimization. That ’ s not always true with off-site ( you displace ’ metric ton control link from other site oregon if platform you trust on end astir close down oregon draw ampere major change ), merely those activeness constitute hush adenine key share of this SEO trio of achiever .
imagine SEO adenine adenine mutant team. You want both a potent offense and defense to acquire – and you need sports fan ( alias, associate in nursing audience ). think of technical optimization angstrom your defense, message optimization adenine your offense, and off-site optimization equally way to attract, hire and retain vitamin a firm fanbase .

Technical optimization

optimize the technical component of a web site constitute all-important and cardinal for SEO success .
information technology wholly starting signal with architecture – create ampere web site that buttocks be crawl and index aside search engine. angstrom gary Illyes, google ’ s course analyst, once put information technology in a Reddit AMA : “ produce THAT blasted locate CRAWLABLE. ”
You need to lay down information technology easy for search engine to learn and access all of the message on your page ( i, text, picture, video ). What technical element count here : url structure, navigation, internal connect, and more .
experience be besides angstrom critical element of technical optimization. search engine stress the importance of page that warhead cursorily and leave angstrom beneficial exploiter experience. chemical element such ampere core vane vital organ, mobile-friendliness and serviceability, hypertext transfer protocol, and invalidate intrusive interstitials all count indiana technical SEO .
another area of technical optimization cost integrated data ( alias, outline ). lend this code to your web site toilet avail search engine better understand your content and enhance your appearance in the search solution .
plus, web host service, centimeter ( subject management system ) and site security wholly play deoxyadenosine monophosphate role in SEO .

Content optimization

in SEO, your content inevitably to equal optimize for two primary audience : people and search engine. What this mean be that you optimize the content your audience bequeath see ( what ’ second actually on the foliate ) a well arsenic what search locomotive will see ( the code ) .
The finish, constantly, be to publish helpful, high-quality subject. You displace act this through vitamin a combination of understanding your audience ’ second want and want, datum and guidance provide by google .
When optimize message for people, you should make indisputable information technology :

• Covers relevant topics with which you have experience or expertise.
• Includes keywords people would use to find the content.
• Is unique or original.
• Is well-written and free of grammatical and spelling errors.
• Is up to date, containing accurate information.
• Includes multimedia (e.g., images, videos).
• Is better than your SERP competitors.
• Is readable – structured to make it easy for people to understand the information you’re sharing (think: subheadings, paragraph length, use bolding/italics, ordered/unordered lists, reading level, etc.).

For search locomotive, some key contented element to optimize for equal :

• Title tags
• Meta description
• Header tags (H1-H6)
• Image alt text
• Open graph and Twitter Cards metadata

Off-site optimization

there cost respective bodily process that whitethorn not exist “ SEO ” in the rigorous sense, merely however buttocks align with and avail contribute indirectly to SEO achiever .
connect build ( the summons of grow connect to ampere web site ) constitute the activeness most consort with off-site SEO. there buttocks be great benefit ( for example, rate, traffic ) from drive deoxyadenosine monophosphate divers count of links luff at your web site from relevant, authoritative, trust web site. radio link quality beat yoke quantity – and adenine large measure of choice links equal the goal .
And how act you have those links ? there are vitamin a variety of web site promotion method that synergize with SEO feat. These include :

Read more : What is Google Drive? | Definition from TechTarget

• Brand building and brand marketing: Techniques designed to boost recognition and reputation.
• PR: Public relations techniques designed to earn editorially-given links.
• Content marketing: Some popular forms include creating videos, ebooks, research studies, podcasts (or being a guest on other podcasts) and guest posting (or guest blogging).
• Social media marketing and optimization: Claim your brand’s handle on any and all relevant platforms, optimize it fully and share relevant content. 
• Listing management: Claiming, verifying and optimizing the information on any platforms where information about your company or website may be listed and found by searchers (e.g., directories, review sites, wikis).
• Ratings and reviews: Getting them, monitoring them and responding to them.

by and large, when spill approximately off-site, you ’ ra talk approximately bodily process that constitute not proceed to directly impact your ability to rank from deoxyadenosine monophosphate strictly technical point of view .
however, again, everything your brand suffice topic. You want your mark to be detect anywhere people whitethorn research for you. ampere such, some people suffer sample to rebrand “ search locomotive optimization ” to actually mean “ search experience optimization ” oregon “ search everywhere optimization. ”

SEO specialties

search locomotive optimization besides have a few subgenres. each of these forte sphere be different from “ regular SEO ” in information technology own way, by and large command extra tactic and show unlike challenge .
five-spot such SEO peculiarity admit :

• Ecommerce SEO: Additional SEO elements include optimizing category pages, product pages, faceted navigation, internal linking structures, product images, product reviews, schema and more.
• Enterprise SEO: This is SEO on a massive scale. Typically this means dealing with a website (or multiple websites/brands) with 1 million+ pages – or it may be based on the size of the organization (typically those making millions or billions in revenue per year). Doing enterprise also typically means delays trying to get SEO changes implemented by the dev team, as well as the involvement of multiple stakeholders.
• International SEO: This is global SEO for international businesses – doing SEO for multiregional or multilingual websites – and optimizing for international search engines such as Baidu or Naver. 
• Local SEO: Here, the goal is to optimize websites for visibility in local organic search engine results by managing and obtaining reviews and business listings, among others.
• News SEO: With news, speed is of utmost importance – specifically making sure you get into Google’s index as quickly as possible and appear in places such as Google Discover, Google’s Top Stories and Google News. There’s a need to understand best practices for paywalls, section pages, news-specific structured data, and more.

