If you’ve used a popular search engine within the last few years, you’ve seen search engine optimization (SEO) working its magic. The SEO process works by listing certain websites — blogs, businesses, technology hubs, news, etc. — at the top of the list of results for certain phrases that users are searching for. Located below are a few ways in which search engine algorithms rank and return pertinent information to users to make their lives much easier.
Organic and Natural
For users that have entered a specific search term into a search engine, they will have noticed that the first few pages are directly related to the topic at hand. Organic traffic relates to websites that contain data that is in direct alignment with the user’s query and, in return, the search engine places their domain at the front of the list. The way that this process is made possible is through a process referred “crawling”.
In a general sense, crawling a website simply means that a popular search engine (Yahoo, Google, Bing, MSN, etc.) will send robots through each individual domain to scout their links, content and overall data and produce a score for that particular website. From here, the search engine will use an extensive algorithm to rank each website based on various factors such as popularity, relevance, traffic and time users spend on each individual page engaging with the content and services. Using these data points the search engine places a website into their results and thus drives traffic right to that domain’s door step. Although this process may seem daunting, it’s really not! Small businesses and domain owners that have unique, content-driven websites soar to the front of the search engines for specific search terms in no time!
Paid Advertising and Marketing
Moreover, certain businesses like to introduce pay-per-click (PPC) and ad campaigns to drive traffic and business to their websites. If readers have ever used a search engine to shop for a specific product, they may have noticed that businesses that sell that particular item have targeted ads that line the top of the results page.
These results are placed when businesses bid on individual ads pertaining to certain keyword phrases by offering up real money to large search engines. In fact, Google earns much of their revenue from selling ad space to customers with over one-hundred-billion dollars earned within 2018 alone. Many of the major tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target use these ad spaces as a means of attracting larger audiences and increasing their annual revenue by significant margins.
SEO: Your Solution in an Online World
You could be a small business owner that wants to make more sales or a blogger that wants their voice to be heard, one thing is for certain: Site owners are relying on search engines more than ever before. It is critical to hire an SEO agency to incorporate SEO strategies and techniques into the framework of your website, ensure that people will not only see your domain, but organically engage with you on a regular basis. By creating articles, services, links and user interaction that is content-driven, you give yourself a bigger margin for success in the years to come.
