SEO Guide

What Is SEO? 

SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the practice of increasing both the quality and quantity of website traffic and exposure to your brand, through non-paid (i.e., organic) searches. SEO is still relevant today for a company’s marketing strategy to drive users to a website. 

How to identify organic traffic in the SERP 

Search engine result pages, or SERPs, contain organic and paid search results for the user. Paid search results can be seen by the “Ad” mark on the search engine page on the SERP, while organic results show up below the paid ones. 

Organic SERP result. Search term in Google: Car insurance in Alberta 

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 Paid ad: Search term in Google:  

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Explanation of SEO buzz terms

• Domain Authority

  • Domain authority is an SEO ranking tool that is used to figure out how well your website ranks. Created by the company Moz, domain authority scores your web pages from 0-100, based on several factors. The higher your score, the better your SEO rank. Your DA does not impact your site ranking. There are several tools you can use to see your domain authority, the most popular being: Moz and Keywords Explorer. Use your domain authority score as a comparative metric. 

• Backlinks

  • A backlink is a link that connects one website to another. If you have backlinks that come to your website, it is seen as a vote of confidence as it helps you optimize your content. Like a line outside a restaurant is seen as a popular spot that drives more people to it, a backlink prompts search engines to recognize your site worth linking to. A backlink is also a critical part of off-site SEO. 

    • (Background on backlinks: What Are Backlinks and Why Are They Important for SEO? ) 

• Referring Domain 

  • A referring domain is a metric used to track the number of domains directed to your website. For example, if a site has a backlink from The Wall Street Journal, then it has one referring domain. The Ahrefs Site Explorer is a great tool to find your website’s referring domains, among other metrics, including backlinks and competitor’s keywords.

• Organic Traffic

  • Organic traffic is traffic generated by users who visit websites from unpaid search results, as opposed to paid ads that generate the traffic. A great way to monitor your site’s organic traffic for free is via Google Analytics. The user landing on your website is only the first step to turning those people into customers. 

• Keywords 

  • An essential part of attracting traffic is using keywords on your web pages. Keywords are words that are used in your website content to generate traffic to your site. Keywords for your unique website are chosen by looking at the keyword volume to help you grow organically in search engines Google and Bing. 

• Search Results 

  • Search results are the results a user gets when they type in a search query on a search engine. Results will match up to your phrase or words you type into Google or Bing. Your search results will show on a SERP, a search engine results page, and allow you to see paid (ads) and organic search results. 

• Rankings 

  • Rankings in SEO refer to the position of the website URL on the SERPs. There are many ranking factors that determine where your site will end up on the search engine page. Ranking is important as most people never scroll past the first page of Google.