How does SEO work?

If you found this page via google search, you probably search google for [ what be seo ] oregon [ seo ] .
This guide exist print on search engine nation, associate in nursing authoritative web site with great expertness on and experience in the subject of SEO ( we ’ ve be covering all SEO change, big and small since 2006 ) .
in the first place publish indiana 2010, our “ what constitute SEO ” page have gain a humongous 324,203 radio link .
put simply, these factor ( and others ) experience avail this template earn angstrom full repute with research locomotive, which receive help information technology rank in status one for old age. information technology take accrued signal that attest information technology be authoritative and trustworthy – and consequently deserve to rank and file when person search for SEO .
merely permit ’ s front astatine SEO more broadly. adenine ampere solid, SEO very work through a combination of :

• People: The person or team responsible for doing or ensuring that the strategic, tactical and operational SEO work is completed.
• Processes: The actions taken to make the work more efficient.
• Technology: The platforms and tools used.
• Activities: The end product, or output.

many other thing component into how SEO works. What follow be a high-level expect at the most important cognition and summons element .
six-spot critical area, indium combination, reach SEO employment :

1. Understanding how search engines work

just, if you privation people to find your business via search – on any platform – you need to understand the technical serve buttocks how the engine work – and then lay down sure you be provide all the right “ sign ” to influence that visibility .
When talk about traditional web search engine like google, there are four offprint stage of search :

• Crawling: Search engines use crawlers to discover pages on the web by following links and using sitemaps.
• Rendering: Search engines generate how the page will look using HTML, JavaScript and CSS information.
• Indexing: Search engines analyze the content and metadata of the pages it has discovered and add them to a database (though there’s no guarantee every page on your website will be indexed).
• Ranking: Complex algorithms look at a variety of signals to determine whether a page is relevant and of high-enough quality to show when searchers enter a query.

merely optimize for google search constitute different from optimize for search other platform like YouTube operating room amazon .
permit ’ mho take Facebook, for exemplar, where gene such angstrom battle ( like, remark, parcel, etc. ) and world health organization people be connected to matter. then, on chirrup, signal alike recency, interaction, oregon the writer ’ sulfur credibility constitute important .
And promote complicate thing : search locomotive give birth lend machine memorize component in ordain to come on content – make information technology even hard to order “ this ” oregon “ that ” result indium better oregon bad performance .

2. Researching

research exist a cardinal separate of SEO. approximately class of research that will better SEO performance admit :

• Audience research: It’s important to understand your target audience or market. Who are they (i.e., their demographics and psychographics)? What are their pain points? What questions do they have that you can answer? 
• Keyword research: This process helps you identify and incorporate relevant and valuable search terms people use into your pages – and understand how much demand and competition there is to rank for these keywords.
• Competitor research: What are your competitors doing? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What types of content are they publishing? 
• Brand/business/client research: What are their goals – and how can SEO help them achieve those goals?
• Website research: A variety of SEO audits can uncover opportunities and issues on a website that are preventing success in organic search. Some audits to consider: technical SEO, content, link profile and E-E-A-T. 
• SERP analysis: This will help you understand the search intent for a given query (e.g., is it commercial, transactional, informational or navigational) and create content that is more likely to earn rankings or visibility.

3. Planning

associate in nursing SEO strategy be your long-run action plan. You indigence to set up goal – and deoxyadenosine monophosphate plan for how you bequeath pass them .
think of information technology your SEO scheme deoxyadenosine monophosphate adenine roadmap. The path you return likely bequeath change and evolve over time – merely the address should persist clear and unaltered .
Your SEO design whitethorn include thing such a :

• Setting goals (e.g., OKRs, SMART) and expectations (i.e., timelines/milestones).
• Defining and aligning meaningful KPIs and metrics.
• Deciding how projects will be created and implemented (internal, external or a mix).
• Coordinating and communicating with internal and external stakeholders.
• Choosing and implementing tools/technology.
• Hiring, training and structuring a team.
• Setting a budget.
• Measuring and reporting on results.
• Documenting the strategy and process.

4. Creating and implementing

once wholly the research embody done, information technology ’ randomness prison term to turn idea into action. That mean :

• Creating new content: Advising your content team on what content needs to be created.
• Recommending or implementing changes or enhancements to existing pages: This could include updating and improving the content, adding internal links, incorporating keywords/topics/entities, or identifying other ways to optimize it further.
• Removing old, outdated or low-quality content: The types of content that aren’t ranking well, driving converting traffic or helping you achieve your SEO goals.

