For people who are not into marketing, SEO is often a subject that leaves them bewildered and wondering how it works, or what effort goes into getting optimum results. They often fail to understand the functionality of Search Engines. While outsourcing this particular area of marketing, business owners are often left wondering who is the right service provider? Can I really rely on them to deliver?
To simplify SEO and how exactly it works, let’s take a real world scenario to understand the gist of its functionality so that next time you are talking to someone about this subject you have more knowledge of what SEO is.
Think for a moment of a skill that you excel at in real life. For the sake of this article let’s just imagine you are a ‘Freelance Photographer’ who has just returned from a breathtaking trip to Amazon Rainforest.
You then meet a group of friends, who also happen to be photography enthusiasts, and show them some of the most amazing pictures you have ever clicked. In the process of showing them these pictures you share your experience which was fascinating to say the least and like none other.
Your friends are astonished on hearing your glorious experience and decide to share the same with other friends. This chain, of sharing your story, goes on and people across the city get to know about your recent trip. Now adventure freaks or photography enthusiasts want to meet you and know more about your experience.
Congrats! Now you have succeeded in attracting traffic to your website. Remember,
You = Your Company/Brand
Your experience, skills, stories = Your website content
Chain of friends = Link Building (attracting traffic to your website through various sources)
Link Building is all about reaching out to as many people as you can as it would help boost your SEO ranking. Search engines are designed in a manner where the more genuine reach you have; your chances to appear first on those search engines are much higher.
In the above scenario, your friends act as other websites who share your link and direct traffic to your website.
The first step towards attaining success through SEO lies in having a user friendly website with relevant content. Remember, the more relevant content you add (from a business perspective it’s the content surrounding your product/service) and more meaningful experiences that you share would result in improved SEO rankings.
The other aspect which goes hand in hand when it comes to succeeding in SEO is, optimizing your website and content as per search engine protocols and link building.
There you go, now you have something more to talk about the next time you are discussing SEO.