What is SEO and why is it important

Why are all businesses now doing SEO? What is the target of using SEO? That's probably the question on your mind. Nowadays, SEO is very important for the survival of a business. Some of the factors that trigger it are changes in consumer buying patterns.

Moreover, the pandemic in 2020 encourages people to use technology more. No wonder the two largest e-commerce in Indonesia get more than USD 1 billion in sales in January 2024. Not only implemented for search engines, the fact is that you can also implement SEO on e-commerce sites.

To shorten the time, let's explore what is meant by search engine optimization and what is the main purpose of SEO.

Definition of SEO

So, what is SEO? SEO stands for Search engine optimization. It is a way to optimize a website page so that it appears in the top search results. Some of the common ways used are using relevant keywords, producing quality content, and user-friendly pages.

With an optimized page, potential customers will easily find you on search engines. This means that the more often your page is in the top searches, the higher the traffic will be. High website traffic can affect a brand's brand awareness, as well as its conversion rate.

What are the Objectives of SEO

Understand the purpose of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to achieve the target of using SEO on a larger scale. In the fast-paced digital world, search engine optimization or SEO is the key to getting more visitors and customers. However, what is the target of using SEO exactly? In this section, we will dig deeper to find out what are the main goals of this digital strategy.

Organic Traffic

One of the targets of using SEO is traffic. This goal is the root of why many websites use SEO. By optimizing, it selects relevant and searched keywords. Then, the content is customized to cover these keywords, while remaining informative and interesting.

On-page optimization involves setting efficient page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs. SEO also requires quality backlinks from other websites to increase search engine trust. For example, a cake recipe website that gets a lot of backlinks from famous culinary blogs will experience an increase in traffic.

Increase Site Authority

The target of using SEO is site authority. This is because site authority is crucial for a brand in the world of digital marketing. Internet users often trust sites that are located on the first page of the search as a more credible and reliable source. This is the main target of using SEO.

Quality Content

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies can also support you to produce quality content. Quality content is not only important, but it is the core of SEO.

Search engines always prioritize content that provides more value to users. Content that is informative, relevant, and easy to understand will more often appear on the first page of search results. This means that if your content is quality, then the chances of visibility will also increase.

For example, let's say you have a blog with in-depth information written in an engaging style. You address frequently asked questions, discuss what other sites have and haven't covered, and so on. That will make your website 'liked' by Google, which in turn will give you a high ranking site.

Strengthening Consumer Trust

SEO is a crucial component that plays an important role in building consumer trust in a brand. Placing your website on the first page of Google not only increases traffic, but also signifies that your brand is considered trusted and relevant.

Take for example a natural beauty product brand. When its website regularly appears in the top results for related keywords, consumers will identify the brand as a trusted choice. SEO doesn't just bring in visitors, it's also important in reinforcing positive perceptions and consumer trust in your brand.

Increase Sales

The next target of using SEO is sales. When a website is easy to find and ranks high on search result pages, the chances of getting more visits increase. More visits mean more opportunities to sell products or services.

For example, an online shoe store does SEO (Search engine optimization) by targeting keywords like “best running shoes”. This makes their site more likely to appear on the first page of search engines. As a result, more potential buyers visit the site, potentially increasing sales.

Increase Brand Awareness

One of the benefits of SEO and the target of using SEO is to build brand awareness organically or without ads. Imagine you have a cake shop. And, you do a keyword optimization strategy that people often search for. Examples of keywords are “cheap birthday cake” or “Eid cookies”.

Because you have used SEO on the website to the maximum, the name of your cake shop always appears on the first page. That way, when someone searches for cakes, your shop will come to mind first. That is the main point of increasing brand awareness with SEO!

Formation of Positive Public Opinion

Finally, the target of using SEO is also the formation of public opinion. SEO is not just about boosting a site's ranking in search results, but also about building a good image in the eyes of the public. By using SEO, you can control the narrative circulating on the internet. This includes promoting positive content and reducing the visibility of negative content that may be circulating.

For example, you can share social activities on your website. It will definitely build an opinion that your brand is not only about business but also cares about others.

How SEO Works: From Crawling to Ranking

Besides knowing what SEO is, knowing how it works is also important to come up with the right strategy. Because, by understanding the intricacies, you can optimize your website and digital content to stand out on Google. For example, by using Search Console, you can monitor the effectiveness of SEO on your site and understand the behavior of visitors.

Scanning (Crawling)

This stage is when search engines like Google use bots (called spiders or crawlers) to explore the internet. These bots visit web page after web page by following every link on the page. This process helps Google find new or updated content. For example, if you have a blog and post new articles, crawlers will find these articles when they visit your site.

Indexing

After the crawler finds the page, the next stage is indexing. Here, the information obtained by the crawler will be stored in Google's large database. Think of it like indexing books in a library, where each page and keyword is stored for easy discovery later. If your page has relevant content and is well organized, it will be easier to index well.

Processing

When a user enters a search query, the search engine will process the request. This involves matching the query with data that has already been indexed. This process is very fast, thanks to sophisticated algorithms.

Relevance Calculation

The next step is to calculate relevance. Google uses various factors to determine how relevant each page is to the query entered. These factors can include content quality, keyword usage, questions that users frequently search for, and more.

