If you just launched your blog, you may want to know how to do SEO for beginners.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process that improves the experience and performance of a website to boost its visibility on major search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc., in the organic search results.
SEO is a great way to bring in more leads, customers, traffic, and revenue to a business. If you are a beginner, this write-up will walk you through the basics of SEO to help you understand how it works.
Why Is Online Visibility Important?
Today’s customers increasingly rely on search engines to find whatever they are looking for. That said, it is important for businesses to be easily discoverable online, not just to stop missing out on opportunities but also to be a step ahead of their competitors and transform into industry leaders.
You must understand and keep track of the following components to gain visibility:
- The type of content your target audience is looking for on the search engines are looking for, their search intent for doing a particular search query, and their online behavior.
- Emerging trends, for example, voice search.
- How a search engine works to index, discover & serve content in the result pages of a search engine.
- New search-related products, tools, and features.
- How to properly inform search engines about your website by effectively optimizing and promoting it.
- Technological advancements, for example, machine learning.
The benefits of SEO are that it ensures brand visibility, drives organic traffic to your website, and gives your business a solid competitive advantage.
And if you’re looking to level up your SEO copywriting, check my best SEO copywriting tips to develop a compelling SEO copy.
How To Do SEO For Beginners (Guide To SEO Basics)
In this beginner’s guide to SEO, you’ll learn the basics of SEO, including some technical terms and also some tips on how to optimize your blog posts for search engines. If you’re serious about improving your website’s organic search traffic, you should not disregard SEO.
You don’t need to be an SEO expert to boost your website’s SEO performance. By using the tips provided in this guide and learning how to measure SEO results, you’ll be on your way to appearing on the first page of Google search results.
What Is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is integral to defining SEO goals, how a website should be optimized, and the type of content needed to be created.
The process of research that is done on prevalent search terms users enter into a search engine and then strategically include them into content is called keyword research. This helps your content rank higher on a SERP (search engine results page). The higher your search rankings, the easier it is for your potential customers to find you.
Focused keyword research helps you gain valuable insights into the queries, issues, and solutions the target audience is looking for. This also comes in handy to devise effective SEO strategies that drive results.
Keyword research is an essential step that practically every SEO agency in Philadelphia suggests throughout the development process of SEO strategies designed to increase traffic and deliver genuine value to the website’s metrics.
In a nutshell, keyword research improves website rankings for searches as users will be ready to convert because a website is best suited for their needs.
How To Target Your SEO Keywords?
A crucial step to successful SEO is targeting the right keywords by performing effective research. Here are a few ways to do it.
You need to identify what keywords or phrases are most likely to bring in relevant traffic before you can target anything. Use Google Trends to find apt keyword phrases.
Alternatively, you can also use other reliable keyword research tools and rank-tracking software like Semrush or Ahrefs to conduct your keyword research. Using an SEO tool like those, you can get insights into the keyword search volume (how often people search this particular keyword) and how difficult it is to rank for it. Some also integrate with Google Search Console and Google Analytics to help the website owner with insights to help them rank well in search.
Irrespective of the keyword research tool you choose to use, the ultimate purpose of your keyword research is to find out new keyword opportunities that bolster your website’s SEO. So, ensure you make the most out of keyword research tools.
Once you identify the potential keyword opportunities in your industry, the next step is to include them in your content. When you do so, make sure the keywords are placed naturally in your content.
Beware, though, that inappropriate keyword placements and keyword stuffing can affect the readership of your content and lead to a negative SEO impact. That means Google will push your website down in its search results, which, in turn, affects your brand visibility.
How And Where To Include Your SEO Keywords?
Now that you know how critical keyword research and appropriate keyword placement is for SEO, let’s find out how and where you should place them. These essential on-page SEO components will help Google and other search engines understand the pages on your website.
Page Title
The occurrence of your focus keyword in the title makes it easier for both the search engine and the users to find out what your page is about.
Plus, the appearance of your primary keyword in the title tag when it shows up on search results can boost the click-through rate (CTR).
So, it is recommended to use the primary keyword or phrase at least once in the title of the page as close as possible to the start of the title tag.
When it comes to Google SEO, the title tag is the most critical area for you to insert your keyword.
Headline
Following the page title, the next thing that is easily visible is the headings.
A topically relevant headline can rake in a higher ranking. A user, more often than not, expects to see a matching headline after clicking on a search result.
So, make sure you leverage headings to include SEO keywords. Again, see to it that they are naturally placed and don’t stuff them in headlines intentionally.
URL
Your page URL is another good place to add one or two keywords. When you do so, ensure you keep the URL as short and comprehensive as possible.
If a URL has target keywords in the root domain, a website can rank better. For example, “www.keywordx.org” will rank better than “www.domainname.org/keywordx.”
Inbound links
Making an anchor text (the clickable text of a link) the keyword that you’re targeting can improve that specific keyword’s ranking. Add a list of links or a footer to another webpage and link the page that needs ranking by using the related keyword as an anchor text.
In Content
Thanks to artificial intelligence, there are many AI SEO platforms to help you craft content that ranks. These tools scrap the search engine results page and let you know which keywords your competitors are ranking for.
Usually, a blog post doesn’t rank for one keyword only. Google is smarter and knows what other relevant semantic keywords are related to your main keyword. With the information these tools provide, you have an unfair advantage to rank well in search results.
And with the right AI writing assistant, you can beat writer’s block and start creating content in no time.
What Do Off-Page, On-Page & Technical SEO Mean?
Knowing how SEO is segmented is essential to realizing your SEO goals and initiating targeted campaigns to achieve them. Here’s a look at how SEO is broadly categorized.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO focuses on improving your domain’s dominance by earning backlinks from other websites using high-quality content. Powerful backlink building requires thorough research, including analyzing a site’s niche relevance, domain authority, etc., to determine how popular and authoritative the website is.
That’s why many website owners rely on the best link building services to increase their domain authority, which can increase rankings.
Off-page SEO determines how you rank in the search results.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO focuses on optimizing elements of your website within your control. It looks at what your page or site is all about.
Many people work on their off-page SEO and forget about on-page SEO. But it’s just as important to take care of both.
On-page SEO consists of three main things:
- Keyword optimization – Besides doing keyword research, ensure that you use the most relevant keywords in the right place so that Google knows what your page is about.
- Content creation – Create relevant, high-quality, and engaging content.
- Internal linking – Link internally within your site so that users can easily navigate around it without having to leave it.
By using on-page SEO tools and software, you can monitor all these things and improve your chances of ranking higher on search engines.
On-page SEO determines what you rank for.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the process that ensures a website meets the technical requirements of a modern search engine, and the goal is to improve organic rankings. Its elements include website architecture, crawling, rendering, and indexing.
From search engine positioning tools to website auditors, good SEO can dictate whether you have a successful website or not.
Related: What Is Search Engine Positioning?
Wrapping Up
SEO is an ocean.
However, learning its basics and understanding how it works is the key to mastering it in the long run. Applying these SEO basic principles will help search engines understand the content of your page.
Because they’re part of any SEO strategy for ranking on Google, ensure you apply them to every single post you write.
I hope you found this basic SEO guide helpful to kickstart your SEO journey.
Good luck!
This article was written by Dileep Thekkethil.
