Table of Contents
Introduction to Server and Website
Starting an online business or taking an existing business online offers a lot of growth opportunities. However, with so many options available it’s easy to get overwhelmed and lose focus. When it comes to choosing your online presence, you have quite a few options available. Some of the most common ways include:
- Websites
- Local business listings
- Review sites
- Social media
- Mobile apps
Since websites are one of the most valuable, yet cost-effective ways to build your presence and authority on the Internet the way you want and have total control, therefore in this part of the blog post, we are going to cover the basics of how websites actually work and some related terminologies.
Server
A server hosts your website. Meaning, all the data of that particular website are stored in what we call a server. You can compare this with buying a piece of land in the real world to set up your shop. Just like you pay rent for the piece of land where you want to set up your shop, similarly, a server is your space on the internet for which you need to pay a yearly subscription, and the website is your shop. Whether you want to display content (or products) on the website, or do eCommerce (directly sell online) depends totally on your business goals online.
Domain Name/IP Address
Just like your shop has an address in the real world, similarly, your website also has a unique address, known as an IP address. An IP Address is made up of a string of numbers that can be located by any device on the internet. Since IP addresses are difficult to remember, therefore we tie them with a domain name which makes it really easy to remember the name of a website.
The web address (or domain name) is used to refer to the IP address. Every website with a domain name has a corresponding numerical identifier called an IP (or Internet Protocol) address. A domain name (or IP address) helps people find your website. Example, www.fueldigital.in , www.google.com .
How to build a website (even if you are a complete beginner with ZERO coding knowledge)?
Well, the process is pretty simple and straightforward. It usually takes less than an hour to build your own website from scratch on platforms like WordPress & Wix and get it live on the Internet. You just need to use their powerful built-in drag and drop functionalities and build your website in less than 60 minutes. You can do it all by yourself (if you don’t want to pay an expert) by watching countless high-quality videos available on YouTube for free! You can do it even if you are a complete beginner with ZERO coding knowledge.
Some crucial points to keep in mind while building your website
The ultimate and main goal when building your website is to make it user-friendly and easy to navigate. No one likes visiting a website that’s slow and hard to navigate. You also need to ensure that your website solves the user’s needs while also matching your business goals. You need to be able to blend them the right way. Instead of focusing on how great you or your products are, focus on how greatly you could solve your customers’ problems and fulfill their needs and wants.
Think of it this way, what kind of shops do you visit most frequently? One that talks about their needs and brags about how great their products are, or the one that talks about your needs and tries to fulfill them?
The answer is pretty obvious, isn’t it so?
Search Engine Basics
Before understanding what Search Engine Optimization is, let us first understand what a search engine is and what are they designed for. That way, it will become more obvious what SEO actually means and how we can implement SEO strategies in the best possible way.
A search engine is a software system that helps users find the exact information they are looking for online in the most efficient way possible. Google, YouTube, Bing, and Yahoo! are some of the most popular search engines (at the time of publishing this article). With over 85% market share, Google is currently the undisputed leader in the search engine market.
One thing that’s crystal clear from the above definition is that search engines are designed for users. They are designed to primarily satisfy the searchers’ needs, not yours or my business’s needs.
Now that you understand what a search engine is and what its primary objective is, we can move on to search engine optimization (SEO).
Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Essentially, search engine optimization (SEO) is all about systematically tweaking and optimizing the web pages in your website to help them appear higher up in the organic search results.
Search engines have evolved aggressively over the years and have developed a lot of sophisticated techniques for measuring the value of a page on the web. But they all boil down to basically two categories:
- The content in your Web page. (On page and Technical SEO)
- Who is linking to you? (Link Building/Off page SEO)
ORIGINAL RELEVANT CONTENT and HIGH QUALITY LEGITIMATE BACKLINKS POINTING TO THEM.
What does that mean? That means you need to spend time and effort to create unique pieces of original content that are relevant to what your customers are looking for online. You need to write for them (the language they talk) while also factoring in important words and phrases (called keywords) that can help search engines understand what your pages are all about.
Backlinks are essentially a mention of your website on other websites on the web. They are links from external websites pointing at your website. You need to ensure that the websites you are getting backlinks from are relevant to your industry and are legit, not spam.
Conclusion
SEO is an ongoing process. There is no shortcut.
No agency can guarantee you top organic search positions. If someone does guarantee you then it’s probably a scam. Having said that, I’d also like to clarify that of course, it is possible to rank in position 1, but it usually takes a long time and depends on a lot of variable factors. Ultimately it’s the search engine that decides whom to rank in what position. The point I am trying to make is that there’s no guarantee.
Now I won’t get too technical in this blog post. Hence, I will keep it till here.
In conclusion, to appear on the first page of organic search results, always keep in mind the goal of the search engine as we mentioned earlier. Their goal is to help people find EXACTLY what they are looking for. The quality of content matters the most.
More about SEO in-depth in some future blog posts.
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