Lesson 2: How do search engines work and what is SEO?
You may have heard the term “SEO” thrown around before, but what does it actually mean? What’s behind these mysterious three letters that are supposedly so important? Good news! In this lesson, we’ll cover all the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and get you one step closer to new customers finding your site.
So, what’s a search engine?
Before we talk about SEO, we need to first understand what a search engine is and how it works. Basically, search engines are technologies (like Google, Bing, or Yahoo!) that help people find information or websites on the World Wide Web.
When you type a question or keywords into a search engine like Google, it finds websites that match your search, organizes and ranks those websites based on criteria like popularity and relevance, and then answers your query with a list of results. (You can learn more about search engines in this video.)
Search engines are what drive traffic to your website
Search engines are basically how people find information and websites online. If you want people to find your website, you need to optimize your site so that search engines will determine your website is relevant and valuable; and rank it as one of the top results when people search for businesses like yours. This is where SEO comes in. Watch the video below to learn more about why SEO is so important.
Search engine optimization helps you get found
SEO stands for “search engine optimization”, and it’s the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. In other words, SEO is what helps you get the right type of visitors to your site organically (a.k.a., without having to pay for it).
WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT ORGANIC RESULTS?
When you Google something, you may notice that some of the first search results on a webpage say “Ad” next to the URL. This means it’s not an organic search result–someone paid big money to be at the top of the page. This is usually effective for large companies, but it’s very expensive.
Small businesses are better off investing in organic rankings. It will take time to build credibility and climb the ranks, but it will be worth it as you start getting more traffic to your site—meaning more potential customers!
SEO can seem really daunting, but with enough practice, it’s something anyone can learn!. In the next lesson, we’ll overview the three main types of SEO and why they’re all important.