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How SEO Works and Why it’s Not Hard to Learn

Softwired Digital / SEO  / How SEO Works and Why it’s Not Hard to Learn

How SEO Works and Why it’s Not Hard to Learn

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a real mystery to most people.  Why is that?  It shouldn’t be hard to understand something that is so important.

A good analogy is how an iceberg stays afloat.  We only see a small portion above the surface, but the majority of ice lies below.

In order to understand how SEO works, we need to understand all its major components.

Search Traffic and Analytics

If you’ve tried to learn SEO, you’ve probably looked at Google Analytics.  The easiest report to understand for overall traffic to your website.  This report is fairly easy to understand as an overview of who is coming to your website.

Google Analytics

Website Optimization

The next area that is somewhat easier to understand is optimizing your website for search engines.  Technical issues that prevent Google bots from crawling your website result in downgraded performance.  Things like Headings, alt tags, keyword density, content, …etc. all contribute to the SEO health of pages and posts.

Google Search Console

Backlinks

Hyperlinks on other websites that link to your website are called backlinks.  The number and quality of these contribute to the authority of your website.  The higher the authority, the higher you will rank.

SEO Backlinks

SEO Keywords

These are phrases and topics that people are typing into Google to find answers to their questions.  Something like “how does digital marketing work?”.  Google tries to show the best websites that answer those questions.  Getting your pages or posts to show on those search results is what generates traffic to your website.  The more traffic, the more potential customers.

SEO keywords

Advanced SEO

For more competitive businesses with a bigger base and widespread branding, enterprise SEO is required.  This is how SEO works for all businesses.

Founder and CEO of Softwired, a digital products and services company.