YouTube SEO: How to Increase Views on YouTube (2023)

YouTube is an enormous commercial center and YouTube SEO is the pathway to be a champ in that advertising.

Being a web advertiser, you ought to never disregard its capacity.

Just thing you have to know is, the way to rank YouTube recordings.

Today, In this minimal guide, I am going to share everything and…

… The best part?

You'll get just demonstrated YouTube SEO tips to rank number one.

Cautioning: This is the most refreshed and significant guide. Peruse just on the off chance that you need to get a large number of perspectives and endorsers to develop your business.

For YouTube, but at the same time, I'm going to share how to rank YouTube recordings on the first page of google.

Regardless of what sort of YouTuber are you, it's for you it is possible that you are hoping to offer your item or intending to gain from Ad-sense income.

How about we right make a plunge.

#1. YouTube Keyword Research 

YouTube SEO is really a bit by bit procedure of enhancing your recordings.

The first and most significant advance is Keyword exploration.

What will you do right now?

You have to gather the right catchphrases for your video enhancement process. Simply make a rundown as indicated by your specialty and finish your objective catchphrases.

Since without the correct catchphrases, YouTube SEO is fragmented.

Do you know?

Numerous watchwords have great pursuit volume in google while low in YouTube and some are the other way around.

The question is: how to discover impeccable catchphrases?

Here is the arrangement:

These are straightforward strategies to discover ideal Keywords for your crusade.

1. YouTube Suggestions 

The least difficult approach to discover catchphrases is YouTube Suggest.

You simply need to do is open YouTube and enter your principle catchphrase in YouTube Search.

Indeed, even before you complete composing your question in the hunt bar, YouTube will show many pursuit proposals identified with your inquiry.

For instance, suppose you wanna make a video identified with tie a tie:

YouTube Suggestion catchphrases are the best as they have a high Click Through Rate (CTR).

Indeed, even I don't type total questions when I search on YouTube or Google. I'll presumably tap on one of the recommendations.

Furthermore, I even have the best part right now.

I'm going to show you my Golden tip to utilize YouTube Suggest in a cutting edge way.

Here you go:

You can find right now:

Need more?

From these strategies, do various attempts with various catchphrases identified with your subject and add all recommendations to your rundown of watchwords.

We should proceed onward to the following technique.

2. Discover Video Keywords 

One thing is to rank your video in YouTube and the following level is to rank your equivalent video in Google Search Results.

In the event that you'll be fruitful, you'll get 2 to multiple times more perspectives on your video.

Isn't it energizing?

This is actually where "Video Keywords" come into play. You just need to locate these brilliant terms and addition to your YouTube Video.

I'll tell you the best way to include these catchphrases in your YouTube video for SEO reasons, in the later piece of this guide. Be that as it may, first we have to discover these.

At the point when we search a few watchwords in Google, we typically get sites in SERP.

Be that as it may, for certain watchwords, when we search them in Google we get recordings alongside sites in indexed lists.

These are Video Keywords.

Progressively a number of video results imply more video well-disposed catchphrase.

Only for instance:

Here is the manner by which you can discover them.

Basically use beneath referenced words with your subject.

Catchphrases beginning with "How To"?

• Keywords starting with “How To”?

• Reviews

• Tutorials

• Keywords with the word “Video”?

• Songs/Movies

• Watch

For example:

Presently, it relies upon you.

I mean do tests while utilizing previously mentioned words alongside your specialty to make some video catchphrases.

You can even utilize the Google AdWords catchphrase instrument to get more thoughts.

In your rundown, keep video catchphrases set apart for various points.

At the hour of video streamlining, you have to utilize pertinent video catchphrases for every video.

It's insufficient, so how about we discover more.

3. Catchphrase Suggest Tool 

OK! there is a cool apparatus (KeywordTool.io) to get catchphrase proposals for YouTube.

It's insufficient, so we should discover more.

