“Search engine optimization” or as many people like to call it “SEO” is a form of Digital marketing which means the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.

What is SEO

SEO is the practice of persuading search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, to recommend your content to their users as the best solution to their problem.

SEO stands for search engine optimization, it aims to increase “Organic traffic”, by making visitors click on your link in the search results. That is in contrast to paid traffic, which comes from ads.

To simplify more the SEO is what makes you rank on the first page of search engines without paying for ads

The Importance Of SEO

While paid advertising, social media, and other online platforms can generate traffic to websites, the search engines drive the majority of this traffic, and that is because Organic search results receive way more clicks than paid advertisements. For example, of all US searches, only ~2.8% of people click on paid advertisements.

So SEO has about 20X more traffic opportunities than PPC (pay-per-click) on both mobile and desktop.

Beyond that, it is also a valuable tool for brand awareness, building relationships with prospects, and positioning yourself as an authoritative and trustworthy expert in your field.

How long does it take to learn SEO

In the beginning, you will find it hard a little bit because there are a lot of things to learn about SEO

But, if you took it step-by-step and follow a structured learning approach, everything will become easier.

It takes 1-3 months to learn the basics of SEO. However, if you want to be an SEO expert, you have to put around 6-18 months, It depends on your learning speed and grasping power. If you are interested in the subject, you will learn fast.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Search Engine Optimization

Pros:

1- Search Engine Optimization is Free:

Unlike paid ads, SEO is totally free of cost, but it depends on how much time you spend researching keywords and utilizing them in your high-quality content.

2- Trackable Results:

You will be able to see how much traffic your site is getting, what keywords you rank on, and how much time visitors are spending on each page of yours. This allows you to track the long-term results of your efforts. These results give you feedback about what you need to change.

3- Improved web presence:

Google has a complex algorithm that determines where each page on your website ranks for various keywords. When you implement an effective local SEO strategy, you’re making sure that your site ranks higher than your local competitors, which improves your online presence and generates new inquiries.

4- Decreasing the bounce rate:

To have a good SEO you must have a good web design and that’s what’s make your visitors have a great and easier time checking your website which leads them to be loyal customers 

5- The mobile SEO:

As there are 2.71 billion smartphone users worldwide in 2019, having a mobile-friendly or as it called “responsive website” is a really great idea that helps you gain more traffic.

6-get the Consumer Trust:

A better SEO makes your website rank on the first page of Google and as many people find your content relevant when they search, you gain more customer trust.

Cons:

1-High competition:

When it comes to competition, SEO has a massive one so you must be smarter and more aggressive to rank over your competitors

2-Changing Algorithms:

Once you rank well in the search result that doesn’t mean you are staying there forever maybe the next week you lose your rank and that’s supernatural in the SEO world because of the changing algorithms

3-No guarantees:

Even if you did everything as it should be done, the SEO still have no promising result

4-Slow Results:

It takes you some time before you start seeing positive changes to your website because SEO is a little bit slow-moving process

Black Hats And White Hats

White Hat Search Engine Optimization tactics

Here are some of the typical tactics employed by a White Hat SEO professional:

• Keyword Research and Analysis: Keyword Research is an important White Hat tool. it can help you understand how your audience is searching, discover synonyms for your keywords, and understand the Search intent of keywords.
• Competitor Content Analysis: A good SEO will analyze the content of a client’s competitors and devise a content strategy that can provide a more useful version of what they’re offering.
• Mobile Optimization: There’s a really good chance that the majority of Traffic to your website is from mobile devices. This is a great example of a White Hat SEO tactic because it balances what users want to see and the type of websites Search Engines tend to favor (Google is increasingly giving preference to mobile-friendly websites).
• Earning Links: A White Hat SEO earns backlinks through great content, offline relationships, and outreach. Linkbuilding should be done in a way that is natural and should never be bought (more on that in a bit).

Black Hat Search Engine Optimization Tactics:

Keyword Stuffing: Sure, Search Engines are getting smarter all the time, but Keyword Stuffing can still be effective in the short term. If you’re seeing a web page that uses the same keyword over and over again to the point that the writing seems unnatural, this is Keyword Stuffing.

Cloaking: Any time you’re intentionally trying to hide something from the user, it’s probably a Black Hat tactic. Cloaking refers to presenting the Search Engines with a set of content that is drastically different than what the user sees.

Link Farms: Link Farms are web pages that exist only to link to another page. Often times these pages are totally unrelated to the content of the pages to which they link, but as with all things Black Hat, the focus is on quantity and not quality.

Buying Links: If you’re purchasing backlinks from a website, you’re in direct violation of Google’s webmaster quality guidelines. While there are some gray areas where this can get confusing, it’s best to avoid paying for links at all costs.

Redirecting Keyword-Rich Domains to Your Site: Some Black Hat spammers will snatch up dozens of domain names featuring their target keywords and then redirect these domain names to their main website, and Search Engines are generally smart enough to recognize this spammy tactic.