What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of making your website friendly to search engines such as Google and Bing; that is, the process of increasing your website’s visibility on the search engines in order to generate traffic. In simple terms it can be referred to as the process of making your website search friendly. Basically there are two types of SEO; Onsite SEO and Offsite SEO.

On site SEO

On site Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing a website using particular keywords. This involves the placing of specific keywords in your web content. A keyword or phrase is a search term that website visitors type into the search engines to find businesses/organizations in your niche e.g. “weight loss” for the weight loss industry. Onsite SEO is easy to control and optimize since you can control every aspect of your website.

Offsite SEO

Offsite SEO is the process of getting links known as, ‘backlinks’ to your website from other websites on the Internet. Getting backlinks from websites that have authority helps your website gain authority too.
Offsite SEO tends to be a bit more difficult to control since most search engines use different variables to rank websites. One of the ways is by use of inbound links; these are links from websites linking back to your website. Google considers this important considering the fact that if you don’t have valuable content or info then other websites would not be linking back to your website.

It is important however to know that not all links were “created equal”. For example a search engine is likely to rate the link of a reputable site like The Daily Nation higher than a newly created site which has had only one visitor. One link from Kenya's Daily Nation or Standard Media could therefore carry the same weight as thousands or hundreds of links from other smaller websites.