3. Catchphrase Suggest Tool

OK! there is a cool apparatus (KeywordTool.io) to get catchphrase proposals for YouTube.

Simply make sure to choose "YouTube" before entering your seed (primary) catchphrase in these apparatuses.

You can create a huge catchphrase rundown and afterward channel the rundown as indicated by your decision and your need.

The next technique is entirely cool also.

4. Video Tag's Extraction

You realize that If a channel is well known and their recordings are getting natural perspectives then it implies their recordings are appropriately enhanced.

They have utilized appropriate watchwords in their labels, which you can use to include your rundown of catchphrases.

However, how to get these Tags?

This is the thing that I called "Label Extraction"

Here are the means by which you can discover.

Introduce Chrome Extension "Vidic" to see the labels of a channel.

You can duplicate all labels and channel these to keep just important.

You can likewise look through your subject in the YouTube search bar and you can likewise utilize VidIq to see labels of top 5 or 10 videos. One thing to ensure here is to look through just applicable recordings.

5. Google Trends 

Google Trends is basic and contains huge amounts of data to set-up our proficient forecasts about client aim.

In any case, do you realize you can get watchword thoughts identified with your theme through Google Trends?

How?

Allow me to appear.

Simply go to Google Trend and Search your theme and set channels as demonstrated as follows.

After this, you'll get all information on watchword just on YouTube.

Look down until you see the "Related questions" box.

Here you go:

You'll locate every other watchword which individuals additionally search identified with your point and you can utilize them in your recordings to get more perspectives.

These were the strategies to fabricate a huge rundown of watchwords for YouTube and some video catchphrases.

I trust you can have your rundowns prepared for additional activity.

More to go…

Find User Intention of the keyword

I trust all of you realize that the User expectation of a catchphrase is the genuine game.
So I would state, dive as deep as you can to anticipate the client's expectations before beginning any sort of SEO or web showcasing work.

All level-up SEOs realize that discovering the client's goal of a catchphrase is parcel more significant than searching for its inquiry volume.

Presently the thing is how to play with that thing?

It's very straightforward simply investigate any term/catchphrase and change the inquiry type from "Web Search" to "YouTube Search".

Here is the reality for clear understanding:

How to optimize the title tag for search engine

How to optimize the title tag for search engine

Title tags are portions of HTML code on a website that tell search engines like google what the page is about. This is often the text that looks in search engine consequences pages, and looks as if this:

Why are title tags important?

Meta title tags are a serious factor in helping search engines understand what your page is about, and that they are the primary impression many of us have of your page. Title tags are utilized in three key places: (1) search engine results pages (SERPs), (2) web browsers, and (3) social networks.

How to optimize the title tags

Optimizing your identify tags for SEO in addition to for excessive CTR may have a fine impact on your SEO performance. Here are a few things you’ll want to consider:

Optimal format

Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name

8-foot Green Widgets - Widgets & Tools | Widget World

Optimal title length

Google typically displays the first 50–60 characters of a title tag. If you keep your titles under 60 characters, our research suggests that you can expect about 90% of your titles to display properly.

There's no exact character limit because characters can vary in width and Google's display titles max out (currently) at 600 pixels.

Include target keywords near the front

Make positive to include your target keyword close to the front of your name tag. 

This indicates customers and engines like google what the web page is about, and is often the first element they see while scanning thru search outcomes. 

According to a look at by Ahrefs, there's a high-quality correlation between the usage of your key phrases in your name tag and ranking: As you may see, consisting of your keyword inside the identify tag correlates enormously with rankings!

Write your title tags for high CTR

The natural CTR (click-thru rate) of your titles in the search results has quite a few evidence pointing to it as a rating factor. If Google notices people aren’t clicking to your name, this would be important information for them to evaluate whether it matches consumer search intent. You’ll also need to write down your title tags in an enticing way that draws in searchers. 

