What is SEO and why is it becoming so popular, with tens of thousands of searches for the keyword "what is SEO" every month? In today's article, Markdao will help you answer this question and decode why modern businesses are increasingly turning to SEO services.
What is SEO? The simplest definition of SEO
What is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a set of solutions designed to bring quality, organic traffic to your website from search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing.
What is traffic in SEO? Traffic, also known as visits, refers to the number of internet users who access your website. Quality traffic consists of visitors who have a genuine need and are actively searching for the products or services you offer; in other words, they are your business's potential customers.
Why are search engines important in SEO?
In reality, there are many ways to attract quality traffic: through social media (such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.), mentions on other websites (such as news sites), referrals from others, paid advertising, and most notably, search engines.
Before diving deeper into what SEO is, you need to understand the importance of search engines, as they are the key factor that drives the effectiveness of SEO services for your business. Search engines can drive a massive amount of potential traffic to your business if you know how to leverage them correctly.
In fact, hundreds of thousands of searches are performed on search engines every second, with Google alone accounting for 63,000 searches per second—which explains why Google is currently the most powerful tool. These search engines provide you with the opportunity to reach internet users who are not yet aware of your business or who may not even realize they need your services.
Why does your business need SEO?
Now that you understand the importance of search engines in what is SEO, it is time to learn why businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, should use SEO services.
In reality, getting people to know about your business is not an easy task. Therefore, the simplest and most cost-effective way is to have your website appear in the top positions on search engine results pages (SERPs). However, according to research by experts, not every position yields the same results.
Specifically, research by Advanced Web Ranking shows that one-third of internet users click on the first result, 15-16% on the second, 10% on the third, 7% on the fourth, and 5% on the fifth. If your website ranks below the fifth position, you could lose three-quarters of the potential users who might have discovered your site. Furthermore, 90% of users will never know your business exists if your website is not on the first page of search results.
So, do you understand the mission of what is SEO now? It is to help your website reach the top 5 positions.
What is SEO - Understanding key concepts in the field of SEO
We hope that after reading this what is SEO article from Markdao today, your business will truly understand SEO and be able to answer if anyone asks this question! In this overview of what is SEO , Markdao will cover: How search engines work, how the digital world including SEO will evolve, and who your website visitors are.
How search engines work
Search engines typically do not disclose the specific details of how they function. In reality, these engines are massive software systems that have been continuously refined over several decades. Initially, they relied on only a few criteria to evaluate and rank websites, but today, Google, Yahoo, and Bing have upgraded and added hundreds of thousands of evaluation criteria.
Beyond mastering what SEO is, you also need to know which of Google's evaluation criteria are the most important. This will help you easily identify website issues and propose fixes when your site's rankings do not improve as expected. Although search engines do not publicly disclose their list of ranking factors, today's article on what SEO is by Markdao will show you how to "survive" Google's tricky criteria.
- Manage your web pages effectively: to ensure SEO services are safe and effective, you need to manage and understand every page within your business's overall website. Small businesses with newly designed websites often tend to focus on learning about SEO rather than managing their pages. In reality, however, managing your pages is how you gain the experience and deep insight into your website needed to help keywords rank faster.
- Rely on research: in addition to providing information about what SEO is, professional SEO agencies worldwide conduct research based on the sites they manage or sites created specifically for testing purposes... to draw conclusions about which criteria have a greater or lesser impact on search engine rankings.
- Stay updated with the latest SEO news: You can follow the latest SEO information on sites like AxNet, SEOMix, Webrankinfo, Search Engine News, Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land, Abundance, Moz, Search Engine Roundtable, and discussion groups on Reddit. These updates allow you to keep pace with the latest search engine changes.
Beyond understanding the concept of SEO, we need to know how SEO has evolved and where it is heading.
What is SEO? SEO is not a concept that exists in isolation; rather, it exists within a system. The field of SEO has been developing in Vietnam for over 15 years, so if you only know what SEO is now, that is not enough; you should delve deeper into how SEO has evolved. Specifically, take a moment to look back and compare the digital world of 20 years ago with today. While people accessed the internet primarily via desktop computers 20 years ago, today that has expanded to laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and even televisions and various applications.
