SEO meaning: what it means and how you can apply it to your website

Maybe you are thinking that SEO is just the right thing use of keywords and that it is enough to write good texts to get first on Google.

Reading this article, you will be amazed at how many there are positioning factors and how much SEO has to do with different aspects.

Some of these you probably never thought they were so important!

It must be taken into account that for Google and other search engines it is important to provide users with results that first of all make them have a good browsing experience.

The quality of the sites that are in the first position, therefore, must be high in all respects.

First of all, the content must answer the user’s query . Second, the user must be comfortable within the page.

Query: the term or phrase that the user enters into the search field.

Keyword or keyword– The words you use to create your content, which will match the user’s queries.

SERP– The search results page that appears after the user types the query.

Therefore, the reader must not, for example, wait forever for the page to load, must not go crazy looking for a button, must not jeopardize his own safety.

These and many other features are essential for an optimized site.

We now explain the SEO meaning.

SEO: what it is and why it is so important

What is SEO? As you may have read a million times before, SEO means Search Engine Optimization , or Optimization for search engines. And a million times you will have asked yourself “Yes, but what does that mean in practice?”

Generally speaking, we can say that SEO is a series of marketing activities that allow you to improve the position of your pages in the organic results of search engines.

“Organic” Means that they are not sponsored, ie they are not dealing with an advertising campaign, but rather the natural results of the search.

So, SEO is a way to give your site visibility for free!

Organic searches: When a user types a query and clicks on a result in the SERP that is not sponsored (not an ad), it is called organic search.

The meaning of “search engine optimization” Should still be analyzed well, in order to start in the simplest way possible and make more clarity.

So let’s start from scratch and explain the meaning of ” search engine ” and ” optimization “, so that we all know exactly what we are talking about.

SEO meaning: what the search engine is and how it works

The search engine is a tool that allows you to find content on the web thanks to a search carried out by the user.

The most famous and used search engine in the world is Google, but there are also Bing, Yahoo, and many others.

Whatever information you are looking for, just write a few words in the appropriate field, press “Search” and in less than a second you will get thousands or even millions of results.

This program establishes the rules for identifying the most relevant content with the search performed by the user.

Algorithm: complex system that allows you to sort hundreds of billions of web pages to provide the most relevant results based on the user’s search query.

Moreover, thanks to the algorithm these results are organized in such a way that the most relevant are shown first.

Here is now the SEO meaning it starts to get slightly lighter. The rules that dictate which items will appear at the top of the list are the very ones you will go to study if you want to do SEO.

The most popular search engines, as we have mentioned, are Google, Bing and Yahoo, but there are also others.

• Google: needs no introduction. It is the most used in the world, with 91% of internet users .
• Bing: Microsoft’s search engine ranks second, with 2.69% of users.
• Yahoo: born in 1994 as one of the first search engines, today it is used by 1.4% of internet users.
• Baidu: is the most popular search engine in China.
• Yandex: is used in Russia.
• DuckDuckGo: a new search engine appreciated above all because it guarantees the privacy of users much more than any other.

When we talk about SEO, then, let’s remember that we are not optimizing only for Google, even if in practice that is what we do.

Due to its hegemony, we are now used to working on our sites according to its algorithms.

In light of this, let’s see what “optimize” actually means.

SEO Meaning: What Optimization Means

Now that you understand how a search engine works, let’s try to better define what is meant by optimization .

Optimization consists in making one’s contents as much as possible in line with the rules established by the algorithm. The more rules you can comply with, the greater the chance that your site will appear in the top positions of the list.

Applying these rules means working with commitment and constancy because, if your work starts well, but is then neglected, the search engines will realize that your pages have been abandoned and therefore will consider them no longer relevant.

As a result, you will lose the positions you gained in the beginning.

Optimization, therefore, is not a job you do once and for all on your site.

Instead, it is a constant activity and above all it must take into account the updates of the algorithm.

Search engine developers work tirelessly on improving the results shown to users.

