Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

TL;DR

Search engine optimization, SEO for short, is the online marketing procedure through which organic traffic coming from search engines is increased.

About Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the number of website visitors by making the website more visible on search engine results pages. SEO is part of the search engine marketing (SEM) strategy and its aim is to increase both the quantity and quality of organic traffic on a website.

Why is SEO Important?

SEO is important because organic search is the biggest source of traffic for the majority of websites. Most of the website visitors land on certain web pages by searching for them directly or by typing in related keywords in Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
In order to rank higher on SERP (search engine results pages), marketers can use 2 methods: paid ads and/or SEO.

What are the most popular SEO techniques?

Search engine algorithms are modified constantly so that the result shown on SERP are the best possible ones for the users. There are 2 main categories of search engine optimization techniques: white hat and black hat. White hat SEO describes tactics that obey the terms and conditions of major search engines, including keywords, meta descriptions, quality content, and good user experience, while the black hat SEO is the opposite (cloaking, hidden text with a similar color to the background, etc). Black hat SEO is sometimes penalized by search engines, so it is not recommended.