What is SEO? Overview of SEO website knowledge for beginners

SEO is a sustainable and increasingly popular online marketing channel. For longtime SEO people, perhaps the term SEO is very simple and easy to understand. However, if you are just starting to do SEO or have been doing SEO for less than 6 months then I recommend you to read this article. The article will help you define what SEO is and the fundamental elements in SEO Marketing.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization . In a nutshell, SEO means the process of improving a website to increase its visibility on search engines when someone searches for products/services related to your business.

If your website is at the top of the search results, the more likely you are to attract attention and attract potential and existing customers to your business.

There are two factors that determine success in SEO: Onpage SEO and Offpage SEO.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is a collection of methods of optimizing display elements or anything located right on the website. Onpage SEO will focus on two main factors: Content and technical SEO.

>>Learn more: What is Onpage SEO ? The latest Onpage optimization standards

What is Off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO includes optimizing outside the website such as building links, marketing through social networking sites … to drive traffic and promote to the top of Google.

The most important thing in Offpage is not the quantity but the quality of the links pointing to your site. The higher the quality and relevance of the websites linking to your site, the higher your position ranking on Google.

>>Watch now: Simple Offpage SEO optimization techniques achieve quick results

How does SEO work?

Search engines such as Google, Bing, Coc Coc,… all use bots to collect data of websites on online activities, bots will go from one page to another, collecting data. all the information about that page’s content and put them in the index

Now think of the index as a giant library where you can pull up a book (or a web page) to help you find exactly what you might be looking for at the time. .

Next, algorithms that analyze the pages in the index take into account hundreds of ranking factors or signals, to determine the order in which pages should appear in search results for a particular query.

Just like in a library, a librarian is someone who has read every book at the library and can tell you exactly which one will answer your question.

Success factors in SEO can be seen as proxies for aspects of user experience. It’s how search bots accurately estimate how well a website or web page can provide searchers with what they’re looking for.

Unlike Paid Search, you cannot pay the search engines to get search rankings without paying higher, which means you are an expert in SEO and have to work hard to get it right. to the top.

Search algorithms are designed to display authoritative, relevant pages and provide users with an efficient search experience. Optimizing your website and content with these factors can help your site rank higher in search results.

Why is SEO important in marketing?

SEO is a fundamental part of Digital Marketing , as users perform trillions of searches each year, often for the purpose of finding information about products and services. Search is often the primary source of traffic for brands and complements other marketing channels.

Greater visibility and higher ranking on Google than your competitors can have a big impact on your business results.

Features like multi-format results and Knowledge Graph in search results can increase visibility and give users some more useful information about your company right in the results. .

In short, SEO is a comprehensive marketing platform. Once you understand what your users want, you can implement that knowledge on your campaigns (paid and organic) on your website, on social media channels, etc.

Why is SEO important in marketing?

The benefits that SEO brings to businesses

Increase visibility and ratings

One of the many important functions of web SEO is increasing visibility to users, which means helping your potential customers find you more easily and quickly when they research, search for something. something for which you are the supplier. Visibility will be directly related to your site’s ranking.

The higher you rank on the SERP, the more likely potential customers will see you and click to view your website. The special thing is that you absolutely do not have to pay Google. That is also an important key that SEO website brings.

The more effective your SEO strategy is, the higher your ranking and your visibility will be.

Along with that, the amount of traffic to the website is one of the main goals of SEO, when your website increases visibility, the traffic (traffic) accordingly increases significantly.

For example: Sites at #1 on Google search get close to 32% of clicks, and simply continuing to move up a position in search results can increase CTR up to 30.8% this is an amazing number.

Another way to help increase your site’s position on Google rankings is the Featured Snippet (or Featured Snippet) which is usually understood as the 0th position or above the 1st position, because it appears above the URL with first ranking.

This is usually content pulled from a website that Google prioritizes to evaluate and think is the right answer to the questions people are looking for and can help increase your CTA.

So if you want people to properly find your website through search engines. You should resort to SEO to help improve your ranking for the year with top positions, ideally top one.

Increase prestige and brand recognition

Page Authority (PA) is increasingly important to search engines as it is to web users. Basically, your website should be reliable, high-quality, relevant, and provide useful information to users.

Page Authority scores range from 1 to 100, and the higher the number, the more authoritative your site is.

Improve UX-UI on website

Another reason SEO is important is that all the time you spend creating great content and optimizing on-page SEO improves your site’s usability. This creates a positive and seamless customer experience.

For example: When you do SEO optimization for your website, of course you will also optimize on desktop and mobile so that users can experience on any version without anything interrupting the experience. surf the web.

Similarly, by increasing page load speed, you will reduce bounce rate and encourage visitors to spend more time on your site.