This is also because the sites currently present on the web have become enormous: we are almost two billion and if you consider that each site contains several tens of pages, we reach astronomical figures.

Finding only the best pages among these has become increasingly difficult.

This is why the algorithm is often modified and updated, sometimes with small, almost imperceptible changes, others with large changes that can completely overturn the SERP.

If you don’t keep up with these changes, you risk losing all the positions you have earned in the past.

Meaning of SEO

I believe now the SEO meaning is much clearer and the words “search engine optimization” start to make sense.

Let us summarize the SEO meaning: The SEO is a set of practices that serve to improve the position of your website in the list of results in search engines.

These practices are applied in compliance with the rules of the algorithm, which establishes which are the most relevant contents for a given search.

How to do SEO

Do SEOand therefore optimizing your site for search engines is an activity that concerns many aspects. The best known one concerns the correct use of keywords, or keywords, but it is not limited only to this.

Indeed, we can distinguish three areas within SEO. Each area of ​​the SEO focuses on a different sector.

SEO: meaning of on-site

There On-site SEO is the set of practices concerning the optimization of the site in its general aspects, that is valid for any page.

The characteristics relating to the speed and performance of the site, security, its usability even from mobile devices, etc. are part of this area.

As you can see, then, the On-site SEO it is closely linked to rather technical aspects, such as the hosting on which the site is hosted or the CMS used to create it.

In fact, the characteristics of the server made available to hosting and its settings greatly influence factors such as page loading speed, security and performance.

Recently, with the introduction of the Core Web Vitals , these parameters have become even more important and server response time is an extremely important factor.

That’s why we always recommend high quality hosting as Server plan or Site ground , ie reliable services that provide greatly enhance the SEO of a website.

Instead, choosing the right CMS can determine that your site has a clean and tidy code, and therefore correctly interpreted by search engines, and that its layout is responsive , thus guaranteeing a good user experience for those who consult it from smartphones or Tablet.

SEO: meaning of on-page

There On-page SEO, or part of it, is the best known and sometimes confused with the whole SEO.

In fact, it is about the optimization of individual pages and its most important aspect concerns the correct use of keywords.

The main focus of the SEO is that the words typed by the user in his search correspond as much as possible to the keywords of his site.

Optimizing your texts will therefore mean finding out which keywords are right in your sector and using them to create quality content.

The keywords, in fact, will be used in specific points of the page, such as in the titles, to be identified first by the search engines and to help the reader to better understand the topic and the structure of the speech.

But the On-page SEO it does not end there, because it also deals with other aspects, among which, for example, optimizing the images to lighten the file as much as possible and therefore increase the page loading speed.

Loading time of a web page: the time that passes from the moment you click on a link or type the address of a web page until the moment in which all the elements in it have been loaded.

Image optimization doesn’t stop there.

Did you know there are ways to tell Google what is represented in an image?

In fact, search engines are not yet able to interpret the content of the images (although great progress is being made in this area).

Therefore, through the use of certain codes (alt attribute, title and captions) we can also use the keywords within the images.

SEO: meaning of off-site

Finally, the Off-site SEOrefers to all activities carried out outside the website, such as in social networks or blogs that deal with topics similar to yours. Its purpose is to attract visitors from outside and gain popularity and authority on the web.

In fact, authority is a determining factor for ranking and there are several techniques to increase it, including the presence of links to your site within sites that already have a certain position on Google.

The presence of the so-called backlinks is one of the most important positioning factors for off-site SEO.

Backlink: a link on a website that points to a web page belonging to another site.

In the past, it was enough to have a large number of links pointing to our site to improve one’s rankings.

Today this is no longer the case. Since there have been abuses in this practice, things have changed.

The developers created lots of “bogus” sites on purpose to insert links to the main site, thus increasing the number of backlinks and obtaining immediate benefits.

Today, after several algorithm updates (this is why it is important to always follow the evolution of search engines!), it is not enough to have a good number of inbound links but they must come from sites with a certain authority.

The quality of the backlinks is therefore more important than their number.

