​​What is SEO: Accelerate Your Business Growth with Effective Strategies

Kelly Richardson

Copywriter

September 05, 2024

24 min read

In this article, we'll break down what SEO is, uncover digital optimization types and specifics, and explore actionable strategies that can help your business climb the search engine ranks and draw in more customers.

Search Engine Optimization Meaning

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Many define search engine optimization as a process of improving your website in terms of traffic and getting more visibility in search engines such as Google, Microsoft Bing, and others.

As you probably already know, when you're looking for a piece of information, you usually visit a search engine. You then look at the top results that are displayed within your search. Well, this is the meaning of SEO—to put your website in one of these top spots. This is the way you have to get free, targeted traffic to your website to either sell your products, promote your services, or simply show your expertise in a specific area or niche.

Overall speaking, to answer the question of SEO what is, you need to remember that your ultimate goal with online visibility enhancements to improve your position in SERPS (search result pages). After all, SEO means what you need to do to get to the top of the Google search. These are your main SEO purposes.

Why Is SEO So Important?

Now that we already answered the question of SEO what is it, it’s time to understand why it is important.

As we already said above, most people use search engines like Microsoft Bing, Google, and others to search for information, a product or a service. Therefore, the better ranked your website is, the more chances you have to get a visit from a targeted person who might be interested in what you're offering. And the best part is that system optimization and SEO is mostly free. Simply put, the higher your website is ranked, the more clicks you'll get, the more people will visit your website, and the more sales you'll make.

As you can easily understand, search engine optimisation meaning is crucial when you're looking at marketing. Not only is digital optimization already important as it will continue to be according to many different studies related to this subject. The truth is that Search Engine Optimization delivers real results for organizations, businesses, and brands. This is why they keep using it.

One of the things you need to understand about the SEO search engine optimization meaning is that it is changing. While in the old days people only used traditional search engines to look for information, this is no longer true. In fact, many people tend to look at social media networks like Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube for information, for example. Others look directly at major retailers such as Amazon or Walmart.

If you're someone who likes to continue to search using Google or Microsoft Bing, for example, you probably already saw that SERPs display many different types of information. This may include images, videos, snippets, carousels, knowledge panels, maps, top stories, or even carousels. So, no matter what you're looking for, you may find the information displayed in different ways.

One of the main reasons why marketers continue to use SEO is that it keeps working, unlike other marketing strategies you may be using. For example, when you use a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign, for example, you know that you'll only get traffic while the campaign is on. When it ends, your traffic will end as well.

With more and more people using social media, it is natural that you also need to understand the SEO meaning in digital marketing. The meaning of SEO in digital marketing is not very different from the search optimization web marketing but you need to adapt it.

Achieving this requires a comprehensive strategy and deep expertise. If you're looking to optimize your SEO efforts further and accelerate your business growth, consider exploring the expert SEO services provided by Flowlu’s trusted partner. With tailored solutions and years of experience, they can help you navigate the complexities of online visibility enhancement and ensure your business stands out in search results.

3 Different Types of SEO

As a digital marketer, you know that you need to know the website, company, and brand you're working on inside out. After all, in order to do SEO marketing effectively, you need to understand what the users want, need, and are looking for. As you can see, SEO is used for many different things.

As you may already know, search engine optimization internet marketing, just like any other marketing strategy, isn't static. It changes over time. However, the main principles remain the same which makes your job a lot easier. Ultimately, you can define SEO in marketing by dividing SEO into 3 different types or categories:

#1: Technical SEO:

Overall speaking, technical SEO is related to all seo search optimisation activities that don't include content. This includes the way your web page is organized and how you display the information to visitors but also to crawlers.

Understanding how search engine optimization works is crucial. The more crawlable your website is, the easier it will be for search engines to find it and make it available to other people.

Technical online visibility enhancement involves paying attention to the navigation, URL structure, internal linking, and others. But it also involves making your website mobile-friendly and secure using HTTPs. You may try to find out more by searching google what is seo directly on your favorite search engine to get more search optimization information.

#2: On-Site SEO:

This is the process of optimization of your website to search engines, like Google. The work is done directly on your website. It includes looking for the best keywords, for example.

When thinking about on-site SEO, you need to think about content. Content isn't just adding more and more words—it’s not about quantity but about quality. The words need to make sense, need to be useful, need to have quality, and need to be frequent and related to your niche. Content needs to be useful for people but search engines need to consider it useful as well or else they won't share your link.

When writing content, you need to think about people but also about search engines. It’s important that you understand what search engine optimisation requires, the different search optimization technology you have at your disposal, and all about search optimization. Writing content for people means that you need to write content that:

• is relevant to your audience

• is readable and well-structured

• is up-to-date and relevant

• is error-free

• is original and unique

• includes images, videos, and other materials that may be relevant

• is better than other SERP competitors.