Consumers expect a website to load as fast as possible with a load limit to not exceed three seconds! The longer the load time, the higher the bounce rate and the lower your conversions.

Remember, search engines aren’t perfect!

SEO is very important because, if you do not take the optimal steps then your website will suffer a lot.

If a website does not have a proper link structure, then search engines may not properly crawl and index the site, which can lead to a drop in rankings. (A coding error can completely block search engines, leaving your site unable to rank, no matter how much time you spend.)

Increase ROI

ROI (Return on Investment) is the ratio of the profit earned to the initial investment cost. Simply put, ROI is a measure of what you get compared to the cost spent.

ROI is an important term in marketing in general and especially SEO in particular. The higher the ROI, the more efficient your business is.

With SEO, you can:

• Estimated profit from the amount of traffic flowing to the website
• Improve the conversion rate of keywords
• Analyze the factors affecting the website, thereby making plans to solve specific problems

Channels to attract potential customers & sustainably

Optimizing the website well will increase visibility on Google, which means it will attract thousands and hundreds of thousands of traffic. And your website will maintain the top 1 for a long time on Google, basically because the website has been optimized for SEO and you just need to maintain them.

Analyze & understand potential customer behavior

Have you ever heard somewhere that: “Listen to users you will get potential customers” or not?

So far, Google has not explicitly said how user behavior will affect a website’s ranking in search results.

Engineer Amit Singhal told the Wall Street Journal that Google has been refining their algorithms with more quality signals. Somehow, when users interact with the website is one of the ranking signals.

Analyzing SEO factors , understanding behavior and optimizing user behavior well not only affects your website’s ranking on SERPs, but also helps your website increase its overall quality score, even if the indicators are not. Others on your website are inferior to your competitors.

Basic SEO Process

SEO includes many different techniques from basic to advanced, SEO beginners will feel confused and difficult to grasp where to start. So, I’m going to systematize the basic process so you can visualize it.

Keyword research

This is an important step in the SEO process, if you choose the wrong keywords, failure is inevitable. Therefore, to make it easier, you can use keyword research tools such as: Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends… to analyze and select the most effective set of keywords.

Instructions on how to Research Keyword for a new website

Check and analyze website

To have a good orientation for the job and the most complete SEO plan, you need to check your website, simply check the following factors:

• Onpage and Offpage optimization
• Page loading speed
• Check built backlinks
• Check website code
• Check content, website structure
• Check related tags on the website such as Title, Meta Description…

Content building

Content is considered the key to SEO success, accounting for an important score in SEO. To build content on the website, you need to do the following tasks: Write new content, edit, delete and optimize…

Do not stuff too many keywords, it will be unnatural and will be spammed by the Google algorithm.

Onpage SEO optimization

To make your website friendly to search engines, you need to optimize Onpage SEO including:

• Optimize Title, Heading, Meta Description, H2-H6
• Image optimization
• URL Optimization
• Page loading speed
• Optimization of TOC
• Optimizing Schema…

Off-page SEO optimization

Off- page SEO is the building of external links pointing to the website to build quality and relevant links.

You can build backlinks like:

• Backlink blog comment
• Backlink social
• Backlink web 2.0
• Newspaper Backlink
• Backlink bookmark
• …

This factor affects your keyword and website rankings in Google’s search engine. So, the higher the quality backlink, the higher your website will rank on the SERP.

Test, monitor and evaluate

Monitor rankings, progress of keyword rankings, monitor website traffic, and errors that occur in the SEO process. Evaluate the SEO plan, then give specific strategies and improve the ranking and quality of the website.

Optimizing conversion rate

The ultimate purpose of website SEO is revenue and brand popularity. Therefore, do not stop optimizing CRO to make your SEO strategy successful.

Google Algorithms You Need to Know

Simply put, algorithms are Google’s algorithms and rules for processing data and giving the most relevant results to a user’s query.

For example: When you search for a certain keyword on Google, the algorithms will search billions of results on each website, bring up the searches and rank them at an extremely fast speed (under 1 second).

The big Google algorithms that you need to know:

• Google Panda (panda) algorithm
• Google Penguin Algorithm (penguin)
• Google Pirate Algorithm
• Google Hummingbird Algorithm (hummingbird)
• Pigeon algorithm (dove)
• Google Mobile Friendly Algorithm
• RankBrain algorithm
• Possum’s algorithm
• Google Fred algorithm

Google Panda Algorithm

Google Panda is an algorithm that evaluates and ranks websites based on content quality, targeting websites with low content, poor, copy, spam, thin content … When violating these errors, your website It will be difficult to get high rankings on Google search results.

Google Penguin Algorithm

Launched on April 24, 2012, the Google Penguin algorithm evaluates and penalizes sites with poor quality, spammy, and unnatural links. Violating these errors, of course, your website will not have a good ranking on Google.

