How Does Search Engine Optimisation Work (SEO)?

You may already know that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is important to grow the success of your website. You may not know how to put this into practice and if you would like to delve deeper there is a lot to learn about the workings of SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) works when a search engine reads the content of your website and saves it to its index. They will then link to your website if their algorithm decides your content is the best match for the query entered into their search engine results page.

There are many factors that go into a search engine’s decision on which page they will rank at the top of their results pages. I will outline some of the basic principles in this blog.

• How Do Search Engines Work?
  Search Engines like Google crawl over and gather data from all pages on the internet and save information about them. They use this data to create an index of information they can draw from to match words that are typed into their search box with the best possible match.
  
  The method Google uses to create these matches and deliver a results page is called the Google algorithm. An algorithm is basically just a set of instructions for solving a problem so it’s behind the scenes of pretty much all computer programs. A search engine algorithm is the powerful bundle of programming functions that makes the whole search system work.
  

• What Makes a Website Look Good to Search Engines?
  There are a lot of small details that go into making your website appealing to search engines. Google doesn’t make all the details of their algorithm public as it would then be too easy to game their system so there is no concrete answer to this question, only guidelines.
  
  There are hundreds of ranking factors that Google considers in its process and some people spend their whole lives trying to understand their individual influence. If you are not from a major corporation it is unlikely you will need to be concerned deeply with this subject.
  
  For small business owners, it should be enough to know a basic overview of how Search Engine Optimisation works. It includes both the technical information used when writing the code for websites and some guidelines on the type of content you should create. It can all get very complex but Google has always made it clear that high quality, helpful content is the main thing they are looking for.

• How Do You Know What Content to Make?
  If you want your website to appear on results pages you will need to create the type of content that people are searching for. The simplest type of blog to start with would be one in which you answer questions you are commonly asked in your line of business.
  
  If you want to rank well for the subject area of your business you should think of a helpful topic to blog about then look it up on your search engine of choice. If you can’t find any good content on the subject that you consider high quality then it’s a great blog for you to create as yours can easily be written better than theirs and attract visitors.
  
  If you write a number of helpful blogs like this that get clicks and directly relate to the services you offer then over time you can start ranking well for words related to your business. This content will help search engines to know what your business does and that your website is the best place to send people.