What you need to know for a basic understanding of SEO

What you need to know for a basic understanding of SEO

Understanding SEO

No matter what role you play in your organization, from sole proprietor to IT to marketing professional to CEO, a basic understanding of SEO can help your website succeed. 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of setting up a website so that the major search engines, such as Google or Bing, will rank it highly on their results pages. From a digital marketing standpoint, a high-ranking website can result in large volumes of traffic that can be converted into leads or sales. 

While SEO isn’t exactly free advertising — there’s no such thing as a free lunch, after all — it can be a highly cost-effective part of your strategy.

Understanding organic search 

The first thing to understand about SEO is that it primarily deals with organic, or unpaid, search results. This is in contrast to the paid results at the top of the page, which are purchased as pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. 

Your organic search rankings are determined by an algorithm that gives your website a score based on a number of factors, including keyword relevance, how many other sites link to you and how easy your site is to use. In theory, if you build a well-functioning, easy-to-use website that delivers relevant content to your target audience, it should rank for the searches you’re targeting.

Understanding the SEO factors that matter most

However, if it were that simple, SEO wouldn’t exist as a distinct field of digital marketing. Search engines are complex and changing every day. For example, Google uses more than 200 unique ranking factors to score websites, and they don’t publicly disclose what they are and how they weigh them. Some of them have to do with high-level factors, such as the age of your web domain, while others deal with user experience, including performance on mobile devices. 

It’s easy to get lost in the weeds with all these factors, but a truly search optimized website should stay focused on being accessible to users, searchable by the search engines and relevant to your audience. 

Finding an SEO partner you can trust

At Burg & Co. Marketing, we’re proud to combine technical SEO expertise and website design with a marketing philosophy built on understanding your needs and crafting highly personalized messaging to your audience. Combined, we have decades of experience in helping top businesses meet their objectives and achieve return on investment for their marketing budget. 
To learn more and schedule your free marketing consultation, contact us today.

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