In addition to "classic" search engines like Google and Yahoo, there are other search engines you need to keep in mind in What is SEO? These are websites that have become genuine alternatives to search engines for specific topics; for example, Amazon is a search engine for products to buy, YouTube for video clips, and in the future, Facebook could also become an alternative to search engines.
Beyond the evolution of search engines, SEO itself has branched out in many directions. Specifically, in the future, you might not just search for "What is SEO" but instead explore local SEO, multilingual SEO, SEO-friendly content writing, and technical approaches like log file analysis to study how search engine bots behave on a website, all to find the best optimization methods for improving keyword rankings as quickly as possible.
Markdao analyzes these points to show you that the answer to the question What is SEO is not as simple as its definition. Furthermore, it helps you understand that when optimizing for SEO or using SEO services, you shouldn't focus solely on SEO; you should also pay attention to other areas like Social Media, and regularly stay updated on search engine algorithm changes to ensure your rankings aren't negatively impacted.
Who are the visitors to your website?
There are two types of visitors to your website: Internet users and search engine bots. You need to focus on both, as both are important and bring significant value to your business. So, what needs to be done to improve the effectiveness of these visitors in SEO? To optimize for SEO services, you need to know more details about your website visitors, specifically who they are, why they visit your site, what they like about it, what content they are most interested in, and what devices they typically use to access it.
What are the 3 essential pillars of SEO?
When diving deep into what SEO is, you need to know the three most common concepts in SEO: Technical, Semantic, and Link Building.
What is Technical SEO?
When doing SEO, you need to pay attention to technical aspects, specifically your website and how it is designed. This includes: whether the page load speed is fast, whether the website is mobile-friendly, whether all necessary headings are present, whether meta titles and meta descriptions have been implemented, and ensuring that web pages do not have 404 errors—if you are not familiar with these errors, you can read more in the article 10 most important HTTP status codes in SEO services. Additionally, you also need to ensure the website has a complete and clear menu so that visitors can navigate to any page they want.
Furthermore, you must ensure there is no duplicate content between your website and others, or between pages on your own site. If search engine robots detect this, they will remove your website from search results. On the other hand, don't forget to continue optimizing pages that have already been indexed by Google or have high rankings; otherwise, they will gradually drop in rank without you even noticing.
Why do you need to pay attention to technical issues in SEO? Because you need to ensure your website is search-engine friendly, which makes the SEO process much smoother.
What is the importance of semantics in SEO?
Now that you understand the technical side of SEO, the next step is the meaning of the content posted on your website. Don't think that just having a website that meets Googlebot's criteria is enough, as robots have recently been optimized to detect whether content matches the topic your website intends to cover. More importantly, the content on your website is meant to serve Internet users. If they find your website unengaging, rambling, or off-topic, they will leave and head to another site, potentially one of your competitors.
So, what are the ways to evaluate content quality on a website in SEO? It comes down to whether you are receiving traffic from search engines, the frequency of new content updates, how the content is organized and structured, and whether the content uses language that is clear and easy for users to understand.
When it comes to optimized content, you cannot overlook keywords—these are the most important factor in any SEO service, the higher your keyword ranking, the greater the likelihood of potential customers finding you. You also cannot ignore your competitors—those bidding on the same keywords as you, how they manage their campaigns, and where they outperform you—so you can find ways to improve your own SEO effectiveness.
What is an SEO link system?
The third pillar concept that Markdao wants to cover in this What is SEO article today is the link system. Beyond meeting technical and content requirements, your website needs credibility. This credibility comes from other websites mentioning yours and directing traffic to it. However, these links must be natural; if you use black-hat tactics to acquire links, Google will "blow" your website right out of the search results.
Important considerations for link systems in What is SEO? Make sure your website is cited by reputable sources that are relevant to your topics and in the most natural way possible. By "natural," we mean you can request or purchase services from reputable websites, such as news outlets, or create your own satellite sites to publish content related to your main website, then insert keywords that link back to your site.
So, the three fundamental pillars of SEO bring us to the end of this What is SEO article by Markdao today. This post only covers the most basic SEO concepts, and we will continue to add new updates regarding SEO in this article. Furthermore, Markdao will consistently update new content every week, and we hope you find this information useful.
