How SEO Works

SEO is about both quality and quantity. Search engines want to provide the most relevant, high-quality results to searchers, so websites need substantive, helpful content and technical optimization to rank well.

A solid SEO strategy typically includes these elements:

> Keyword analysis

> Backlink building

> Content creation

> Technical maintenance

Let’s look at how each of these strengthens your digital marketing efforts.

Keyword Analysis

Every SEO strategy starts with research. More specifically, you need to understand the words your audience will use on a search engine when researching products, services, or topics relevant to your business.

At the most basic level, keywords have varying difficulty levels and search volume. For example, consider the keyword “biotech.” As a broad term, ranking on Google is quite difficult.

Does that mean a company should give up trying to rank for that keyword? Not exactly. In keyword research, you’re also looking for long-tail keywords with a high enough monthly search volume and more reasonable keyword difficulty. Long-tail keywords are phrases or several words rather than a single word.

This type of strategy works for all businesses and niches looking to improve their SEO, from law firms to e-commerce. And it’s not just finding the right keywords; it’s also placing them in the right places in your content. If your content contains those words and phrases used by customers, you will increase your visibility by providing helpful answers using the right language.

Backlink Building

Backlinks refer to when other websites link to your website. Historically, there were some practices we now call “black hat SEO” where companies bought backlinks from hundreds or thousands of websites that they or a vendor built for the specific purpose of backlinking. Buying backlinks is a direct violation of Google’s guidelines because it’s considered link spam.

That strategy will get you some hefty penalties if you try it now. Also, you want backlinks from high-quality, highly relevant websites to get the SEO benefit. Essentially, when someone links to your site, this link helps tell Google and other search engines that you’re an authority on the topic.

So, how do you capture some of these elusive backlinks? You must create excellent and high-value content that people will organically backlink to you. We know, easier said than done, but if you want true results, you have to put in the work. You can also supplement your backlink strategy by hitting the digital pavement and building strategic partnerships.

Content Creation

Content is the heartbeat of your website’s SEO strategy. Without helpful content, search engines have nothing to rank. Content is anything your audience reads, watches, or listens to, including:

1. Blogs
2. Webpage text
3. Infographics
4. Videos
5. Podcasts
6. Newsletters
7. Social media posts

You should always strive to publish helpful, robust content that directly answers your audience’s questions.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to a website’s behind-the-scenes technical elements that allow search engines like Google to crawl efficiently, index, and understand its content. Optimizing these technical factors is crucial for ranking well organically.

Some critical technical SEO factors include site architecture, website speed, mobile optimization, proper markup implementation, effective URL structures, use of alt text and headings, meta-data, and overall semantic HTML code. Together, these elements help communicate relevancy and topic focus to search engines. They also impact how quickly and easily Googlebot can crawl each page.

Ensuring your website follows Google’s technical best practices and troubleshooting any crawling or indexing issues enables Google to read your pages—and better understand their content. With this solid technical base, your other SEO efforts, like keyword research, link building, and content creation, will become even more effective at driving organic rankings and traffic.

One significant development in technical SEO is the emergence of mobile-first indexing. This approach means Google primarily uses content’s mobile version when indexing and ranking. Most internet users access the web via mobile devices, and mobile-first indexing reflects this trend by ensuring that mobile-optimized content is a priority. Adapting to mobile-first indexing is not just an optional enhancement; it’s a fundamental aspect of modern SEO practices that align with user behavior and search engine algorithms.

While less flashy than content work, technical SEO is equally essential for SEO success.