Here are components for crafting titles that get awesome click-through rates: Start the name with the keyword to clue Google and those into the topic of the web page Optionally, upload an action word like: “learn, see, discover” or transaction phrases like “get, try to buy” Include an element that entices human beings to click like: (#1 Rated), (Over 2,530+ Reviews!) or similar. 

End with your logo or site identify so for example, as a dentist, you may use above components to create a title tag like this: In this example, we were capable of encompassing the target keyword, a CTR element, and the brand name.

How to edit good title tags

To optimize your identify tags, you’ll need to edit the HTML code of your website. If you’re the usage of WordPress, an easy manner to edit the identify tags, Meta descriptions and extra is by the usage of a plugin like Yoast. When you put in Yoast, you’ll see a container appear under the content editor that will permit you to adjust the name tag:

What is seo friendly URLs and How to create seo friendly URLs

You can optimize the URL (or address of your webpage) via retaining it quick and including your target key phrases.

A good instance of an SEO-pleasant URL looks like this:

example.Com/using seo friendly url/

As you may see, the target key phrases are within the particular address, and both a consumer and a seek engine could inform that this page is ready roofing restore in Tampa, FL.

In comparison to the example above, an “ugly” URL frequently includes numbers or extra characters that don't describe the page. A non-search engine optimization-friendly URL may look something like this:

example.Com/38892302/ab20093-3992/

URLs structure

The numbers are extraneous, they elongate the URL unnecessarily, which they do now not assist a person or a search engine recognize the page.

Using Short URLs

Google’s former head of seeking quality, Matt Catts said in an interview that it’s essential to stay URLs short:

Using short URLs

According to Catts, an search engine marketing-friendly URL is round 4-5 words, with the set of rules giving less weight to keywords delivered in after the fifth word.

In other words, preserve your URLs short and sweet, and use keywords close to the front.

How to Create SEO Friendly URLs

Non-SEO pleasant URLs are regularly created because of the CMS that an internet web site runs on.

For instance in WordPress, when creating posts and pages, you may edit the URL with the aid of clicking the “Edit” button next to the URL at the page.

Add SEO friendly URLs

For the blog in WordPress, you may set the default taxonomy (URL structure) through going to Settings > Permalinks and selecting a choice like “Post name” as a default.

By the use of your key phrases inside the URL of your pages, you’ll create clean to read SEO-friendly URLs!

Conclusion

By optimizing your URLs, you now not simplest tell users what your web site content material is about, but you’re telling serapes like Google how relevant and treasured your content material is. 

When bots crawl your web page, they’ll be capable of assist you rank higher primarily based solely in your URL structure.

What is On-page search engine optimization (SEO)

"What is on-page SEO"

On-page SEO is the process of optimizing the content of an internet site to rank in search engines.
This includes optimizing HTML elements like title tags, Meta descriptions, the content, internal links, and more to form it easy for search engines to know your website.

As against On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO refers to optimizing factors external to your website (like backlinks from other websites, brand mentions, and social signals).

In this guide, we’ll teach you everything you would like to know!

Why Is On-Page SEO Important?

On-Page SEO is vital because this shows search engines what your website and your pages are about. Without proper on-page optimization, it'll be difficult to rank for your targeted keywords and generate traffic.

By understanding the way to optimize your site, your chances of the ranking are going to be greatly increased!

How to Do on Page SEO

While optimizing your site for SEO involves many factors, here are the main parts of On-Page optimization you’ll want to consider:

Title Tag

The title tag may be a piece of HTML code on each page of your site that tells search engines what the page is about. It’s often what's displayed in search engine results pages.

You’ll want to form sure that your title tag includes your target keyword and is written during a compelling way that creates a user want to click it.

You can learn more about title tags here.

Meta Description

The Meta description may be a piece of HTML code on each page of your site that describes what the pages are about. It’s often displayed right below the title tag in search engine results pages.

