SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of driving traffic to your site through free, organic search results. Its main aim is to raise your website's rank on search engine results pages (SERPs). The higher the rank, the more exposure your website gets.
What are the three pillars of SEO?
SEO changes often, but the core principles stay the same. Work on all three continuously.
- On-page SEO. Your page should have authentic content and a good user experience. This includes finding the relevant keywords for each piece of content and managing it on platforms such as WordPress, Wix or Shopify.
- Off-page SEO. Activity outside your website that lifts rankings. Quality backlinks (links from other sites to yours) are a big part of building credibility.
- Technical SEO. Actions on your site that are not directly about content and often happen out of sight, such as submitting your sitemap to Google.
Why is SEO important?
When people see your brand in search results, they begin to understand it and trust it. That trust helps you sell more. A successful SEO campaign lifts your visibility.
Key advantages of SEO:
- SEO research gives you insights to create or refresh content.
- It is an affordable way to drive traffic to your website.
- Ranking well boosts credibility and trust.
- Done properly, it can give a strong return on investment.
- It helps you understand user behaviour and intent.
- It attracts the right users, since they find you by searching for specific terms or questions.
- It supports local SEO, which helps businesses improve local searches.
How does SEO work?
Search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and DuckDuckGo use algorithms, which are computer programs that sort data to return the results a user needs. They work in three broad steps.
1. Crawling
Search engines use web crawlers (also called spiders, robots or Googlebots) to discover new pages and revisit known pages for changes. They follow links they have already visited. If your blog is linked from your home page, a crawler is likely to follow it to your latest post.
2. Indexing
The search engine decides whether to index the content it crawled. Pages judged worthy are arranged and stored in a database that is used when ranking. Pages with unique and useful content are most likely to be indexed.
3. Ranking
Ranking comes after crawling and indexing. Search engines use more than 200 ranking signals, which fall under technical, on-page and off-page optimisation. Examples include:
- Loading speed
- Content authenticity and relevance
- Backlinks
- Mobile friendliness
What is the difference between SEO, SEM and PPC?
SEM (search engine marketing) is search marketing, and SEO is a subset of it.
| Term | What it does |
|---|---|
| SEO | Gets clicks from organic search results |
| SEM | Gets clicks from both organic and paid results |
| PPC (pay per click) | Gets clicks from paid results |
Think of SEM as a coin. One side is SEO and the other side is PPC. See our PPC service.
How does Google search ranking work?
A search engine's first priority is to give users the best answer. Its algorithms filter pages for the most relevant results to a query, and rank the most authoritative or popular first. Search companies do not share their algorithms, but SEO practitioners have identified ranking factors that sit at the centre of every SEO strategy.
Search engines analyse five key factors:
- Purpose of the search query: what the user is looking for.
- Relevance of the page content to the query, judged through topics and keyword research.
- Quality of content, assessed using the E-E-A-T framework.
- Usability of the site, such as page speed and mobile friendliness.
- Context, including a person's past actions, preferences and location.
What does E-E-A-T mean?
E-E-A-T stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.
- Expertise: you are an authority on the topic you write about.
- Experience: you have first-hand experience of it.
- Authoritativeness: others recognise you as an authority, often through backlinks from other sites.
- Trustworthiness: your site and its material are trustworthy and current.
Ready to start your SEO journey?
SEO for eCommerce stores is covered in our eCommerce services. Contact Tussle Digital to talk about an SEO campaign.
Questions we get asked
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the process of driving traffic to your site through free, organic search results. Its main objective is to raise your website's rank on search engine results pages. The higher the rank, the more exposure your website gets.
What are the three pillars of SEO?
The three pillars are on-page SEO (authentic content and good user experience, including keywords), off-page SEO (activity outside your site, such as quality backlinks) and technical SEO (actions on your site not directly tied to content, such as submitting your sitemap to Google). Work on all three continuously.
What is the difference between SEO and SEM?
SEM, or search engine marketing, gets clicks from both organic and paid search results. SEO is a subset of SEM and covers organic results only. PPC, or pay per click, covers paid results. Think of SEM as a coin with SEO on one side and PPC on the other.
How do search engines crawl, index and rank pages?
Crawlers discover new pages and revisit known ones by following links. The search engine then decides whether to index the content, storing worthy pages in a database. Finally it ranks indexed pages using more than 200 signals, such as loading speed, content relevance, backlinks and mobile friendliness.
