“SEO is the science of increasing traffic to your website by improving the internal and external factors influencing ranking in search results. It includes web programming expertise combined with business, persuasion, sales, and a love for competitive puzzle solving.” –Bruce Clay
SEO as a science
It’s a lot of definitions, bear with me, but we must first define “science” to understand the complexities in Bruce Clay’s statement on SEO. Science is defined as: “the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained.” What an interesting gateway to learning what SEO is. If we take this definition and think of it through the SEO sunglasses, then much can be said here. It is necessary to study the behavior of your website’s target market–it’s not just guessing keywords, it’s a study. Additionally, this van be done through observation, but more influentially through experimentation. SEO is rarely beneficial without a few trial runs first. To get a better grasp on SEO, you just need to play around with it and see for yourself how different theories react with your target audience.
SEO as internal and external factors
Internal and external factors, AKA onsite and offsite optimization are the root of SEO. Onsite optimization is defined as the elements over which you have lots of control directly on the page you wish to optimize. This can include but isn’t limited to interface usability, security, and metatags. These are all things which fall inside your website and you are capable of manipulating and changing. Offsite optimization is defined as elements you don’t directly control on the page itself. It’s more about how the rest of the internet talks about and interacts with your site. This is primarily helpful to you through other website’s use of backlinks. Both of these pieces of SEO, working in tandem, is what exponentially influences your search result ranking according to Bruce Clay. You can have one without the other, but that’s limiting true growth potential.
What goes into SEO
Lastly, what is it that SEO is made of? Web programming expertise, obviously, but what else differentiates this type of “science”? Bruce Clay says your expertise must be combined with business, persuasion, sales, and a love for competitive puzzle solving. SEO is a passionate curiosity to uncover the meaning and motivation behind people’s searches, and how that can pertain to what your website will offer them. Once that final piece is placed to complete the puzzle, the work doesn’t end. It is a continuous journey of business endeavors to keep pulling people in and attracted to what your site has to offer. This is why we must first start with SEO as a science. You will fail and you will succeed. In the end, it takes study and determination to test the waters and to eventually see the prosperity that will begin to flow from your website once you uncover the capabilities of SEO. Yet, everyone must start with a simple definition.
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