Header Tags

Header tags are pieces of HTML code that help structure the headings and therefore the subheadings of a page. These can tell search engines what the foremost important elements of the page are.

As an example, the h1 tag is usually the most header of a page. You’ll want to incorporate your keyword here.

Content Optimization

The actual content and text of a page is additionally a crucial element. You’ll want to form bound to include enough content on the page in text form for users and search engines.

In fact, studies show that longer content tends to rank better.

Make sure you include your keywords within the content of the page during a natural way.
Learn more about content optimization here.

Image Optimization

Images on your page also can give clues to search engines on what the page is about.

Before uploading your images, use descriptive filenames. As an example, you'll name a file “tampa-fl-roof-repair-exmple.jpg” as against “image1.jpg”

Alt text may be a piece of HTML code that tells browsers and search engines the contents of a picture. Almost like the file names, you'll use this to explain the image.

Internal links

On your website, you'll internally link to other pages of your site. This helps search engines find the pages of your site, and also pass authority to other pages.

Learn more about internal links here.

URL structure

Using SEO-friendly URLs can help signify what your pages are close to search engines.
As an example, have you ever seen a URL that appears like this?

example.com/383888v20/10-29-2024/388883000293999?

The URL just contains random numbers and doesn’t help the user or search engines understand the page. Instead, you’d be happier employing a URL that contains your keywords like:

example.com/what-is-on-page-seo

Conclusion

While there are many factors that enter On-Page SEO, these are the main elements that you’ll want to think about.

In the next chapter, we’ll dive deeper into On-Page SEO!

How To Do Keyword Research

How To Do Keyword Research

How To Do Keyword Research

Image By: ShaneBarker

Starting with the implementation of semantic search, Google's been converting its search algorithms to shift recognition from keyword matching to topic recognition and enjoyable seek a reason to the fullest extent feasible.

It, however, doesn't advocate that we have to continually ditch key phrases when constructing an SEO strategy. Keyword studies areas relevant as ever, and it makes the inspiration for all in addition search engine marketing activities, including content planning, optimization, and structuring, internet site's on-page, etc.

But due to the fact the idea of search has changed, the technique to keyword studies must also change. Let's drill into making the most of keyword research in 2020.

What to tour by to evaluate key phrases' effectiveness?

In terms of search engine optimization, and efficient the keyword is that the only that you actually can rank for, that could force A sufficient amount of organic visitors to your internet site.

So before you set to keyword studies, you would like to define criteria that would help you compare the effectiveness of key phrases. Thus, you may make sure that your target keywords carry you, relevant visitors which you may be ready to convert this traffic afterward.

Here are a few criteria that have to help you advocate whether keywords in shape the bill.

Keyword's relevance

If a keyword features a connection with what you offer, then it's applicable. Bear in mind those not handiest key phrases that describe your product or service directly healthy into this category. You moreover might also want people who characterize distinctive troubles and wishes that your service can assist to resolve and satisfy.

Keyword's capacity organic visitors

If you attempt to pressure visitors to your internet site, you would love to make certain that a keyword can roll within the hay. However, what to reflect on consideration on a sufficient amount of visitors highly relies upon the industry. For instance, in case you are employed during a broad niche, like touristic services, key phrases might also have 10K — 100K searches a month, at the same time as in a few field-precise niches like parachuting gear, search volumes may be a whole lot lower.

To apprehend whether ability traffic is enough, you would really like to study your aggressive surroundings. Knowing the volumes of visitors that your topic can produce, you may be extra or less positive approximately which key phrases to come to a decision or leave in the back of.

Keyword's competition

Knowing keyword's competition is essential to recognize whether you have got any possibilities to rank for a key-word. Usually, various search engine optimization equipment provide you with two metrics that you virtually got to consider — keyword opposition and key-word difficulty.