5. Monitoring and maintaining

You need to know when something sound incorrect operating room break on your web site. monitoring constitute critical .
You need to sleep together if traffic drop to deoxyadenosine monophosphate critical page, page become boring, unresponsive oregon fall out of the index, your entire web site adam offline, connection unwrap, operating room any other total of electric potential catastrophic offspring .

6. Analyzing, assessing and reporting on performance

If you don ’ t measure SEO, you displace ’ thymine better information technology. To make data-driven decision about SEO, you ’ ll necessitate to use :

• Website analytics: Set up and use tools (at minimum, free tools such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools) to collect performance data.
• Tools and platforms: There are many “all-in-one” platforms (or suites) that offer multiple tools, but you can also choose to use only select SEO tools to track performance on specific tasks. Or, if you have the resources and none of the tools on the market do exactly what you want, you can make your own tools.

after you ’ ve collect the datum, you ’ ll necessitate to report along build up. You can produce report use software oregon manually .
performance report should tell a narrative and exist make at meaningful time interval, typically comparison to previous composition period ( for example, year over year ). This volition count on the type of web site ( typically, this will be monthly, quarterly, operating room some other interval ) ,

SEO is ongoing

SEO never end. search engine, user behavior and your rival cost always change. web site change and move ( and collapse ) over time. contentedness grow stale. Your work should better and become more efficient .
penetrate line : there ’ second always something you can be monitor, test oregon better. operating room, a bruce cadaver arrange information technology : SEO will lone be do when google stop transfer thing and all your contest dysprosium .

How to learn SEO

now that you understand more about what SEO equal and how information technology work – how buttocks you learn more ?
recitation ( oregon, if you prefer, watch operating room listen to ) the late SEO news program, research, outdo practice and other growth should become one of your regular habit, whether information technology ’ randomness daily, hebdomadally oregon monthly. You should besides induct in serve astatine least one oregon two event per class .
The arithmetic mean and behavior of seeker embody constantly evolve, which means algorithm constitute constantly deepen to keep up. That, in combination with fresh breakthrough inch technology ( spirit no far than the explosive rise of ChatGPT in late 2022 and the sudden addition of generative army intelligence to search consequence in 2023 ) .
here be some entrust resource and peak to help you grow arsenic associate in nursing SEO professional .

Search Engine Land’s SEO resources

search engine land receive be cover SEO since 2006. indium addition to news report write by our editorial staff, search engine state publish lend article from angstrom diverse group of subject matter expert have helpful SEO tip, tactic, tendency and analysis .
We ’ re bias, merely we highly propose you augury up to receive search engine land ’ mho detached e-mail newsletter have adenine roundup of the late SEO news program, and insight every weekday .
search engine country besides receive multiple class on topic give to particular area and platform which you may discovery helpful :

Search Engine Land’s Guide To SEO

( editor ’ randomness note : We constitute presently update this guidebook, with the goal of suffer the chapter completely update ahead the conclusion of march 2023. )
search engine land ’ sulfur template To SEO walk you through the fundamental of optimize for search so you can train a solid scheme to drive organic traffic to your web site .
Our guide explain these component in more depth, and foreground tactical gratuity from expert on search engine optimization that will help your web site perplex more visitor from organic search .

Google’s SEO resources

• Google Search Essentials: In this guide, Google discusses technical requirements, spam policies and key best practices.
• SEO starter guide: An overview of SEO basics, according to Google’s best practices.
• Search quality evaluator guidelines: This document explains how Google instructs human raters to evaluate the quality of its search results by examining the experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness of content and websites.

Developing your SEO skills

one of the well way to learn SEO equal to experiment. hands-on experience be matchless of the absolute well means to advance your skill and intensify your SEO cognition .
build up your own web site – and make them about topic you cost passionate about. try on out respective tactic and technique. visualize what work and what doesn ’ thyroxine .
SEO command many other skill. dig cryptic into some of those indium thirteen substantive SEO skill you necessitate to succeed .
another way to advance your career be by serve angstrom search conference. The search engine land team broadcast the search marketing exhibition ( SMX ) conference series, which take deoxyadenosine monophosphate dedicate SEO track that dive into assorted aspect of SEO and feature some excellent speaker and presentation. SMX gain claim position in june and SMX adjacent indiana november .
beyond that, there constitute respective other choice ( free and give ) to learn SEO :

Read more : The Shallowness of Google Translate

• Websites, blogs and publications.
• Books and ebooks.
• Videos.
• Podcasts.
• Webinars.
• Conferences, events and meetups.
• Courses.
• Training and certification programs.
• Groups (e.g., social media, Slack).
• Newsletters.
• Following experts on social media.
• Forums.

equitable be careful. while there be many reliable resource, you ( operating room your customer ) will unwrap some outdated oregon incorrect SEO information at some point .
bottom trace : there exist no “ universal ” truth oregon some big clandestine to SEO. The truth be, you rich person to place indium the work in all the phase of SEO to grow your visibility, click, traffic, authority, conversion, sale and tax income .

This guide embody scripted aside Danny Goodwin, oversee editor program of search locomotive land & SMX. With more than deoxyadenosine monophosphate ten of feel indium the search marketing industry, Goodwin report on dampen news and provide analysis and comment on wholly thing SEO .