In today’s digital age, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become crucial for businesses to rank higher in search engine results and attract more organic traffic. SEO is a vast field with various strategies and techniques that can help improve website visibility. There are two levels of SEO: basic and advanced. While basic SEO involves optimizing on-page elements such as meta tags, titles, and content, advanced SEO strategies include off-page techniques such as link-building and social media marketing. This article will delve deeper into the difference between basic and advanced SEO, highlighting the importance of mastering both levels. Additionally, we’ll explore SEO course free options for those looking to enhance their SEO skills.
Difference between basic SEO and advanced SEO
There are two types of SEO: basic SEO and advanced SEO.
Basic SEO
Basic SEO is the foundation of SEO and is sufficient for businesses that do not face high competition. Most bloggers, small site owners, and companies use basic SEO techniques to rank their sites. In basic SEO, only well-known techniques are used, such as optimizing meta titles, descriptions, images, URLs, and other on-page and off-page optimization techniques. These techniques involve optimizing website content to include relevant keywords, ensuring the website structure and design is user-friendly, creating high-quality and relevant content, building high-quality backlinks, and ensuring the website loads quickly. Basic optimization is enough for every business if they update their site regularly and do not have high competition. If people do not understand search optimization deeply, basic techniques can keep their site safe from any harmful effects of search algorithm updates. In the future, they can easily beat highly optimized sites without extra effort.
Advanced SEO
Advanced SEO is used by experts who deeply understand search engine algorithms. They know how search engines calculate and measure every term used in the search engine. Large sites like job portals, engines, and eCommerce shopping sites with huge competition usually use advanced SEO techniques to rank higher in SERPs. Advanced SEO activities are not widely known and are discovered by experts through their great efforts. These activities are not discussed by any search engines but are self-generated by people who understand the science and math of search engines.
Advanced SEO techniques can involve more complex strategies, such as technical SEO, schema markup, and artificial intelligence. Technical SEO involves optimizing website infrastructure, such as website speed, architecture, server configuration, and security protocols. Schema markup involves adding structured data to website content to make it easier for search engines to understand and display in search results. Artificial intelligence (AI) is also used in advanced SEO techniques to automate and optimize website optimization.
Uses of basic SEO and Advance SEO
Let us learn the differences in the usage of Basic SEO and advanced SEO in this section.
Benefits of using Basic SEO
Basic SEO techniques are sufficient for businesses that avoid high competition. For instance, a small local business that operates in a niche market may not require advanced SEO strategies to rank high on search engines. In such cases, basic optimization techniques like optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and on-page content, coupled with regular updates, can help businesses maintain a good ranking on search engines.
More than 90% of people use basic SEO techniques because they are sufficient to meet their requirements. Basic optimization is cost-effective, and it does not require advanced technical knowledge. Moreover, basic SEO techniques can protect a website from any harmful effects of search algorithm updates. Many websites that rely heavily on black-hat SEO techniques often suffer from penalties after search engine algorithm updates, which can severely damage their online visibility. Using basic SEO techniques, website owners can avoid such penalties and maintain online visibility.
Benefits of using Advanced SEO
Advanced SEO techniques go beyond the traditional optimization methods of basic SEO. They require a more in-depth understanding of search engine algorithms and how they measure every term used in search queries. Expert SEO professionals use advanced SEO techniques to gain an edge over their competition, especially for large sites such as job portals, search engines, and eCommerce sites that face stiff competition.
Unlike basic SEO, advanced SEO activities are not widely known and are discovered by experts through their great efforts. The techniques are self-generated by people who understand the science and math of search engines. They are not discussed by any search engines and require a deep understanding of search algorithms to use effectively.
One great example of an advanced SEO activity is using Google Rich Snippet data to inform Google about the last update of a webpage. This information helps in ranking the page higher, as Google tends to prioritize pages that have been recently updated. You can easily update the last modified date through WordPress.
Another advanced SEO technique is that Google reads pages only through the current page URL. As a beginner, I changed the URLs of my posts and pages to make them more SEO-friendly. However, after a few months, I noticed their social engagements needed to be improved, even after sharing them multiple times on social media. After researching, I discovered how Google reads our pages and realized I had made a silly mistake that no one had warned me about.
So, to conclude
In conclusion, SEO is a critical aspect of digital marketing. Different people and businesses use basic and advanced SEO techniques depending on their requirements and competition. There is a slight difference between basic and advanced SEO, which has been created by the people who work in this field. Basic SEO is sufficient for businesses that avoid high competition, while experts use advanced SEO techniques with a deep understanding of search engine algorithms. We can classify the techniques used regularly to optimize sites as part of basic SEO, while the exceptional efforts or scientific methods used to optimize search results are part of advanced SEO. It’s essential to stay updated on new SEO techniques and algorithm updates to ensure your site ranks high in SERPs. For a more in-depth understanding of SEO, take Simplilearn’s free online course SEO course free of cost by clicking on the link in the introduction.