Google Pirate Algorithm

The goal of the Google Pirate algorithm is to handle websites that steal content copyrights and intellectual property rights. If you receive a report of a violation, you will be penalized in the manual actions section of Google Search Console.

Google Hummingbird Algorithm

With the Hummingbird algorithm , websites with keyword-stuffed articles or articles with incorrect keyword targets will be subject to violations.

Pigeon’s algorithm

Pigeon algorithm , also known as pigeon algorithm, this algorithm handles poorly optimized website errors, improper Google My Business setup, conflicting business information or lack of citations in local search. .

Google Mobile Friendly Algorithm

The Mobile Friendly algorithm   screens websites that do not have a mobile version, websites that have too small text or are too close to each other, leading to difficulties in user experience.

Rankbrain algorithm

Rankbrain algorithm will focus on handling websites with serious errors of lack of content relevance, poor user experience.

Possum’s algorithm

The Possum algorithm will handle websites with duplicate addresses and provide similar services.

Google Fred algorithm

Google Fred targets websites that profit from too many ads, spam, poor quality content, not user-oriented. In addition, this algorithm also “touches” websites that abuse banners, articles mainly written for Google bots to generate traffic.

The most popular types of SEO today

SEO is growing strongly and is an indispensable marketing solution for businesses, along with a variety of SEO services and different forms of SEO. There are 6 popular types of SEO today:

SEO Branding

This is an effective form of SEO when applied to large branded businesses. The main purpose is to promote the website’s brand value, performing well SEO Branding will help position the business’s brand in the hearts of customers, bringing good results to the business of the company, and the business.

SEO Traffic

Increase the number of visitors to the website through 4 main channels:

• Direct (live)
• Referral (referral)
• Organic Search (via search engines)
• Social (via social networks)

The effective number of website visitors is to target the right potential audience (directly or through intermediaries) and bring efficiency to the website.

SEO Crisis

After a period of time at the top of Google, suddenly your website suddenly lost its stability and rankings dropped on search engines. This brings heavy losses to the business.

If you do not solve it properly and reasonably, the website may forever be unable to recover its rankings.

The causes of the crisis are:

• Being played badly by the opponent
• Backlink strategy doesn’t work
• Copy and non-creative content
• Using the Black Hat technique…

SEO App Mobile

This is a fairly common form of SEO today, this form of SEO will put Mobile App on Google search results, when users search on Google, it will display applications on search results to serve the needs of users. use.

SEO Local

This is a form of SEO favored and applied by most SEOers, users will search for the location of your website through the Google Map address or use it to create professional images and videos on Google Map by keywords. .

SEO Trends

This is a form of SEO trending, catching trends over time, the trends can be:

• Daily hot events on news or the internet, for example: Vietnam U23 team, etc.
• Imminent trend: use keywords related to World Cup 2022, Apple army 2022…

Tools to support SEO

Mastering SEO optimization criteria can be difficult, especially when you are just starting out. But don’t worry, SEO tools will help you do these jobs well in the easiest way, I have compiled all of them in this list.

Tools to help optimize Onpage:

• SEOquake
• SEO Site Checkup
• Robots.txt Generator
• XML Sitemaps
• Schema Creator
• seo cora
• Google Pagespeed Insights
• Surfer SEO
• Screaming Frog

Backlink Analysis Tool:

• Ahrefs
• Majestic SEO
• Semrush
• Moz Link Explorer

Content optimization tools:

• Yoast SEO
• Ahrefs
• Surfer SEO
• Google Keyword Planner
• SERP Robot
• Keywordtool.io
• Google Trends

Keyword research tools:

• Google Keyword Planner
• Spineditor.com
• Keywordtool.io
• Ahrefs

Website analytics tools:

• Ahrefs
• Screaming Frog
• Website Auditor
• Google Search Console
• SEO Web Page Analyzer
• Panguin tool

Keyword rank checker:

• Serprobot
• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs

SEO Trends in 2022

Core Web Vitals

In May 2020, Google announced three metrics, called Core Web Vitals , which are used to measure user experience. All three SEO metrics are basically about page speed: page load speed, interaction time, and page stability while loading.

Core Web Vitals are in the Google metrics for May 2021, which means you’ll have to pay attention to them to appear on the first page.

If there are two pages with equally relevant content, the user experience metrics will help the search engine bots decide which page should be ranked higher.

Google’s BERT searches for user intent

Google’s BERT algorithm uses ML (machine learning) and natural language processing (NLP) to better understand searches and what users are actually searching for. It works in more than 70 languages ​​and for almost any Google English query.

With Google’s BERT update, Google search engine bots have become much more “conversational”, so Google’s algorithm can now interpret searcher intent. Which means Google can understand things like the human brain.

