Me and Search Engine Optimization against the world 🌍

I'm stepping into the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I'm writing this article as my notes actually, sharing what I have learned so far. Might be helpful for my fellow newbies who are curious about diving into the SEO world.

It's also for the business owners and website creators who are just scratching the surface of what SEO can do for their online presence. Let's go!

What exactly is this "SEO" thing?

The internet is a big library. When people need information, they go to the librarians (that's Google, Bing, and other search engines) and ask their questions. 

The answers come from content: websites, blog posts, YouTube Videos, social media posts, and many others. In the library analogy, these things are the books.

How do librarians find the best books to give you when you asked for information?

How do search engines find the best content to give you when you searched?

SEO is the set of strategies that help your content get found easily by search engines and recommended to the audience.

When someone searches for something related to what you offer, you want your website to pop up high on that first page, right? That's SEO at work.

The Key Components of SEO

SEO isn't just one thing; it's a team effort of different components working together. Since I titled this post Me and SEO against the world, I could probably also use Me, SEO, and its kids against the world. Sounds fun but weird lol anyways

• Keyword Research

Figure out what words and phrases people actually use when they're searching. Knowing these "keywords" helps you create content that answers their questions. For example, if you sell handmade soaps, you'd want to target keywords like "natural soap," "organic skincare," or "best soap for sensitive skin." I might search this later too, I kinda want it now.

• On-Page Optimization

Make sure your actual website content is SEO-friendly. Use your target keywords naturally in your titles, headings, body text, and even image descriptions and alt text. Aside from improving SEO, you also help the content more accessible. These alt texts are useful in visually impaired readers and other people who use screen readers. I was basked in this thing in my web dev work.

Na-tur-al-ly, because I have firsthand experienced seeing a force field of synonyms and hashtags in some websites. My eyes hurt.

• Actually answer the question 😅

Know when you asked a question on the internet, and then you click a site that seems promising, and then at the end it just sells you their product as a solution to your question?

This might be a bit of a sensitive take. In terms of their company and site SEO, that must mean their strategies work. But at the perspective of the end user, it's frustrating.

I searched for what fixes alcohol marks on my apartment's wood floor, don't sell me tiles man.

• Be a good writer

Ensure good readability. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and clear language. Just like this article eyyy sheesh, peak gen z brag. I can switch easily between formal and brain rot, no worries.

Majority of readers, neurodivergent or not, skip into better structured content. This will come up in search behavior analysis of your target audience later, it's going to be a long story. 

Point is, the shorter the better. Spacious is also better. Cut your long sentences and long paragraphs. Easy English is also better!!

• Off-page Optimization

This involves things you do outside your website to build its authority and reputation, hence off-page. The most well-known aspect here is link building – getting other reputable websites to link back to yours. Think of it as other websites vouching for the quality of your content.

How is that done? This thing is more in-depth, so I'll write another article for that to explain thoroughly.

Just know that off-page optimization includes, writing original, exclusive, amazing content, and other adjectives that mean you write something so cool other websites link to it.

It also includes other active efforts rather than just waiting for other webs to notice you. This means guest blogging, partnerships, and other cool extroverted things.

• Technical SEO

This is the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your website. This includes things like:

Search Engines crawl a website when they check all of your pages. Everything is included from your home page, about, contact, blog posts one by one, and everything else.

You can also control which pages they skip if you want. This is through robots.txt, which is, again, another article to write for me.

What makes it easy to crawl?

• Website speed: A fast-loading website is crucial for user experience and SEO.
• Mobile-friendliness: With so many people browsing on their phones, your website has to look and function well on mobile devices. How does your horizontal website on the laptop looks on the vertical browser on the phone?
• Site structure and sitemap: Having a clear and logical website structure helps search engines navigate your content. It is a map. Otherwise, the searcher is a lost explorer in the woods.

How Search Engines work

Crawling

Search engine "spiders" (also called crawlers or bots) roam the internet, following links from one page to another. They discover new content and update existing content.

Indexing

Once a page is crawled, the search engine analyzes its content (text, images, videos, etc.) and stores it in its index. It's similar to a giant database of all the web pages they've found. Remember the library analogy earlier? This is the catalog.

Ranking

When someone performs a search, the search engine looks through its index and tries to find the most relevant and high-quality pages to display in the search results. 

This is where all the SEO efforts come into play. 

A search engine has its own rules for considering various factors to determine which pages rank higher, including keyword relevance, content quality, website authority, user experience, and more (in other words all of the key components we discussed above).

There are many search engines yes, but which ones should you focus on? Google. You can definitely add other search engines to optimize your content in, but never leave out this big one.

Here's a quote from Nick Antonopoulos' article on SEO Design Chicago.

As of 2024, Google maintains approximately 91.62% of the global search market share. This dominance has been consistent for over a decade, though it has seen a slight decline from 93.37% in 2023. The platform processes over 3.5 billion searches daily, making it by far the most used search engine worldwide. 

 

Why Bother with SEO for Websites?

Increased Visibility

Higher rankings in search results mean more people are likely to see your website. It's rare for people to check the next page of search engines, especially on a basic search. We don't want your content rotting there. 

More Organic Traffic

Traffic from search engines is often called "organic" because you're not directly paying for it (like with ads). This can be a sustainable source of website visitors. Costs you less too.

Targeted Traffic

People searching for specific keywords are usually looking for something specific. If your content matches their intent, you're attracting a more qualified audience. I could search about how to improve technical SEO of a finance blog site on WordPress. If I was a human search engine, here's the following content considerations I would recommend:

• Has to talk about SEO
• Has to focus on technical SEO
• Has to consider finance industry
• Has to consider Blog site type of platform
• Has to consider the WordPress context

I don't want people only searching about SEO, or technical SEO, or finance, or blogging, or WordPress without relation to each other.

Building Trust and Credibility

Websites that rank high in search results are often perceived as more trustworthy and authoritative.

This is more beneficial to contents offering products or services. If I wanted to buy a tumbler, and I just search tumbler on the internet, and AquaFlask came in first, I'll probably think they are very popular with people like me, hydrated people, and water benders. 

Potential for Higher Conversions

By attracting the right audience to your website, you increase the chances of them taking the desired action (e.g., making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, contacting you).

In the AquaFlask example, I don't want to attract beer people. I want to make sure I focus on tumbler instead of drinks. My tumbler product is going to either smell or not sell.

Our SEO beginning

As someone just starting to explore the world of SEO writing, I'm learning. (Quick peek in my life is that I'm often learning so many other things.)

This may be a potential to help businesses grow and connect with their audiences through well-optimized content. This might also just inspire another SEO learner, not clout chaser.

If you're a recruiter reading this, hopefully, this gives you a glimpse into my eagerness to learn and apply SEO principles.

Leave a comment below and tell me: What are your biggest questions or challenges when it comes to SEO? Let's start a conversation.

PS. I built an audience of 11k before but I was introverted. I'm lonely there, I want to change things here. Pls talk to me.