Introduction to SEO

You’ve probably crossed paths with the term SEO several times. Maybe you know a thing or two about it, or maybe you’re already spiralling deep into the SEO marketing universe. Regardless of what you know about SEO, there’s always more to learn. The world of SEO is constantly evolving as Google and other search engines continue to update their algorithms to provide the most relevant and useful results to searchers. But fundamentally, it all boils down to one element: the users. Search engines are simply the means to an end, albeit a complex and ever-changing one. Understanding what consumers are searching for, the words they use and what kind of content they’re clicking on is just as important as any technical implementation you do on your website. By optimizing the content and structure of your website so that Google can find and index your website more easily, you’re making yourself more visible and accessible to the consumers looking for you. And that’s what SEO is all about! This guide is made up of many of the concepts and tactics we use at The Status Bureau and will give you an overview of what SEO is and all the bits and pieces that make it up.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality and quantity of traffic on your website by increasing its visibility on search engine result pages (also known as SERPs). This usually means bumping up your website’s ranking on search engines, most popularly, Google. SEO can involve a plethora of practices, but the mainstays are:

1. Fixing your website’s code
2. Having other popular websites mention or link to yours
3. Telling search engines where your business physically is
4. Having great reviews and being a popular business

By applying these processes, Google will be more likely to find and list your website for relevant queries.

How Search Engines Work

When a user searches for something on Google, the search engine combs through trillions of web pages to find an answer for the query. Think of it as a super efficient librarian who runs around the library (the Internet) to find books that contain some possible answers to your question. They don’t spit out any random answer though. The librarian has a system of reading, understanding and indexing every single book in the library so they can extract the most useful and relevant information, in order, according to their criteria. Their criteria in our case, would be referred to as ‘the algorithm’. Search engines rank the answers in a hierarchy based on a variety of factors, including the location of the searcher, the relevance to the query, quality of content and a whole slew of other things. SEO is about improving each of those areas so that we can be higher up in the librarian’s stack of books. But we’ll get into that later. First, a search engine starts off by “crawling.”

Step 1: Crawling

Crawling is the process of gathering new and updated web content for Google Search results. Search engines use specialized software called crawlers or spiders to find and retrieve content automatically. Content can range from text, images to videos to PDFs, but all of it is found via links. Crawlers follow links from site to site to discover new URLs, downloading new content as they go and adding it to their index to be retrieved later on.

Step 2: Indexing

After the Googlebots have done their scouring, they store and organize the content in a process called indexing. Google is constantly indexing new and updated pages. You can check which pages have been indexed from your website by typing in site:domain.com into Google.  Here’s a few of ours:

When you search on Google, you’re not searching on the live web. You’re actually searching on Google’s index of web content called Caffeine. Like the index list in the back of a book, Google uses their index to pinpoint exactly what you need. Once a page is in the index, it’ll be able to be displayed as a result to relevant queries. If Google can’t crawl and index your website properly, you’re basically invisible. Your website won’t appear on search engine result pages, or some of your webpages might be missing.

Step 3: Ranking

Every time someone searches for something on Google, the search engine goes through its index and presents the most relevant results in ranked order. Using various criteria aka algorithms, the search engine checks the query against billions of websites to find the most relevant and useful results. There are literally hundreds of factors that play into your website’s ranking, but some of the more important ones include:

• Physical location of the searcher
• Quantity, quality and relevancy of links that point to your website
• Content relevancy and quality
• Website speed

Moz’s 2018 rank factors study is a good place to understand the most important ones. Google is constantly updating its algorithms to improve overall search quality for its users, but fundamental factors like quality content and backlinks still hold true.

Step 4: Response

Google’s algorithm has a feedback loop built in to understand the quality of a website. These behavioural signals may include: a high ratio of clicks on the results page, how many people stay after they visit the first landing page, as is the time a user spends on your website. This means you’ll want to attract more users to your website and keep them from immediately hitting the back button. Abandoning a page for another results is a sign the page’s content did not meet the needs of the user.

Search Intent

Search intent is a popular topic amongst SEO professionals because Google has been focusing on showing different types of content for different types of searches. For example, my search query best accounting software brings up three pages.

1. This Hubspot comparison page
2. This Businessnewsdaily comparison page
3. This Financesonline comparison page

The goal here is obvious. Google is trying to provide me with comparisons to help aid my decision since my search query (best accounting software) was so vague. My intent is to shop around popular and reliable options, and Google is attempting to match that intent. Matching user intent is a crucial factor in SEO in recent years, as Google’s algorithm is becoming smarter with AI and machine learning. If the type of content you’re providing isn’t in the most useful format, Google may not give it much opportunity to rank.

Types of Searches

Understanding how users interact with search engines is a good place to start your SEO journey, and most Google searches can be broken down into these main categories: navigational, informational, and transactional. Navigational search queries The user wants to go to a specific website/webpage on the Internet. These are the most popular types of searches on the web. As of May 2019, here’s the top 10 most searched for keywords. # Keyword Monthly Searches Return rate (times people will use the keyword) Keyword + Search Volume ‍facebook 233,200,000 youtube 194,200,000 amazon 103,300,000 gmail 92,030,000 google 84,600,000 ebay 58,620,000 yahoo 56,690,000 weather 53,690,000 craigslist 51,700,000 Even though people know the addresses and brand names, it’s easy enough to simply search for the website and click on the result.

Informational search queries

These types of searches aren’t as direct as the navigational ones. The user is seeking an answer or information. They could be using search queries such as:

• tom cruise height
• vegan taco recipe
• dry cleaners near me

Transactional search queries

The user is shopping around for products. Typical queries can be:

• where to buy Sony A6000
• best beginner cameras
• nest doorbell

Search Engine Features

One would assume that having the number 1 spot on a SERP would be the be-all and end-all of SEO. You’ve done it! You’re at the top! Well, not exactly. While holding higher ranking positions is definitely one of the main goals of SEO specialists, the evolution of the SERPs has diverted searchers’ attentions to beyond the first few blue links. Google has added additions to their results pages that enhance user experience:

• Featured snippets
• People Also Ask
• Product listings
• Local map listings
• Top stories

Featured Snippets

This is defined by SEO people as “position zero” in search results. It’s the People always ask or immediate answer to a query. This is one of the many ways Google is trying to hurry up the user experience. There are specific ways to try and target position zero, which Rand Fishkin outlines in this video.   About the author: Josh co-founded The Status Bureau in 2006, and has a deep interest in competitive research and SEO. You can find him between Main Street and Gastown in Vancouver hacking away on a laptop, watching soccer, skateboarding, but probably just doing dad stuff.