1: What is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
What goes into SEO?
To understand what SEO really means, let's break that sentence down and look at the parts:
- Quality of traffic. You can attract all the visitors in the world, but if they're coming to your site because Google tells them you're a resource for Apple computers when really you're a farmer selling apples, that is not quality traffic. Instead you want to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in products that you offer.
- Quantity of traffic. Once you have the right people clicking through from those search engine results pages (SERPs), more traffic is better.
- Organic results. Ads make up a significant portion of many SERPs. Organic traffic is any traffic that you don't have to pay for.
Organic search traffic is specifically any unpaid traffic that comes from SERPs.
How SEO works
You might think of a search engine as a website you visit to type (or speak) a question into a box and Google, Yahoo!, Bing, or whatever search engine you're using magically replies with a long list of links to web pages that could potentially answer your question.
That's true. But have you ever stopped to consider what's behind those magical lists of links?
Here's how it works: Google (or any search engine you're using) has a crawler that goes out and gathers information about all the content they can find on the Internet. The crawlers bring all those 1s and 0s back to the search engine to build an index. That index is then fed through an algorithm that tries to match all that data with your query.
There are a lot of factors that go into a search engine's algorithm, and here's how a group of experts ranked their importance:
That's all the SE (search engine) of SEO.
The O part of SEO—optimization—is where the people who write all that content and put it on their sites are gussying that content and those sites up so search engines will be able to understand what they're seeing, and the users who arrive via search will like what they see.
Optimization can take many forms. It's everything from making sure the title tags and meta descriptions are both informative and the right length to pointing internal links at pages you're proud of.
Learning SEO
This section of our site is here to help you learn anything you want about SEO. If you're completely new to the topic, start at the very beginning and read the Beginner's Guide to SEO. If you need advice on a specific topic, dig in wherever suits you.
Here's a general overview:
Building an SEO-friendly site
Once you're ready to start walking that SEO walk, it's time to apply those SEO techniques to a site, whether it's brand new or an old one you're improving.
These pages will help you get started with everything from selecting an SEO-friendly domain name to best practices for internal links.
Content and related markup
A site isn't really a site until you have content. But SEO for content has enough specific variables that we've given it its own section. Start here if you're curious about keyword research, how to write SEO-friendly copy, and the kind of markup that helps search engines understand just what your content is really about.
On-site topics
You've already learned a lot about on-site topics by delving into content and related markup. Now it's time to get technical with information about robots.txt.
Link-related topics
Dig deep into everything you ever needed to know about links from anchor text to redirection. Read this series of pages to understand how and when to use nofollow and whether guest blogging is actually dead. If you're more into the link building side of things (working to improve the rankings on your site by earning links), go straight to the Beginner's Guide to Link Building.
Other optimization
Congratulations! You've mastered the ins and outs of daily SEO and are now ready for some advanced topics. Make sure all that traffic has the easiest time possible converting with conversion rate optimization (CRO), then go micro level with local SEO or take that site global with international SEO.
The evolution of SEO
Search engine algorithms change frequently and SEO tactics evolve in response to those changes. So if someone is offering you SEO advice that doesn't feel quite right, check in with the specific topic page.
For a more technical look at SEO, check out this short video from Rand Fishkin.
Go forth and SEO…
2: Types of SEO?
There are four main types of SEO or search engine optimization, all aimed at helping you earn greater visibility in search results:
- White Hat;
- Black Hat;
- Grey Hat; and
- Negative SEO.
The main differences have to do with how long it takes before you begin to see results (time), cost, risk, and value.
Black hat SEO will get you where you want to go faster. It is usually less costly because you are taking shortcuts to the top by going against published Google Webmaster Guidelines. In fact, many black hat SEO tactics are specifically spelled out in the guidelines as things you should NOT do. As such, they carry the risk that your website and/or content will be banned from search results or demoted the next time Google updates its ranking algorithm. That’s no small concern. Google updates its ranking algorithm roughly 500-600 times a year. Black hat SEO returns value quickly, but there is a high risk that the value cannot and will not be sustained.
White hat SEO techniques, on the other hand, adhere to Google Webmaster Guidelines but usually take longer and cost more to carry out as a result. On the upside, white hat SEO carries far less risk and tends to deliver lasting and compounding value over time. You’ll find most of the respected SEO and content marketing companies like Moz, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Round table, the SEM Post, Stone Temple, GSQI, and Philadelphia-area Seer Interactive and SEMRush all use and recommend white hat SEO tools and techniques.
Grey hat SEO falls somewhere in the middle as these tactics are not specifically called out in Google’s Guidelines. You should be cautious about taking this path as it is not safe to assume that just because a specific technique isn’t labeled or mentioned as being deceptive and one that will get you into trouble, that it will not interfere negatively with your rankings. In fact, Google says:
A summary of each of the different types of SEO, including examples, is provided below.
White, Black and Grey Hat SEO Summary
| Type | Description | Examples |
| White Hat SEO | White hat SEO practices strictly adhere to search engine guidelines. They are less likely to be negatively impacted by future algorithm changes because you are “playing by the rules”. Results take longer because you are avoiding cheats and shortcuts. | Examples of white hat SEO include writing relevant, useful content that helps your search audience do what they need to do, promoting your content on social media so it earns exposure and links, and soliciting the use of data aggregators to acquire local business citations. |
| Black Hat SEO | Black hat SEO employs practices that do not adhere to search engine guidelinesand therefore carries the risk that your website and/or content will be demoted or banned from search results. Future algorithm updates have the potential to negate or destroy any short-term advantage you may have gained by employing black hat practices but you tend to rise faster because you are less constrained by the “rules”. | Examples of black hat SEO include keyword stuffing or hiding, plagiarism, paid backlinks, cloaking (where different content is shown to human and search engine visitors), thin content (less than 300 words per page or post), and private blog networks (where a set of sites under the control of the SEO service provider is used to acquire backlinks). For a more extensive list see 44 Black Hat SEO Techniques That Will Tank Your Site from Cognitive SEO. |
| Grey Hat SEO | Grey hat SEO falls somewhere in the middle. These practices are not specifically called out in the guidelines but should still be considered risky. | Examples include click-bait (content whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page and not deliver value), spun (slightly altered) content, link exchanges, and paying for reviews. |
| Negative SEO | Negative SEO is the practice of implementing black or grey hat SEO techniques on someone else’s website with the intent of causing harm. Harming your competitors makes room for you to move up in search results. | These practices often focus on building unnatural or undesirable links to a competitor’s website, stealing their content, posting negative reviews, or hacking the site and modifying its content. |
A Visual Comparison of the Different Types of SEO
The image below serves as a quick visual comparison of the different types of SEO (white, black and grey hat).
On-Page and Off-Page SEO
You might also hear the terms “on-page SEO” and “off-page SEO” in your travels. These refer to the subject of your optimization efforts and can employ any of the above white, grey and/or black hat SEO techniques.
On-page SEO focuses on your website and content. Its aim is to ensure search engines and searchers can easily find, use, and understand your content. On-page SEO primarily helps Google and visitors decide whether your content is relevant and potentially helpful. Examples include title tags, meta tags, meta descriptions, headings, paragraphs, images, URLs, and internal as well as outgoing links.
Off-page SEO centers on external ranking signals like backlinks and online (unlinked) mentions of your business and/or website. Assuming your content is relevant to a search query, off-page SEO mostly helps Google decide where to position it in search results. Examples include an incoming hyperlink from an external website or an unlinked mention of your company or website on social media, a website forum, a question and answer site, an online directory, or any other external website
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