What is SEO? — The basics explained in plain English

BlogSEO, Small Business Tips

Ever asked yourself, “What is SEO?” You’ve come to the right place.

Each day, 2.5 billion people use the internet to search for information on the nearly 650 million websites in existence. So, what does this mean for you? It means you need a website that stands out and that rises to the top for search terms used by your customers and potential customers.

The first step is having a good website that turns visitors into customers. The second step is making sure your site is optimized to perform well in search engine results, also called search engine optimization (SEO).

Here are some basics about SEO, without the jargon that often makes these concepts confusing:

Original content you didn’t copy

Make sure the content on your website is not duplicated from another website. Your content should all be original. But, this doesn’t mean you can’t take inspiration from other sources!

Content that seems at home on your website

Make sure the content on your website isn’t there just for SEO purposes — it should be relevant to your business and to the issues about which your customers are seeking information.

New content added on a regular basis

Make sure you add content to your website on a regular basis. This can take the form of new pages or new sections of your website, or you can add a blog and create new posts regularly.

Other good websites linking to your website

The more good websites link to your website, the better it looks in the eyes of the search engines. Think about links just like votes — the more votes you have, the higher you rank.

Website pages that load quickly

This one’s pretty simple. If your web pages load slowly, the search engines won’t rank you highly. You can increase page load time by reducing file sizes to increase speeds.

Website with on-site optimization

There are many things to do to make your website structure friendly to search engines — these include image sizing, code structure and more. (HubRunner takes care of this for each of our customers!)

Have some additional ideas or questions? Feel free to email us!