SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is not some complicated form of digital marketing witchcraft. SEO means making Search Engines such as Google like your webpage the most for a search.
The reason we include a guide to SEO on a website about Online Advertising is twofold.
- If you are running paid search ads, then studies have shown that they perform better if your organic listings are right below them.
- Organic search is the largest source of referral traffic, so ad-funded websites would be fools to ignore SEO.
So basically, if you run ads on Google, you should also do SEO. And if you want website traffic, you should use SEO.
It should be noted that search algorithms are constantly changing, so SEO is too. We have therefore tried to focus on evergreen facts, strategies, and tactics. The golden rules are simple, though:
- Don’t game the system. Rule changes will catch you out, and you’ll have wasted your time.
- Always try to make the best page you possibly can. This is what search engines want to surface (and people will like it too).
- Relevance is king. People searching for a page like yours will be interested (and so will search engines). People searching for something else won’t be.
SEO isn’t exactly free, but at the same time, its ROI can be so tremendous it might as well be. And there are so many free SEO tools that you can greatly improve your search rankings without spending a penny (except for your time).
Note: This is just a top-level guide. If you have anything to add, please get in touch at justin@theonlineadvertisingguide.com
Index
Click on the links below to jump to the associated section
Summary
Next: What is SEO?