Writing content for search engines like Google means that you need to write content that includes:

• header tags

• meta description

• title tags

• image alt tags

#3: Off-Site SEO:

This is the process of optimization of your web page using activities outside it. This includes building your reputation using backlinks, for example.

There are many different methods or strategies you can use to promote your website with this online visibility enhancement type:

• Social Media Marketing: Using social media networks to promote your company or brand may be extremely useful. After all, more people will know about your brand.

• Content Marketing: We just talked a lot about content for on-site SEO. However, you can create content for external usage as well. You can post it on social media networks, or you can do some guest blogging, for example. Make sure to use text but also images and videos.

• Press Releases: Even though many people believe that PRs aren't what they used to be, they can still be relevant if you use PRs the right way. Besides, they are perfect to get editorial links.

• Reviews & Ratings: More and more people look for reviews and ratings of products or services before purchasing them. So, you want to be sure that your products or services are mentioned in the most important reviews and ratings websites.

• Branding: There are many different branding strategies you can use to boost your reputation and even your recognition.

• Manage Listings: Reviews sites, directories or wikis are places where you may add the information you want about your company. Make sure that you monitor these websites and maintain your information accurately.

One of the things that you need to understand about these three main pillars of SEO is that you only control 2 of them: technical SEO and on-site SEO. The off-site online visibility enhancement is something that you just don't control directly. You don't know where, how, or for how long your link will appear on other websites, for example.

To effectively manage your SEO strategy, it's crucial to utilize the right SEO software tools like Ahrefs, Moz or SEMrush. However, before diving into any software, it's important to fully understand what SEO software does and how it fits into your overall strategy. These tools can help you optimize your website, track your performance, and identify areas for improvement. But to get the most out of them, you need to be familiar with key concepts such as know how to define SEO marketing, the SEO website meaning, the SEO optimization meaning, what google SEO means, and more.

Moreover, it’s not just about knowing these definitions—you need to understand how they interconnect and apply to real-world scenarios. For example, knowing the SEO website meaning involves understanding how your website’s structure, content, and user experience impact its search engine rankings. Similarly, understanding SEO advertising definition and SEO in marketing meaning can help you leverage paid search strategies to complement your organic SEO efforts.

Overall speaking, to succeed in SEO, you should be able to answer questions like "What is search engine optimization?" and explain the search engine optimization meaning with relevant examples. By mastering these concepts, you'll be better equipped to implement a comprehensive and effective SEO strategy.

SEO And Optimization Specifics

Up until now, we have been talking about search engine optimization marketing in a very general way. However, it's important to keep in mind that online visibility enhancement also has its own specifics and you may want to take advantage of them.

#1: News SEO:

If your business or organization is built on news or if it's always changing, using news SEO may be a good idea. This way, you'll be able to appear in Google News, Google's Top Stories, or even on Google Discover.

#2: Local SEO:

In case you run a local business, you want to make sure that you learn more about local SEO.

#3: International SEO:

On the opposite side, you have international SEO that is meant for companies that operate in multiple countries. You may have the need to have a multilanguage website, for example.

#4: Ecommerce SEO:

In case you run an ecommerce store, you need to know that there are also some SEO specifics about this type of business. From optimizing product images to category pages, a lot can be done.

#5: Enterprise SEO:

This is the rarest type of online visibility enhancement specifics since it implies that you need to manage one or more websites within your company that have more than 1 million pages. As you can easily understand, this is the type of SEO specific only for the biggest organizations in the world.

How Does SEO Work?

In order to SEO work for you, you need to comply with 5 different steps:

Step #1: Understand How Search Engines Work:

The first thing you need to do in terms of SEO and search marketing is start by understanding how search engines work. You need to understand what influences visibility and what you can do to rank your web page higher.

When you want to explain search engine optimisation or show the meaning of search engine optimisation, you'll need to think about Google first, the main one. The truth is that most will follow Google's rules. So, focusing only on this search engine can save you a lot of time. When you first think about SEO it may be a bit hard to learn how organic traffic works. This is why it’s important to discuss online visibility enhancement and the relationship to search engine optimization. When you look at a search engine optimization explanation, it will be easier to understand the SEO meaning and what SEO includes as well as what the search engine optimization is.

To get your website ranked on Google, it needs to go through 4 different stages:

• Crawl: Search engines like Google or Bing need time to discover your pages and determine what they're about and whether they are relevant or not. SERPs will use sitemaps and follow links to do this.

• Render: This is what search engines do to see how the page looks for visitors. They use CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.

