Top 10 Facts About SEO You Should Know
By Ashutosh Jha →
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Whilst most of us understand what SEO is about and how it can be used to help your website become more visible, it is not always that easy for beginners to comprehend what SEO is and why it matters.
Here is a look at some of the basics of SEO so that you can work on getting great results once you have a clearer idea of what you need to know and how to make the most of search engine optimization.
Why SEO matters
It is always a good idea to search out a useful article or two on a subject like SEO and digital marketing in general so that you can approach tasks with a greater level of confidence and competence.
SEO matters because huge numbers of people are online at any one time and searching for all sorts of different things. SEO gives you the opportunity to tap into that global audience and drive some of that internet traffic to your website.
The power of Google
There are a number of search engines that you can use but Google is the dominant player and is responsible for a high percentage of the search engine traffic generated around the world.
Since Google is responsible for the lion's share of search engine traffic, it makes sense to get a handle on how the search engine determines which pages to return in response to a search request.
For obvious reasons, Google’s search engine algorithm is extremely complex and tough to decipher but there are a few rules that you should at least adhere to in order to improve your ranking.
Relevant content
The main point to remember is that Google is always looking for highly relevant information that closely matches the searcher’s request.
The search engine determines the relevance of your site to the query by trawling through your website’s content and using algorithms to rank each site using keywords.
Additional factors
It is not just a case of Google matching certain keywords to come up with the most relevant search result, the search engine also uses additional elements that add weight to the ranking.
Things like how quickly the pages on your site load up and how long people stay on your website once they find you, all have a bearing on how Google rates your site and has an impact on how prominent you are in the search results.
Do your keyword research
You can’t be expected to gain an in-depth knowledge of how Google’s algorithms work but you can deploy some strategies that will still help you drive more traffic to your website.
One of the most important things you can do when it comes to search engine optimization is to spend some quality time researching what keywords are going to drive your website ranking higher.
Keywords are the most relevant phrases or words used by people searching for something specific. If you are selling paper clips, for instance, you would obviously include those two keywords along with other relevant words and phrases such as “office supplies” as a way of ensuring that if that is what people are looking for, Google can point them to your website.
Check out the search volume
You can use tools like Google’s keyword planner to help you choose the right keywords.
Using tools like this, you can check out the volume for any given keyword. It is a simple numbers game where you can see how many people search for a specific keyword, meaning you are going to reach a bigger audience if a large volume is using that term.
Volume data can also help you eliminate keywords that seem to generate small volumes of searches.
You can’t get by without links
The fundamental point that you need to take on board when it comes to SEO basics is that you are not going to achieve any sort of prominence with Google’s search engine without links.
Links have been a major influence on Google rankings for many years and although SEO strategies have evolved over time, link building is still an important way of generating traffic.
In very basic terms, if you don’t have enough high-quality links to your website it is going to have an impact on your Google ranking.
Concentrate on quality content
One of the most effective and natural ways of getting as many people as possible to link back to your site is to write something innovative and interesting.
Original content such as well-researched case studies and industry insights will encourage people to share your content and link to you as the source, which will improve your Google ranking as a result.
Keep it fresh
If you don’t keep producing fresh content on your website it won’t be an incentive for people to visit regularly and it will also discourage Google from continuing to rank you as high as you might be with fresh and regularly updated content.
Adding fresh content on a regular basis alerts Google’s algorithms that you are still active and relevant. The added bonus is that if you are providing interesting and useful information on your website it will help to keep people on your site and revisit too.
The URL structure is important
Your website’s URL structure can play a pivotal role when it comes to tracking and it is often a good idea to try and use URLs that are short and descriptive rather than attempting to create a URL that has too many keywords.
Work on getting your URL structure right and get technical help on this if you are not sure how to achieve this aim.
It also pays to avoid changing your URL structure too often or at all, as this can have a negative impact on your SEO ranking. If you do have to make changes, use a redirect so that you don’t miss out on valuable traffic.
The concept of SEO is simple enough but there are lots of tricks and rules that it pays to learn if you want to ensure that you rank as highly as possible with Google and other search engines.