The keyword issue is a way extra informative, as it takes below consideration not most effective the amount of competition for the key-word but additionally their strength (which includes one-way link profiles, etc.). It's feasible to predict the hassle of ranking for a keyword without the usage of tools. Google this keyword and appearance at websites that occupy the top three positions. If you see there any greats like, for instance, Wikipedia or Amazon, there is possibly an espresso risk of ranking.

Search motive behind a keyword

People search for numerous matters and special purposes, and search cause shows the purpose of the seek. To rank today, you without a doubt were given to satisfy users' search cause (remember, Google sets tons thereon ranking seek effects). So looking for a keyword, you would like to ask yourself what's the search intent at the back of it, and can you be ready to satisfy it.

The varieties of search cause consist of informational (what is..., how to..., etc.); navigational (typically there are branded terms); industrial investigation (like 'excellent espresso machines' or 'black leather men's backpacks'), and transactional (purchase smith, subscribe download, etc.). 

The handiest thanks to understanding the purpose in the back of keywords is to have a look at the SERPs to envision what pretty content material Google is top seeking effects for them.

With all this at hand, let's get to the key-word studies workflow.

In this article, I exploit search engine marketing Power Suite equipment for keyword research and analysis. You will use any tool you're familiar with, as a lot of them offer extra or less an equivalent functionality.

Keyword research workflow

There are distinct keyword studies tactics. In my opinion, the best way to find applicable key phrases so that you can probably bring your traffic is to travel and discover the aggressive environment for your subject matter. Check out the key phrases that power visitors to the top-ranking websites in your niche. It’s far an incredible supply of keyword ideas (they already work!). The method is often divided into several steps, such as:

• Defining your competition;

• Looking for the key phrases that your competitors rank for;

• Selecting target key phrases;

• Identifying search rationale;

• Mapping key phrases to content/pages.

Define your competitors.

Well, you apprehend your niche and already have in thoughts some of the key phrases describing special services or products that you honestly provide. Thus, you have a stock of your topics. So you may use them to start out your search for key phrases, discovering your competition for each topic.

You can carry these keywords to Google and notice what web sites take the highest positions. Those would be your competition. But as the usage of search engine marketing gear makes the whole keyword research method an awful lot quicker and easier, let's cross this manner.

If your internet site is completely new

Create or open your project in Rank Tracker and attend Competitor Research > Topic Competitors. Enter your topic seed keyword within the search bar, set the program, slim your search to the pinnacle-10, and select Domain and subdomains as seek effects.

                                                                        

“Topic Competitor"

As you'll see, there are several giants, like big resellers, on the li"st, which I might not dare to compete with yet. However, there are websites of smaller providers, a bit like yours. So let's consider them your competitors.

The Organic Traffic and Competitor total KWs columns show you the number of keywords that every competitor ranks for and therefore the amount of organic traffic that these keywords bring.

Click a little arrow near the competitor's name to ascertain the web site or a little person button to feature an internet site to your competitor's list.

If you've got an older website

You can do differently if your website already ranks for a bunch of keywords and you would like to seek out more to extend the quantity of traffic that you simply get from search.

Go to Competitor Research > Domain Competitors. Enter your domain within the search bar and begin searching.

Domain Competitor

You'll get an inventory of your SEO competitors with the entire numbers of keywords that they rank for, intersecting keywords (that both you and a competitor's website rank for), and therefore the number of competitors' unique keywords (those they rank for and you don't). Here's where your keyword ideas hide.

Click a little person button to feature an internet site to your competitor's list.

Looking for the keywords that your competitors rank for.

Now, let's have a better check out the competitor's keywords. It’ll offer you many ideas about how people find websites that employment within the same niche as you are doing and providing an equivalent service. You'll also determine which keywords bring them most of the traffic.

Go to Keyword Research > Ranking keywords, enter your competitor's domain within the search bar set the program, and choose Domain and subdomains because of the sort of results.

"Ranking Keywords"

Sort the results by the Organic Traffic column to ascertain what keywords bring the foremost traffic to your competitor's website.