Ranking

Based on the relevance calculation, Google will then sort the results based on the most qualified. This is the stage where SEO is of key importance.

Good SEO practices can help your page rank higher in search results, which means more potential visitors. Factors such as backlinks from trusted sites, page loading speed, and user experience contribute greatly to this ranking.

Obtaining Results

Finally, the results that have been ranked will be displayed to the user. Users can then select the most relevant results based on the title, description, and URL displayed.

Types of SEO: On-page, off-page, and technical SEO

SEO is divided into three main types: on-page, off-page, and technical. In today's digital world, understanding these three can greatly affect your online visibility. From improving site rankings to attracting more visitors, each of these types of SEO.

On-Page SEO

What is on-page SEO? On-page SEO is optimization done on the website page itself. The goal is to create relevant and quality content that is easily understood by search engines. The aspects included in on-page SEO include:

• Quality Content: Ensure that the content is informative, relevant, and interesting to the reader. For example, if you have a website about food recipes, make sure that the recipes you present are complete and easy to practice.
• Title Tag and Meta Description: Use the right keywords in the title tag and meta description to increase the likelihood of appearing in search results.
• Header Tag Optimization: Utilize H1, H2, etc., tags to help Google understand the structure of your content.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is anything that focuses on activities outside of the website that can increase the trust and authority of your site. This is mainly through creating backlinks from other sites to your site. Important aspects of off-page SEO include:

• Quality Backlinks: Getting links from trusted sites that point to your site. For example, if a well-known news site links to a blog article, this can increase your site's authority.
• Social Media Marketing: Being active on social media can also help increase visibility and drive traffic to your site.
• Guest Posting: Writing articles as a guest on other blogs with a relevant audience can also be effective for building backlinks.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO deals with the technical aspects of a website that affect indexation and crawling by search engines. Some key points in technical SEO include:

• Site Speed: Ensuring your site loads quickly on both desktop and mobile. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can be used to evaluate and improve site speed.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Websites should be responsive or comfortable to use on mobile devices.
• Sitemap and Robots.txt: Have a sitemap.xml that helps search engines understand the structure of the website and robots.txt that regulates crawler access to certain pages on your site.

Key SEO Metrics

• Domain Factor: The age of a domain can affect its credibility; older domains are often considered more trustworthy. Also, pay attention to the domain's history, such as whether it has previous spam issues or not.
• Website Design and Structure: The site structure should be easy to navigate. This includes the use of clear menus, breadcrumbs, and sitemaps that help users and search engines find content easily. Responsiveness of the site on mobile devices is also important.
• Website Security (SSL/TLS): Implementing HTTPS with an SSL/TLS certificate shows users and search engines that your website is safe to visit and user data is protected, which can improve rankings.
• Website Speed: Website loading speed provides a better user experience and supports SEO in improving site performance. Some factors that affect website speed are hosting, cache usage, coding quality, and so on.
• Keywords Used: Incorporate relevant keywords naturally in the text, title, and description. Don't overdo it, as overuse of keywords can be considered spam by search engines.
• Content Topic: Make sure your content is informative, relevant, and interesting to your audience. Research topics and keywords that are popular and relevant to your business so that the content can get quality traffic.
• Search Intent: Recognize the user's intention, whether they are looking for information, want to make a purchase, or are looking for a service.
• Content Structure: Use headers (H1, H2, etc.) for a clear structure. Bullet points and short paragraphs also help readability and make it easier for search engines to understand the main content of the page.
• Image Optimization: In addition to reducing file size, use the 'alt' attribute for descriptions that help search engines understand images. Descriptive file names also support SEO.
• URL Structure: URLs should be easy to understand and contain keywords. Avoid using long strings of numbers and obscure characters, and make sure the URL structure is consistent across the site.
• Meta Tags: The 'Title tag' should be catchy and match the content of the page, ideally containing the main keyword. The 'Meta description' should be engaging and provide a clear summary of the page to increase the CTR (click-through rate) of the search results.
• Backlinks: Get backlinks from other relevant and authoritative sites. Quality of backlinks is often more important than quantity, with links from reputable sites can give a huge boost to SEO.
• Web Spam: Avoid black-hat SEO techniques such as stuffing pages with irrelevant keywords or buying backlinks. These can result in penalties from search engines and damage your site's reputation.

How SEO works in the era of artificial intelligence

Previously, the main factor of a page appearing in SERPs was the above matrices. However, with the arrival of artificial intelligence or AI, SEO goes to the next level.

Now, instead of displaying search results based on keywords, search engines will display results based on search intent. This means that previously, a webpage could appear in search results if it matched some specific group of keywords. However, nowadays, search engines can still display the page even if the connection with the search keywords is minimal.

In addition, the E-E-A-T factor (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) also plays an important role in AI-era SEO. Search engines will prioritize websites with stronger E-E-A-T factors than others.

Conclusion

So, SEO is a method to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results through the use of relevant keywords, high-quality content, and adequate user experience. The target of using SEO is to attract organic traffic, increase site authority, and strengthen consumer trust.

Now that we have explained what SEO is and what the target of using SEO is as well as its metrics, you can now design a more appropriate strategy. Don't forget, AI is now the key to changing the algorithm of SEO for search engines. Learn more about the digital marketing world by following our news.