The Key Differences Of SEO, and how does SEO work?

The internet is home to approximately 2 billion websites, with the number expanding by the day.

The sheer volume of websites available today makes it increasingly difficult for any website — old or new, good or terrible — to establish or maintain an organic presence in search engine results pages. And, regrettably, this is very much required for any firm that wants (or needs) to drive commerce on the internet.

Kinda scary, right?

Whether you’re new to digital marketing or you’ve been working online for a while, we’re going to take a wild guess that you’re here because you have some questions about search engine optimization (SEO).

DEFINITION OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)

SEO is an abbreviation for "Search Engine Optimization," and it refers to the practice of obtaining traffic through free, organic, editorial, or natural search results in search engines. It seeks to boost your website's ranking in search engine results pages. The more it is listed, the more people will watch it.

A good SEO strategy includes a variety of actions, such as: Determine suitable keywords with a high potential for search traffic. Create high-quality, useful content and optimize it for search engines and users. Incorporate relevant links from high-quality websites. Results evaluation SEO is now seen as a crucial marketing activity. What Are the Differences Between Paid and Organic Search? It's critical to grasp the distinctions between organic and natural search, which are synonymous with SEO and sponsored search.

There are five key differences:

LOCATION

The first distinction is that paid search results appear at the top of search engine results pages, whereas organic results appear lower down.

TIME

Another significant distinction between organic and sponsored search is the passage of time.

Paid search yields almost instant results, sometimes within minutes, whereas organic search yields results that can take weeks, months, or even years. As a result, organic referencing must be used in the medium and long run.

PAYMENT

As far as payment goes, well, as the name suggests, paid search traffic is paid. You pay per click (PPC) on a cost per click (CPC) basis.

This means that you pay a commission each time someone clicks on your ad. So instead of relying on organic traffic to your website, you buy traffic for your page by paying Google to show your ad when your visitor searches for your keyword. For organic search, the traffic is free, although it requires an investment of resources and time.

ROI

In terms of return on investment or ROI, it's actually much easier to measure with paid search.

This is partly because Google provides more keyword data than you can capture in Google Analytics. However, with paid search, ROI can stagnate or decline over time. With organic search, ROI is a little harder to measure, but it often improves over time. In the long run, organic search can provide a great return on investment.

TRAFFIC SHARE

When it comes to traffic share, around 20%-30% of users click on paid results and 70%-80% of users click on SEO results. So most of the clicks are actually on organic results.

How Does SEO Work?

One word: algorithms. Each search engine has its own complicated algorithm that collects a wide range of data to determine which sites will deliver the most relevant results to the searcher. Before choosing which SERP your site will appear on, the algorithms take into account a variety of ranking indicators such as title tags, backlinks, and page speed load time.

To truly comprehend the technical parts of SEO, it is best to divide the approaches into two categories: on-page and off-page. Below is a more detailed description of the two, however for more information, see SEO Explained: What Is SEO, and How Does It Work?

On-Page SEO

What is it?

On-page SEO refers to the optimization on your website. SEO is a process and it takes time to increase your rank in the search engine market. The aim is to make your site more usable and valuable in order to increase your visibility on organic search engines.

What ranking factors should you optimize?

Important factors to focus on for on-page SEO are: URL optimization, title tags, keywords, content, images, and ability to be accessed on mobile devices.

What actions should you take to optimize the preceding list?

Putting time and effort into on-page SEO will gradually improve your rankings and make your site more competitive. A few examples of how to do so are listed below:

• Creating quality and engaging content
• Optimize title tags
• Speeding up your overall site
• Focusing on easy navigation

Off-Page SEO

What is it?

This practice includes techniques that occur off your site and focuses on attracting other site links, internet mentions, or social media shares. The aim is to increase your ranking across SERPs.

What ranking factors should you optimize?

The most influential factors to focus on for off-page SEO are external hyperlinks.

What actions should you take to optimize the preceding list?

Since off-page SEO revolves around links to your site from others, there are outreach based techniques to help achieve this. Some of the ways to do so are listed below:

• Utilizing blog posts
• Reach out to journalists or join associations to expand your network
• Market through social media platforms
• Promote influencers to share about their personal brand experience with your company