Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Now that you’ve completed building your website with graphics, audio/video, tables, and forms, it’s time to analyze your site for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Making improvements that boost your website’s visibility on search engines can impact your website’s success and benefit your users.

This section covers topics discussed in the LinkedIn Learning course, SEO Foundations, presented by instructor David Booth. The following chapters will help you understand what influences search results by diving into crawling, indexing, and site ranking using keywords, inbound and outbound links, and SEO analytic data.

SEO is an important way of communicating with Google and other search engines to prove the relevance of your site for users and their search queries. Chapter 9.1: “How to Optimize Your Web Content” expands on how to increase the visibility of your website or webpage in search engine results.

Would you like to know how SEO came to be?  Chapter 9.2: “The Evolution of SEO” gives a history of Search Engine Optimization and how it has evolved and how it has become what it is today. While search engines and SEO have evolved greatly over the years, one thing remains true: as long as there are search engines, SEO will remain vital.

Search engines and SEO have come a long way since the 1990s. As search engines advance, so does SEO. When done correctly, SEO can help your brand stand above others as a trustworthy company and further improve the user’s experience with your brand and website. Chapter 9.3: “The Importance of SEO Analytics” provides information on tracking and measuring SEO analytics to improve your website for the best SEO results.  SEO should be treated as a positive practice with long-term benefits to improving your digital presence.

In an effort to increase a site or page’s rank in search engines, computer hackers, virus creators, and those who perform unethical actions with computers use a tactic to “cheat” the system. Chapter 9.4: “Avoid Black Hat SEO In Every Search Engine” explains Black Hat SEO tactics, how they’re used, and the importance of avoiding them at all costs.  All SEO’s need a proper understanding of Black Hat SEO and its consequences resulting in getting your site banned from search engines, the number one traffic referral source on the internet.