What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ?

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising a website with the objective of ensuring that the search engine is able to understand the content of the website and recommend it to the users based on the users’ search queries to enhance the SERP ranking of the website.

Additionally, SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic (non-paid) search engine results.

SERP ranking is the Search Engine results page ranking based on the search (keyword query) of the users for a particular company.  The eventual objective of doing SEO is to increase the organic traffic of your website.

The search engine crawlers (algorithm) crawl the website to extract its content. Then, it analyses the content of the website based on the keywords. Based on the keywords in the content, the search engines indexes the website. The users query the search engines based on keywords, and the search engine recommends the content it has indexed from website. Based on the matching of the queries and the search engine’s recommendations for content, the SERP ranking is determined.

How Search Engines Work (The Basics)

To understand SEO, you must understand how Google works. It operates in three stages:

  1. Crawling: Googlebots (spiders) scour the web to find new or updated content.

  2. Indexing: The discovered content is analyzed and stored in a massive database (the index).

  3. Ranking: When a user searches, algorithms determine which content from the index best answers the query based on hundreds of factors.

Expert Note: Modern SEO isn’t just about “tricking” the algorithm. It is about providing a great User Experience (UX). If users love your site, Google usually will too.

There are essentially five types of SEO that you can do for your website.

1. On-Page SEO: Content & Context

On-Page SEO refers to the optimizations you control directly on your website. It tells search engines what your content is about and helps them understand the context.

Key Elements:

  • Keyword Research: Identifying the terms your audience uses (e.g., “best running shoes” vs. “sneakers”).

  • Content Quality: Creating helpful, people-first content that satisfies Search Intent (Informational, Transactional, or Navigational).

  • HTML Tags: Optimizing Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Header Tags (H1, H2, H3).

  • Internal Linking: Linking to other relevant pages on your site to help bots crawl and pass authority.

  • Image Optimization: Using descriptive file names and Alt Text for accessibility.

2. Off-Page SEO: Authority & Trust

Off-Page SEO involves activities taken outside of your own website to impact your rankings. This tells search engines how the rest of the world perceives your site. It is largely about building authority and trust.

Key Elements:

  • Backlinks: When high-authority websites link to yours, it acts as a “vote of confidence.” Quality matters far more than quantity.

  • Brand Mentions: Unlinked mentions of your brand across the web.

  • Social Signals: While shares aren’t a direct ranking factor, they increase visibility, leading to more traffic and potential links.

  • E-E-A-T: Google evaluates your Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Off-page signals help prove this.

3. Technical SEO: The Foundation

Technical SEO focuses on the backend structure of your website. If your technical foundation is weak, your content—no matter how good—may never be indexed.

Key Elements:

  • Site Speed: Fast-loading pages are crucial for ranking and user retention (measured by Core Web Vitals).

  • Mobile-Friendliness: Google uses Mobile-First Indexing, meaning it looks at the mobile version of your site first.

  • Crawlability: Fixing broken links (404s), optimizing your robots.txt file, and submitting an XML Sitemap.

  • Schema Markup: Adding structured data code to help Google understand specific elements (like reviews, recipes, or events) for Rich Snippets.

  • HTTPS: Ensuring your site is secure (SSL certificate).

4. Local SEO: Proximity & Presence

For businesses with a physical location or those serving a specific geographic area, Local SEO is vital. It focuses on ranking in the “Map Pack” (the map listing at the top of Google results).

Key Elements:

  • Google Business Profile (GBP): Claiming and optimizing your profile with accurate hours, photos, and services.

  • NAP Citations: Ensuring your Name, Address, and Phone number are consistent across all directories (Yelp, YellowPages, etc.).

  • Reviews: Gathering and responding to authentic customer reviews.

5. Social Channel Submission

Social channel submission refers to the practice of sharing or submitting your website’s content across various social media platforms to increase visibility, traffic, and brand signals.

It is not a direct SEO ranking factor, but it helps SEO indirectly by improving content reach and engagement.

It means distributing your website content (blogs, pages, videos, offers) on social platforms such as:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter/X
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
  • Reddit
  • Quora
  • Medium

This helps search engines notice that your content is being shared and engaged with.

How do you index the website on a Search Engine?

Please read the blog – https://datasciencevidhya.com/post/create-xml-sitem…ordpress-website/

How to check whether your website has been indexed by the search engine?

You have to type “site:website_url” in the search engine. For example, let us say we want to understand whether https://datasciencevidhya.com/ has been indexed in the search engine. Then, you would type “site:https://datasciencevidhya.com/” in the search engine. If the search engine displays your website’s URL in the search engine results, then your website is indexed by the search engine.