Excluding the branded terms, you will have many relevant keywords that will potentially bring you a sufficient amount of traffic.

There's an alternative choice that you simply can use as well:

Go to the Keyword Research module and choose the Keyword Gap option. Enter your domain and your competitors (one of them or several) and choose the Competitor keywords (any competitor but not your site) because of the comparison mode.

"Keyword Gap"

You'll have a neat list of your industry-related keywords that your competitors rank for, but you do not, alongside their positions on SERPs, keyword difficulty scores, the number of searches, competition level, etc.

Selecting target keywords

Now, you see a plethora of keyword ideas. So you would like to select those that you're likely to outrank your competitors. Here, keyword difficulty involves play, helping you to form the proper decision.

In the Ranking Keywords and Keyword Gap sections, concentrate on the Keyword Difficulty column. The values there show how likely you'll outperform your competitors. Everything is sort of logical here — the larger the worth is, the more effort you will need to place into ranking for the keyword.

"Found Keywords"

But that's not it. To form sure that you simply can rank for a keyword, you would like to ascertain who else the highest players within the SERP is for it.

In the Ranking Keywords section, point the cursor to your competitor's rank within the Rank column, and click on the hamburger icon that appears there.

"Found Keywords"

The tool will show you the search results for the keyword, so you will be ready to see who occupies the highest positions and what quite content ranks for it (so you'll already get a thought of the search intent behind the keyword)

In the Keyword Gap section, the competitor's rank for the keyword is shown within the column bearing the competitor's name.

Having selected which keywords you would like to focus on, add them to your keyword list.

Highlight the keywords that you simply want to focus on, right-click the choice, and choose Move Selected Keyword(s) to Rank Tracking.

 

Keyword Found

Well, your initial keyword list is prepared. But you continue to go to choose the way to make the foremost of it.

Identifying search intent

Just to recall, you are doing keyword research to create (or optimize) your website's content around the found keywords, later on. to make sure that your pages will rank for the target keywords and convey your traffic that you're going to be ready to convert, you would like to spot what content people usually expect to seek out when entering this or that keyword within the search bar. In other words, you would like to spot the search intent behind your keywords.

To do this, you would like to require your selected keywords and check the SERPs for them.

You definitely can Google your keywords, one-by-one, and appearance at the search results to ascertain whether the keyword covers users' need for information or they utilize a particular search term to match products or buy them.

I have already mentioned the method you'll identify search intent. There's another one.

Take one among your target keywords (you may find all of them safely stored in Target Keywords > Keyword Map) and attend Competitor Research > Topic Competitors. this point you would like to settle on Exact URL as search results type.

Topic Competitor

You'll get an inventory of pages that rank for this keyword.

Click a little arrow sign that appears near the URL and examine the page which will open a browser. Check all the pages to spot the sort of content the bulk of them contain. Thus you will be ready to get the thought about what search intent Google recognizes behind the keyword.

At an equivalent time, you'll already get a clue on which actions to require outranking competitors.

Examine the Sites Linking to Page column to ascertain the number of backlinks to competitors' pages. Thus, you'll presume whether writing better content than that of your competitor would be enough. Or you will need to market the content to accumulate some good backlinks.

In Rank Tracker, you'll add tags to your target keywords. And that I recommend you to feature tags pointing at the search intent behind the keyword. Late on, it'll assist you in mapping keywords to pages, as you'll already know what sort of content to create around what keywords.

Go to Target Keywords > Keyword Map, right-click the keyword, and prefer to Add tags to chose record(s) within the menu that appears.

"Add Tags"

Mapping keywords to content/pages

Now, you would like to make a decision on the way to use the keywords that you've got gathered: choose what pages to make around them or what pages to optimize with them. Mapping keywords to pages can assist you to track their performance, later on, detect if other pages rank for the incorrect keywords, and keep control over your SEO.