100 backlinks from low-value sites are less important than a single backlink from a very authoritative site.

What is black-hat SEO

The term black-hat SEOrefers to SEO techniques that we can define as incorrect. All that tries to fool the search engines is black-hat SEO.

An example is that of creating bogus sites with the sole purpose of obtaining backlinks.

Or, inserting a large number of keywords into the text, and then “hiding” them by applying the same color as the background of the page to the text, is an attempt at deception.

The algorithm now has learned to not be fooled and these strategies to be crafty, although at first it may pick up a page positions, can rarely lead to lasting results.

The risk is to get one penalty very strict on the part of search engines: your site could collapse to the last positions or be completely removed from the index.

Repairing this damage takes a very long and tiring job.

If you apply instead correct SEO techniques, that is, that respect the indications of the search engines, you will use the so-called White-hat SEO.

A curiosity: do you know where the terms black-hat and white-hat (black hat and white hat) come from?

From western movies, where the villain wore a black hat and the good guy a white hat!

Meaning of Local SEO

A sub-branch of SEO is the so-called Local SEO, that is, all the strategies that allow you to increase the visibility of a local business.

With good local SEO practices, you will have the possibility to have your company appear in the maps and in the highlighted box on the right of the SERP ( knowledge graph ).

Local SEO is very important, therefore, if you have a store or a physical studio (and therefore not an activity that takes place only online) in a specific geographical area, and your goal is to attract customers on site.

These are very useful strategies, for example, for restaurants, hairdressers, lawyers, gyms, mechanics … the businesses that can benefit from Local SEO are really many.

To be able to promote your local business on search engines, the first thing to do is to open a Google my business account .

This free Google service allows you to enter all your data, name, address, contacts, which will then be shown in the maps and knowledge graph cards.

In addition, you will benefit greatly from the feature that allows users to leave reviews within those tabs.

A large number of positive ratings will increase your authority and customer confidence in you, resulting in an improvement in your rankings.

For a good one Local SEO, you will also need to optimize your site in order to accurately indicate the location where you are, adding your correct and always up-to-date contact details and the map of your position.

Also, I suggest you use your city name as much as possible within the pages.

These techniques will have to do part of a larger SEO strategy, which still includes the “standard” SEO practices, always valid for any website.

The Social SEO question

A special attention goes to the so-called Social SEO.

What is “social” SEO?

With Social SEO we mean all that series of activities related to social networks, which include shares, number of followers, activities within the pages and interactions with users.

According to statements that Google has made on multiple occasions, these factors do not directly affect a website’s ranking.

If you have a successful Facebook page, with lots of followers and a very active community, for example, it doesn’t mean that your site will automatically gain positions.

However, it is certain that having a large number of followers on social networks inevitably leads to more traffic to your site.

Sharing your articles will attract readers and, if your content is of quality, the time spent on the pages will be quite high.

These are elements that search engines take into consideration, so even in this case we can say that one good Social SEO activity will help your site grow.

SEO for WordPress

SEO is an activity that concerns any website, built with any system, from CMS to pure HTML.

If you use WordPress, however, you can rely on some great tools that will help you optimize your site.

In fact, there are several plugins available that help you improve your SEO on-site, on-page and even off-site.

As for the On-site SEO, plugins for cache management and performance enhancement are key. WP Rocket , for example, helps you speed up your pages and manage your resources more efficiently.

There On-page SEO it can instead be perfected with the use of Rank Math or Yoast SEO , which suggest how to best use the keywords within pages and articles.

As for the Off-site SEO, the various tools for sharing your articles on social networks and for connecting with your profiles will help you better manage this aspect as well.

Conclusion

Here is therefore clarified what is SEO. I also explained the  meaning of on-site, on-page and off-site SEO in order to be clearer that this is a vast and articulated topic.

Finally, we talked about correct and incorrect techniques for doing SEO, Local SEO and Social SEO, all important aspects not to be overlooked.

Are you ready to study SEO to improve the positioning of your website?