The Four Pillars of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

By Josh Hiemstra

March 26, 2021

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of getting a website listed at the top of search engine organic results. 

When your target market is searching Google or Bing (or any other search engine) for something that you can provide, it’s important that they find your website, not a competing website. 

Several factors affect a site’s SEO and search position rankings. Some factors relate primarily to content and more specifically the keywords included on a website. Other factors are primarily technical (things like site speed, mobile friendliness, crawlability, etc..).

The figure below shows SEO broken down into the four categories search engines use to rank your site.  We reference the categories as the  4 pillars of SEO.

In future blog posts, we will go into further detail for each of the four pillars. You can read our other Four Pillars of SEO posts: Why Relevance Matters to Search Engines, Keywords for Relevance, Crawlability, User Engagement, and Authority.

Learn more about our SEO services or contact Josh Hiemstra, SEO lead, at (616) 822-3706.

References:

SEO Resource Book – 1
SEO Resource Book – 2

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Call: (616) 822-3706
Email: hello@simplersite.co

About Josh Hiemstra

Josh Hiemstra manages SEO and website maintenance, helping clients improve digital presence and drive strategic results. Josh’s background in medical and automotive engineering has honed his ability to thoughtfully analyze complex data and information. Clients appreciate Josh’s commitment to getting the details right. From complex audits to standard maintenance, they trust his results. Josh earned his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from University of Michigan. At the University of Michigan Josh studied user experience and user interfaces. Josh has a Fundamentals of Digital Marketing certificate, an Advanced Google Analytics certificate, and Google Tag Manager certificate and is also certified as a Six Sigma Black Belt.

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