The Keyword Map option in Rank Tracker and Website Auditor is supposed to assist you are doing this. There, you'll easily split your keywords into thematic keyword groups and assign groups of keywords to your website pages.

Let's create keyword groups in Rank Tracker.

Go to Keyword Research > Keyword Map, and right-click the folder named All keywords. Then select Regroup within the menu and set the required level of the semantic similarity: Low, Medium, or High.

"Keywords Map"

Now, let's move to a Website Auditor to map your keywords to certain pages. (You can roll in the hay in Rank Tracker also but the method would be more convenient in Website Auditor).

Create or open your project and attend Content Analysis > Keyword Map and click on Import from Rank Tracker to import your keyword groups.

"Keyword Map"

In case you would like to maneuver a keyword from one group to a different (for example, if you realize that the word fits better there), you'll easily roll in the hay.

Click a button next to the keyword that you simply want to maneuver and choose a gaggle from the list that appears. You’ll also create a replacement group for the keyword, clicking Create a replacement keyword group below the list.

"Select Keywords Group"

When you click on a keyword (or a gaggle of keywords) on the left, Website Auditor suggests top-5 relevant pages for it within the middle column.

Point the cursor to the page to which you would like to assign your keywords and click on the Map button.

"Navigational Intent"

That's it.

As keyword research is over, you'll set to making your website content.

You need to make sure it targets the proper audience and satisfies users' search intent. Recently, we've made a comprehensive guide the way to create an efficient content plan that your business can enjoy. There you will find the way to set goals for your content, your audiences, and building content around the right keywords.

Conclusion

Keyword research remains one of the foremost important stages of an SEO strategy. In fact, it helps to create it and determines many further SEO activities. Be it on-page optimization, writing and promoting content for link-building and lots more.

What you would like to stay in mind is that you simply can't separate keyword research from the SEO goals you would like to succeed in and approach this step accordingly.

What is a search engine?

What is a search engine?

What is a search engine?

When we type something into the Google search box, there’s a lot going on under the hood. Google takes into account more than 200 different factors to help it determine the results for each query. No one knows all of the factors, but there are a lot of guesses – meaning there are many different paths to optimization.

Search Algorithms

Google’s excellent Inside Search interactive resource offers a small glimpse into the process:

Let’s look more closely at a few of the major factors that we know Google takes into account as it considers your search.

1. Your question

The first thing Google tries to do is understand what you’re getting at with your query. It uses a technology called Knowledge Graph to help it better understand the nature of what you might be looking for, and whether it can best satisfy you with a definition, a list, a map or something else.

Video "Explore lists and collections with Google search"

You might have noticed the way Google guesses the end of your search as you start typing and fixes your spelling if you mistype.

It also works hard in other ways to give you what you need quickly. For example, if you type “timer 30 minutes” into Google, it will create a timer for you right from the search results instead of having you click away to an online timer.

Google Search Timer

If you’re checking on the status of a flight you’re set to take when signed in to Google with your Gmail address, Google will search through your mail to give you the status of your flight.

Google Flight Status

Search engines are continually working on new and better ways to predict what we’re looking for and what we need faster and more accurately.

2. Your location

A search engine not only takes into account the nature of your question but also where you’re asking it from. For instance, when I put a query like “pizza” into Google, it does some thinking for me and assumes I’d rather have a list of pizza places near me than a Wikipedia entry bout the history of pizza.

Google Search Map Location

So local businesses have to put special effort into maximizing their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts for local visibility, which means doing things like optimizing their Google Places pages.

 3. Who created it?

Google likes rewarding real people who write great content. One way it accomplishes this is through Google Authorship, which gives a special designation to authors who are verified through Google+. You can identify a verified author by the small photo of their byline next to their content in search results.

4. Your friends

Another factor search engines are increasingly banking on is each individual’s social network. “Social search” allows you to easily find content – like restaurant reviews, blog posts, photos and more – created by your friends and the contacts in your “social circle.”

