What’s SEO? A Brief Introduction to Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is about making sure that you rank the best (amongst the first results) on a search engine. It’s as much art as it is a skill. The idea behind it is so that people could find your business online at the point when they’re looking for something specific. 

I’ve completed Rand Fishkin’s free short-course on SEO on SkillShare. It was brilliant, quick and to the point. I’ve learned that the essence is to think about search as a user. Think how would the user search for something that you’re offering. How can you solve his problem? The whole process of SEO boils down to this simple truth. Google is thinking in the same terms – they want to give the user the best possible answer as quickly as possible. That’s all there is to it, that’s the reason why the algorithm is constantly changed. Throughout the years Google got really clever how to find the “signs” that your content is trustworthy and worth reading for each search term. 

In the beginning it used to be the ranking algorithm, where the back-links mattered the most (i.e. how many sites linked to yours). If you had 1000 websites linking to you it meant that you had pretty good content. Over-time google looked at more and more metrics to figure out if the reader’s query was answered in the best possible way. Here are 9 factors that Google ranks site by now (note: they’re always changing!): 

1. Domain-Level Link features, aka “Domain Authority”. It’s all the links that come from other websites.
2. Page-Level Link Features, aka “Page Authority”. It’s all the links that point to an individual page. 
3. Page-Level Keywords, Content Features and “Keyword Targeting”. It’s about the keywords that are in the title, the content, and other locations. Essentially is how consistent your keywords are across your website, your content. 
4. Page-Level, Keyword Agnostic Features. This includes load speed, mobile friendliness, content uniqueness, length and size of the page, etc. 
5. Engagement, Traffic and Query Data. This is a bit more complex, but the essence is that once a user goes onto your website he doesn’t leave (because he found the answer). If he hits “back”, then it’s a signal that he didn’t find what he was searching for and that website’s ranking will fall. Examples of this are “Pogo-sticking”, “Query Success”, etc
6. Domain-Level Brand Features. For example branded search, direct visits, brand affinity, etc. It’s about how well do people recognise your brand. 
7. Domain-Level topic and keyword associations. For example domain name, topic modeling, niche authority, etc. It’s about being the expert in your niche. 
8. Domain-Level Keyword Agnostic Features. For example TLD extension, spam signals, trust signals, traffic data, etc. This is a bit more technical and you should delve deeper into these keywords if you’re seriously interested in SEO. 
9. Social Data and Features. For example Tweets, FB shares, Linkedin shares, etc. This is not actually as important to rank well on Google as many people think. Thousands of shares, won’t necessarily boost your SEO ranking tremendously. It works more as an indirect tool for now. 

These are the features that I’ve learned about from the course. If you have about two hours to spare, I’d highly recommend to take it and if you’re into books – also read Rand’s work – Lost and Founder. It’s the most honest book about startups that’s out there right now.