What is SEO and what is it for?

Defining search engine positioning

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Translation? SEO is one of the many branches of digital marketing in charge of applying different techniques to optimize and improve your website’s content so it shows up among the first search results.

At the start I told you something important: if you’re here, it’s because this URL you’re looking at — which I’ll probably give a slug of /what-is-seo — was built for that purpose. Don’t worry, I’ll explain what that means later.

As I was saying, this URL that talks about SEO was optimized so that when you search on Google for “What is SEO”, a result of mine would show up! Isn’t that pretty cool? I think it’s REALLY good.

In this screenshot you can see someone searching “food delivery” on Google, and that search returning results in different positions. The higher up a website is, the more relevant it is to the user.

An example of how SEO works

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Translation? SEO is one of the many branches of digital marketing in charge of applying different techniques to optimize and improve your website’s content so it shows up among the first search results.

At the start I told you something important: if you’re here, it’s because this URL you’re looking at — which I’ll probably give a slug of /what-is-seo — was built for that purpose. Don’t worry, I’ll explain what that means later.

As I was saying, this URL that talks about SEO was optimized so that when you search on Google for “What is SEO”, a result of mine would show up! Isn’t that pretty cool? I think it’s REALLY good.

What is SEO for?

Now, you probably already guessed why SEO exists, and if not, no worries, I’ll explain it: SEO exists to give you an alternative way to attract new people who are interested in your product or service — in other words, to generate more business.

Now, as you can see, there’s a limited number of spots that will get that traffic. Think of it like the podium of a race — only the ones in the top spots actually win something; the result or participant that finishes first, for example, would earn more than the rest.

And that’s where us SEOs come in, trying to optimize and follow the top recommendations Google gives us in order to be among those top results and bring more profitability, both to our clients and to ourselves.

And you’ll probably ask, what are those optimizations or tasks that need to be done to reach the top… well, let me tell you, I will, but all in due time.

How Does Google Work?

Since we mainly do SEO for Google, here’s how this search engine works in general terms.

• Crawling: bots discover your URLs by following links, sitemaps, etc.

• Indexing: Google understands and stores the content.

• Ranking: it orders results by evaluating relevance, usefulness, and experience. If you optimize access (crawlable), understanding (indexable), and usefulness (relevant), you’re playing in favor of ranking.

Essential technical fundamentals

• XML Sitemaps: help discover important URLs.

• robots.txt: it’s used to manage crawling, not to hide pages from Google (for that, use noindex or password protection). Google for Developers

• Canonicals and redirects: avoid duplicates and consolidate signals.

• Rendering: don’t block critical JS/CSS; Google renders the page to “see” it the way a user would.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

• Attracting qualified visits and visitors to your website

• Generating more online sales

• Improving your company’s visibility

• A sustainable, worthwhile traffic source in the medium and long term.

explainer video

If it’s still not entirely clear what SEO is, I invite you to watch this video — I know it’ll help clear up the ideas even more.