• Index: Finally, the search engine will index your pages and add them to a database. Notice that you may have some content pages of your website that may not be indexed.

• Rank: According to the seo optimization definition, search engines use algorithms to determine if your content is valuable for users and how valuable it is compared to similar content. The more valuable and unique your content is, the higher it will rank.

In case you want to optimize your web page for other platforms, you need to understand what they are looking for and what they value more. For example, if you want to rank higher on X (former Twitter), you need to focus on credibility, interactions, and recency. In the case of Facebook, for example, you need to consider shares, comments, and links. When these differences are explained, you’ll see that online visibility enhancement isn't that difficult or complicated.

Step #2: Research:

When talking about SEO search optimization it's impossible not to talk about research. According to the definition of search engine optimisation, here are 6 types of SEO internet research that you'll need to conduct:

• About Your Audience: In order to reach the right audience, you need to know it. You need to understand who your audience is, what they want, what they are looking for, and the best way to deliver what they need.

• Keyword Research: When people search for your products or services, they use specific keywords. By doing this keyword research, you're ensuring that your audience is targeted.

• Research About Your Competitors: One of the advantages of knowing the engine optimization definition and more about search engine optimization is to rank higher on search engines such as Google or Bing. This means that you want to rank higher than your most direct competitors. So, you need to know what they are doing to do more and better.

• Research About Your Web Page: Online visibility enhancement is always changing and you want to be on top of it. So, you need to know what you can improve to rank higher. Take time to dedicate to on-site SEO.

• Client Research: When you already have clients, you want to make sure they remain your clients for a long time. The truth is that it's a lot more expensive to get new clients than to make clients purchase from you again. This means you need to take this opportunity to discover what they need and offer it to them.

• SERP Analysis: You also need to take a closer look at SERPs. Try to search for different keywords and see what appears. Just a few years ago, Google didn't display snippets or even links to images or YouTube videos. SERPs keep changing and you need to keep up with these changes.

Step #3: Plan:

When you're looking to do search engine optimisation marketing, planning is a huge part of your plan. Before you do it, you need to know exactly what you're going to do, how, when, and how much time it will take.

Simply put, you need to draw a search engine optimization seo marketing plan that includes:

• Your goals and expectations

• The metrics and KPIs that you'll be using

• How your plan will be executed (who will do what)

• Choosing the right tools/technology

• Setting a budget

• Defining the strategy

Step #4: Execute:

Now, it's finally time to start executing what you researched and defined. During this step, you'll need not only to create more content but also to check the one you already have and make sure that it is up to date. In case it isn't, it needs to be either enhanced or simply removed.

Step #5: Monitor & Maintain:

Just like any other strategy, SEO engine optimization needs to be monitored. You want to make sure that the search optimization marketing strategy you're using and implementing is delivering results. When it isn't, you need to stop and rethink your plan. You need to know what's working and what's not. There's no point in continuing to use time and resources on strategies that aren't working anymore.

Using reports may be useful. The main goal of these reports is helping and orienting you to increase the traffic you get on your website. Some tools on the market can help you gather the data and create these reports for you. You only need to read and analyze them and make any necessary changes. Many see online visibility enhancement as a science when they receive these reports and start to put the results into practice.

Elevate Your SEO Strategy with Expert Services

As you work to improve your website's visibility and drive organic traffic, partnering with the right SEO experts can make all the difference. Flowlu has teamed up with industry-leading online visibility enhancement professionals to offer tailored services that help your business achieve top search rankings and connect with your target audience. Here’s what Flowlu's partners provide:

• Website Auditing

• Competitor Analysis

• Keyword Research & Strategy

• On-Page & Off-Page SEO

• Technical SEO

• Content Creation & Optimization

• Link Building

• And more.

With over 10 years of experience and a team of 100+ professionals, Flowlu's partners ensure your online visibility enhancement strategy is handled with the utmost expertise and efficiency. Ready to see real results? Get a free SEO audit today and take the first step towards dominating the search engine results.

Bottom Line

SEO is a very important and useful marketing strategy that is mostly free. We started by telling you more about SEO what does it mean, and we went down to the SEO marketing meaning and SEO marketing definition. While the search engine optimization definition may be easy to understand, implementing the seo search engine optimization definition takes a bit of your time.

When you first define search engine optimisation management, it may seem that you have control of everything. However, there are always parts that you don’t control such as the off-site SEO.

However, it never stops. Search marketing SEO is more than ever. It's a demanding strategy since you need to keep analyzing everything you do to see if it's still delivering results. It’s important to keep in mind the description of SEO as well as the SEO meaning in it. You need to keep looking at your old and new competitors and discover what's working best right now. Despite this, one thing is for sure: SEO is a great marketing strategy that every company or organization should use.