SEO, or search engine optimization, is critical for growing your website’s exposure on search engines like Google and Bing. With this beginner’s guide, we’ll help you understand the SEO basics, so you can optimize your website for better online visibility.
Understand What SEO Is.
SEO is a form of digital marketing that involves optimizing your website’s content, structure, and performance, making it more visible in search engine results. Simply put, SEO helps increase organic (non-paid) traffic to your website. Search engine algorithms use “crawlers” or “spiders” to scan through websites and determine how relevant content is to a specific query. You can craft strategies to optimize your website for better search engine rankings and visibility by understanding exactly what SEO is.
5 Factors of Basic SEO
- Keyword research
- Website’s content optimization
- On-Page Elements
- Off-page optimization (Link building)
- Technical SEO
Keyword Research
A key step to getting your website seen by search engines is to ensure you’re using the right keywords. You should identify popular keywords for your industry and use them strategically throughout your content.
To do keyword research for SEO as a beginner, find out what people are searching for so you can optimize your content for those terms.
For example, if you’re selling massage chairs, see what keywords prospective customers are more likely to search for. What questions do they ask?
You can use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner to help you find relevant search terms that will make your content more discoverable and attractive to search engine crawlers.
SEO basics tip for beginners: Ensure that you add the keywords not just to the homepage but to other pages as well, because pages receive the most organic traffic.
Long-tail keywords
Aim to rank on long-tail keywords as they are less competitive and easier to rank. If you’re selling massage chairs, the long-tail keywords could be “massage chairs near me”, “massage chairs for sale”, “massage chair zero gravity”, or “[brand name] massage chair”.
Competitor’s keywords
You can check the keywords your competitor ranks for on tools like MOZ, one of the best SEO tools for a beginner, and prioritize those.
Seasonal keywords
When the holiday season comes, prepare content relevant to the season. For example, just before the year ends or starts, you can write about the “Best Massage Chairs for [year]”. Use Google Trends for what’s recently trending on the web.
Optimize Your Website’s Content For SEO.
Once you know the right keywords to use in your content, it’s time to start optimizing.
Create original and informative content based on keyword research. This means ensuring that all your website pages are optimized for SEO.
This includes having keyword-rich titles, descriptions, and internal links from your site’s relevant pages.
Remember that in SEO basics, the purpose of the content is to help the user, so write for humans like a human. The length of the content is of little consequence compared to its relevance, as your customer’s inquiry could be answered in either 200 words or 1,000 words.
Make sure to include alt text and image descriptions on your pages so that search engine crawlers can understand what’s contained on each page. Learn how to optimize your image for higher ranking here.
Optimize All On-Page Elements For SEO.
On-page optimization is one of the most important aspects of SEO basic. This encompasses all of the elements on your website, such as headings, title tags, meta descriptions, alt tags, and more.
You need to ensure all these elements contain relevant keywords and appropriate content, as this can boost your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Check for duplicate content as Google filters them from the search results to show only one piece.
Additionally, ensure that you include enough related words or phrases throughout your page so that users can quickly identify what it’s about but avoid keyword stuffing.
Focus on Quality Links Building Tactics.
Off-page optimization includes getting links from other sites to yours so that Google will rank you higher in search results.
Link building is another critical factor for ranking your site. Quality over quantity is key in SEO basics—focus on getting links from relevant and reliable sources that add value to your site and the user experience.
Consider links as votes from people. The more credible websites link to your page, the better your reputation becomes. Quality links will boost your authority in the niche as more people recommend you.
This will help improve organic search rankings, drive more traffic to your website, and develop a positive reputation for your brand.
Beginner’s Guide to Technical SEO Basics
Basically, your website is composed of:
- HTML (the content of the webpage)
- CSS (how the webpage is to be displayed on the screen: color, font, etc.)
- JavaScript (create dynamics or controls how the site behaves: control multimedia, animate images).
For technical SEO, check if your website is indexed properly. Can search engines like Google and Bing crawl your page?
Some backend factors that could affect your SEO:
- Your page is blocked by robot.txt.
- Your XML sitemap isn’t listed.
- Robot meta directive doesn’t allow indexing.
- There are dead links.
- The page needs to be mobile-friendly and responsive.
Your domain for SEO
Top-level domain or TLD is what comes after your domain name. For example, .com, .org, or your country code (.co.uk, .com.au, etc.). TDL will not affect your ranking, but one thing to remember when setting up your eCommerce domain is that people trust .com more since it’s the most recognizable TDL.
If you need help improving your technical SEO or setting up your website correctly, get in touch with our team of experts on GooRooz.
Beware of Black Hat SEO.
Black Hat SEO is a strategy some marketers use to fool or spam the search engine to get the top result. Google crawlers are getting smarter and can catch up to black-hat SEO. When they do, your website will be penalized or removed.
Practice White Hat SEO instead by abiding by the rules and making relevant content for your website visitors and customers a priority.
Why Should I Care About SEO?
If you want people to find your business, attract customers, and make money from your website, then it’s vital to understand how search engine s work. Search engines are where most people go when looking for answers, products, or services on the internet.
5 Benefits of SEO
- SEO is free. Your market can find you even without paying for ads if you know how to do SEO properly.
- Organic results on the search engine are more credible.
- SEO helps build your authority in your niche and gives you an edge over your competition.
- Improves brand awareness and reaches more people.
- It can be tracked so you can make the necessary adjustments to improve.
SEO for Beginners
Simplilearn gives a quick overview of SEO in this video with an example of how a business owner grew her business by applying the SEO basics.
[embed]https://youtu.be/MYE6T_gd7H0[/embed]SEO and Google algorithms are constantly changing. What works now may be ineffective tomorrow. So far, Google still prioritizes quality content, so remember to keep your content relevant. The primary purpose of SEO is to help users and customers by answering their queries. So keep checking online for updates, and remember the basics in this SEO beginner’s guide to get your desired results.
There are courses on SEO basics for beginners that can help you start or you can avail an SEO service from experts so you can focus more on building your business.
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