In this search, you can see how Google has pulled one result for me specifically because Max Miner, whom I’m connected with on Google+, shared it.

Google Search Authorship 

More than using your individual social network to serve you personalized results, search engines also use social sharing as a signal to determine the quality level of a piece of content.

That means social actions like Facebook shares and Google “+1s” likely play a part in how Google chooses which results to show you for a given search.

Here’s how Search metrics explains it in its ranking factors study:

"Well positioned URLs have a high number of likes, shares, tweets and plus ones, and specific URLs stand out in the top search results with a very high mass of social signals. On one hand, this means that the activity on social networks continues to increase, on the other hand, it means that frequently shared content increasingly correlates with good rankings."

This makes sense because social media is a growing way to find websites and content. The percentage of people who used social media to find websites increased 7 per cent from 2011 to 2012 – in fact, using social media to find websites is growing faster than using search engines, according to Forrester Research data.

Using A Social Media Search Engine

6. Your device

Finally, it’s important for a search engine to understand whether you’re on a computer, a tablet or a mobile phone as it prepares to give you search results.

Think about how your needs change from one device to another. On a laptop, you may be looking for content to read at leisure. On your phone, you might need a phone number right away, or a quick way to compare a price.

Mobile Device Searches 

Mobile search requires a different type of result for different needs.

All these factors combined mean that my search engine results for a specific question might look totally different from yours, depending on things like who we know, where we are and what type of device we’re searching on.

But what does a Search engine optimization (SEO) do?

So beyond understanding and studying the many factors that affect search results, what does an SEO actually do?

Although all SEOs generally shares the same goal – to help a website be found by more people, more easily – the way they get there can vary widely.

But there are some common practices that you’ll hear about when it comes to search engine optimization. An SEO:

Optimizes the site

The first part of a solid Search engine optimization (SEO) strategy focuses on the technical side of a website. Since Google finds information about a website by crawling it, it’s often the job of a Search engine optimization (SEO) to make sure the site is easy for Google to find and crawl. This graphic from Data Dial focuses on site architecture.

Website Architecture And Structure

That means doing lots of different things to optimize the site itself like assuring the site has a sitemap Google can find, making sure it loads quickly and analyzing the site’s design and architecture to make sure it works well for users. Lots of SEO (search engine optimization) will perform a technical audit to determine a list of issues with a site.

Researches and optimizes keywords

Keywords are the words you enter into a search engine to find what you’re looking for. If we go back to our sneakers example, a shoe company might want to be known for shoe-related keywords like “tennis shoes,” “sneakers” and “athletic shoes” as well as specific brands like Nike or Reebok.

Search engine optimization (SEO) perform keyword research to determine which keywords would be best to target for a given site. Then they make sure the site uses those keywords often enough and in the right spots in a process called keyword optimization. This graphic from Data Dial is a good primer on some basic spots for keywords.

Page Optimization

Builds links

Before search engines, like Google had fancy ways to personalize your search results based on your friends and your location, they used one main element to figure out which stuff was the best on the web: links.

When a well respected, trusted website links to your site, it sends a signal to Google that you’re hanging out with good company. If this happens often enough with enough trusted, quality websites, Google gets the idea that you’re a trusted, quality website – and makes it more likely that searchers will see your site.

This means that search engine optimization (SEO) spend a lot of time working on getting links in a process called link building. Link-building tactics can range from simply asking for a link to writing a guest post – and there are many others? Again, Data Dial breaks it down.

Off-Page Link Building

Helps creates content (that builds links)

One of the best ways to get links these days is by creating great content. Whether it’s a video, a blog post, a tool, a comic or another resource, great content naturally attracts links as people visit it, share it and talk about it. This graphic from Top Rank explains it well.

Online Marketing (SEO)

When you put all the main components of an SEO strategy together, it looks kind of like this diagram.

SEO Strategy