What is SEO and How Search Engines Work: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners!

What is SEO?

Have you ever wondered how some websites look up easily when you find something online?

This is SEO or search engine optimization. All this is about formally improving your website so it is ranked high on search engines like Google without paying any money.

By doing so, finding your site is easier, more relevant, and more valuable.

Imagine your website as a cafe.

SEO is like a large, inviting mark that says, “The best cups of Coffee in the city!”

It helps more and more people find your cafe by using the right keywords that most people search for. Just as your menu updates with new things, users keep returning, adding fresh content and getting good reviews (or backlinks) makes your site more popular.

In short, SEO makes your website more visible and attractive to people looking online. This is like adding a little magic that helps your cafe stand on a busy road. The more you focus on SEO, the more likely the new customers will find your website and become loyal visitors.

Many people get confused when it comes to spotting the difference between SEO and SEM.

SEO, or search engine Optimization, focuses on improving its contribution by increasing the content and structure of the website in organic search results. This process may take time and hard work, but it provides long-term benefits, including increasing confidence from consumers and creating inactive income once the site is high.

In contrast, SEM, or search engine marketing, involves paying for ads in the upper part of the search engine results pages. This method provides an instant, but only as long as you are paying for ads, it becomes potentially expensive over time.

Although SEM offers quick exposure, SEO is valuable because it can set your website as a reliable source for users and run permanent, long-term traffic. SEO may need more patience, but its rewards are sustainable.

Have you ever wondered how sticky we are to our phones?

Whether we are looking for the best place for pizza in the city, watching the latest news, or looking for the best Valentine’s gift, our phone is always within our reach.

The search engine also knows this!

So, mobile SEO is all about making sure your website pops up first when people search on their phones or tablets.

Google considers Mobile SEO one of the important ranking factors while not giving up any option to avoid it. Google has launched mobile-first indexing, which means it first considers the mobile version of your website and then considers the desktop version.

Therefore, not taking care of mobile SEO is like being at a party where everyone has a phone and you don’t have one.

World War II ended in 1945.

But there is still a continuous war.

The war between the use of mobile and desktop can now be seen through statistics that the desktop is no longer king.

There are 544 billion users on the Internet, some of which are mobile users and some desktops. However, according to a recent study in Switzerland, users use desktops at certain times, while phone devices can be taken anywhere and can be used at any time.

Mobile traffic was 21% in 2015 but now the mobile traffic share is 54.86%.

This change from desktop to mobile has forced businesses to revise their strategies and focus on the fact that they are the most important.

Mobile traffic will not decline in the future and there are higher chances of it eclipsing other devices. That doesn’t mean that desktop traffic will be distinct then. There is no doubt in saying that mobiles are convenient but there are some things they are not ideal for. For example smaller screens, less powerful processors, and touch-based controls. So don’t worry mobile won’t take all the limelight.

Search engines are sophisticated tools that navigate the vast expanse of the internet to deliver relevant results for user queries. Search Engines use algorithms to rank websites. To rank your website it’s very important to understand how search engines work.  The process of search engine operation encompasses three main stages: crawling, indexing, and ranking

Crawling

The first step of Google search is called crawling. There are billions of pages on the web but Google does not know every one of them. New pages are added daily so Google has to crawl and visit these pages side by side. As soon as Google visits the unknown pages it adds them to the known ones. This whole process is called URL Discovery.

Google has huge computers to do this crawling and the ones that do this are called Google Bots also known as spiders. Google is not able to crawl all the pages because sometimes website owners have restricted access.

Indexing

Indexing is like organizing the library. After crawling web pages, Google then sees what those web pages are all about the content by crawling its keywords, title, alt attributes, images, videos, and more. In the process of indexing, Google determines if there are any duplicate or carousel pages or not.

 And if any duplicate web page exists, Google selects the best one. To decide which page is best, Google groups similar ones and picks the most representative (canonical). The others are like backup copies.

Google considers factors such as language and country to decide which pages to display in search results. Once a page is selected, Google adds information about it to its larger index, similar to a library catalog. However, not every page is indexed — some pages may contain poor content, or the website may prevent Google from accessing it.

In short, indexing helps Google understand and organize web pages so that people can see the best results when they search.

Ranking

Google places web pages in a specific ranking order based on its algorithm and ranking factors. The arrangement of content based on relevance is called ranking.

Now there are various ranking factors like quality content, backlinks, on-page SEO, technical SEO, mobile friendliness, keyword optimization, user experience, schema markup, and many more.

These factors work together to determine how high or low a page appears in search results.

Conclusion

Navigating the digital landscape requires more than just having a website — it’s about making sure your site is visible, relevant, and valuable to users.

SEO is the key to achieving this, helping your website stand out in the crowded online space. Although the process may seem complicated, the rewards are worth the effort. By continually improving your SEO strategy, you’re not just improving your site’s ranking. You are establishing a long-term relationship with your audience.

Stick with me to learn more about how you can be the center of attention in this digital world.