This also means that sites with inappropriate content will be negatively affected. No matter how detailed or high-quality that content is, if it doesn’t meet the user intent then BERT will ignore your content and favor another piece of content that meets the intent for the query certain.

One thing to keep in mind is that Google BERT is not an algorithmic penalty. It’s the part of the Google search engine that helps filter out the most relevant and useful content for users by understanding search queries and content like humans.

So it won’t downgrade or penalize sites. It will only give preference to what shows the best results to the user, which is what Google always strives to do.

If your content doesn’t provide what users are looking for, your content isn’t BERT-friendly and you won’t rank for that keyword in the long run. That’s why publishing valuable content that meets user intent can help.

Keyword research will become more important

More than 50% of searches are from no-click searches. That means more than half of all Google searches (175 billion searches per month) end without any clicks.

This is due to the rich results in the SERP. With business listings, Featured Snippets show up on search results that answer a user’s query, so users don’t need to click on that result to get to the site.

Providing your website information, ads, business profiles containing keywords will satisfy users’ search intent.

With advancements in the SERPs and so much competition out there, it’s important to invest time in keyword research to find keywords that can actually drive traffic and conversions for your business.

Google prioritizes original content

Content plays an important role in SEO and rankings, content is authentic and important to businesses more than just branding. Simply put, this must be unique content and not copied from another source.

Would you like to buy a shirt in the same color and style as you already have? Of course not! Here too. There are thousands of pages with similar content indexed on Google.

If you create something similar to the one that already ranks on the SERP, why would Google rank your article? That’s why your content must be really useful and bring value to users.

A good resource to create unique content including research, testing, customer testimonials, company milestones, etc. Not only does this create authentic content that Google likes, it does. It also proves your website as a trusted brand in the eyes of Google and your customers.

Creating engaging and useful content makes users want to share that content with other users. They can do this through blog posts, social media services, email, forums, or other means.

Voice Search

Up to 27% of the world’s population is using voice search on mobile phones. Besides, according to a report by ComScore, more than 50% of smartphone users are searching by voice in 2020.

Most voice queries are long, clear, and specific. Users look for detailed answers to the queries they are looking for by voice. These users will be more likely to convert than other users.

As voice search optimization is still evolving and being used by more and more people, Voice Search is expected to continue to be mainstream in 2022.

Artificial intelligence (Artificial intelligence)

Like industries, AI is changing both SEO and marketing. Google also uses AI to serve search results to users.

But how can AI help your SEO strategies?

It takes a pretty long time to understand search engine website ranking algorithms. Despite the support of SEO experts, the use of artificial intelligence AI is a key factor.

AI will be much more efficient and powerful in deciphering algorithms and creating important strategies.

There are a number of companies like HubSpot, Frase, and Market Muse that are providing AI-based solutions that can help companies with their SEO efforts, and in the coming years, such tools could become mainstream in the coming years. next time.

Video Marketing

Currently, YouTube is the second most popular search engine, after Google with more than 1 billion users. So even if you don’t like the video, it’s time to start.

How to optimize content on Youtube?

Start with optimizing your video channel name and description. While the description should not be overloaded with keywords, provide a user-friendly description of your channel.

Featured Snippet

Featured Snippet is the featured snippet, or position 0, that appears at the top of the SERP in a rectangular box.

These paragraphs are not only useful for users but also add value to a website. However, you cannot choose what to show in Featured Snippet for any given search; that’s because the bots of the Google algorithm do this job.

The exact method to get your site into Featured Snippet isn’t exactly clear. SEO professionals use several strategies that can be helpful. For example, to get Featured Snippet results, you need to answer a specific question, and it’s better to answer with bullet points (structured content).

Influencer SEO

Influencers  are people who have millions of followers and these followers can become your customers if you can bring your business closer to them.

Influencer SEO is influential and trusted by potential audiences , and learning will bring in potential customers for you if the Influencer continues to advocate for your brand.

89% of marketers believe that ROI from influencers is comparable to or better than other marketing methods.

EAT & Branded SEO

Google prioritizes content quality over rankings when it comes to rankings. But does “quality” alone really work?

Therefore, it is useful to apply the EAT principle: expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Because the more popular and trustworthy a brand is, the higher it will rank on Google search.

That’s why you should work to build your brand, a priority in 2022 in your SEO strategy. Also, build brand awareness to increase brand search queries.

Brand FAQ is a hidden ranking factor that will help you rank higher and become a trusted brand on Google.

Learn about what SEO is and how Google works

>>Reference article

What is Entity ? Why Entity is Important for SEO

Find out what is a silo structure and the role of silo construction in SEO

Now, you must have understood what SEO is, the benefits of SEO and how SEO works, the process….To learn more about each concept, process and other SEO knowledge, You can check out other related articles here!