SEO tutorial for
beginners: How to start with SEO?
SEO tutorial for beginners: How to start with SEO? |
If you have not started working around SEO, it'd be best to start now. You need to have increased visibility on search engines if you want more clients to look out for you online. So, what moves should you make? How do you unlock the basics of SEO? Or how do you leverage SEO to achieve your website goals?
I
am pretty sure that you have encountered Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Even if you have not, you will
find out soon enough. It is a concept in psychology that ranks the basic human needs
like food and security over advanced needs like prestige. The idea behind the concept of SEO is that it's impossible to meet the extended needs without meeting the
basic needs first. Prestige doesn’t count without security, shelter, and food.
In
this regard, we will leverage Maslow's hierarchy of needs to walk you through
how to start with SEO. However, before anything else, let's look at what SEO is
and why it is important.
What SEO is
SEO
is an acronym for search engine optimization. It is the process of boosting the
quantity and quality of website conversion. SEO also helps to promote your
brand via organic search engine results.
Search
engine optimization is all about connecting with the common words that people research
via the web. It boils down to the type of answers they want, the words they
utilize, and the type of content they wish to view. Providing these answers
will give you the luxury to collaborate with the people looking out for
solutions on the search engines.
However,
it is pertinent to note that it is one thing to know what your audience wants.
It is another thing to present your content in a way that search engine crawlers can map them out and understand. A
search engine crawler is a type of bot whose purpose is to garner content all
across the web so that it can show up on search engine results. It is also
known as a “spider.”
What is a Search Engine?
Search engines provide answers to questions that users ask. They garner numerous pieces of content across
the web. By doing so, search engines evaluate these contents to figure out the
content that would probably answer your questions better.
How does it work?
Search
engines search and arrange all available content on the web through a process
known as crawling. It doesn't matter the
form in which these contents take. They may come in videos, PDFS, websites, and
many others. Then search engines arrange the contents based on how they align
with your query via a process known as “ranking.”
Note
that Google, Bing, Baidu, Yahoo, and many others are common examples of search
engines.
Are Search Results Organic?
Of
course, search results are organic and you acquire them through a proactive SEO.
But you should keep it at the back of your mind that organic search results
don’t cost a fee. They appear on the search engine results page due to factors
such as relevance to the search query and other factors. Hence, organic search results are not synonymous
with search engine marketing.
How do you spot organic results?
We
have all been there. Search engine results pages are also known as
"SERPS." They comprise special snippets such as "People Also
search" checkboxes and some image carousels.
For
instance, if you search for "Mark Zuckerberg," you will see boxes
that indicate other popular searches like Priscilla Chan, David Wehner, and
Bill Gates. Nice, right?
It is important to note that there are various other search features. These features often come from IMDb, Wikipedia, and many others.
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Why Is SEO Important
for Individuals and Businesses?
Visibility
One
of the most significant benefits of search engine optimization is increased
visibility. It means that potential clients can find you when they explore the
services you offer or the products you sell. Visibility works in tandem with
ranking.
The
point is that the more you rank on a search engine result page, the more likely
potential clients will notice you and visit your website. So, the more
proactive your SEO efforts, the more
your ranking and the better your visibility.
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Internet Traffic
Internet
traffic is one of the most important goals of SEO. Once your rankings and
visibility increase, your traffic follows suit.
The
Holy Grail for most digital marketers and businesses is the featured snippet. You
will see it above the first-ranked website link. It is typically content that
comes from the landing page on a website. The content provides solutions to a
query that people are searching for. It can boost your website traffic as a significant
number of people click it.
So
if you want more traffic and leads, it would help to utilize SEO best practices
that will help you to acquire the first five positions. Perhaps, your website
can reach the first position.
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How SEO Is Important for Service-Based Businesses
Authority
Website
authority is also of paramount importance to search engines. It's becoming a
significant phenomenon among internet users. In any case, authority refers to
the assertion that you have a credible, relevant, and top-notch website. It also means that your webpage generates and
communicates value.
Page
authority scores stretch from 1 to 100. The higher the digit, the more
authority your website has.
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How do you know your page authority rating?
It
is straightforward. You can assess your page authority rating by leveraging
tools like Moz, Prepostseo.com, bulkdachecker, and many others. They show how
your website ranks in search engines. Let's
look at these PA tools to estimate the page authority of a webpage.
Content Quality
One
of the most important ways in which page authority rating tools assess your
website is content quality. For instance, Moz examines this factor before
revealing the page authority score of your webpage.
Content
quality refers to the extent of insight and information in a piece of content. It
is beyond the type of information you provide. Hence, it comprises the
formatting styles, keywords, originality, external links, internal links, readability
scores, and grammatical accuracy.
How
well your content does communicate value? Content quality provides an answer to
this question.
·
Rank
The
rank factor reveals the strength of high-quality external links of a webpage.
A
top-notch backlink can water down numerous valueless backlinks.
An
excellent backlink is better than having numerous poor-quality website
links.
It
follows that PA tools consider the ranking factor before generating the PA
score.
·
Trust
The
trust factor reveals the relevance of external links provided in a webpage. It
evaluates how a webpage's connected to numerous credible websites. Some of the common reputed websites are .gov
and .edu.
·
Social Signals
The
social signals play a significant role in analyzing the page authority score as
well as content quality.
Hence,
a post or image that has received numerous likes, shares, and comments on
social media channels must contain top-notch content.
Moz
often utilizes social signals to estimate the page authority of a website.
·
Competitive analysis
The
competitive analysis factor allows businesses and individuals to see how other
industry players compete for similar keywords.
You
can see some significant metrics that describe your competitor’s behavior.
Better Visitor Experience
Another
advantage of SEO is that it enhances the usability of your webpage. Since
proactive SEO efforts often come with fantastic content, it creates a
stimulating customer experience.
For
instance, when you create a user-friendly website, both mobile users as well
users using a desktop can quickly access it. In the same way, you will drive
more visitors to your webpage when you boost your page load speed. Clients
expect that your website loads within the shortest possible time. The faster
the load time, the more your visitors remain on your page. The slower the page
load time, the more your visitors leave your page.
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SEO Basics: How to Start it
Now
that we have walked you through the meaning of SEO and its importance, let’s
dive into its marketing basics. Getting a hang of SEO is one thing. Putting
what you have learned into action is another thing. It is not what you can do
this minute and anticipates results in the next few hours. That's impossible! SEO requires an everyday action with a
long-term value in mind.
Let’s
look at how to get started with SEO and how to keep going.
Content Quality
I
bet you are familiar with the phrase “content is king.” Bill Gates made this
statement some years ago and it’s far from falsity.
Do
you know why?
It
is because most internet users are excited when they encounter results that
match their needs and expectations. They become happier when the results exceed
their expectations.
When
you search “easy homemade aloe vera gel recipe,” Google invests all its efforts
to deliver the best results on the internet.
Google
doesn’t provide a lazy option or show you various beauty stores for aloe vera
gels. It would rather direct you to the most significant pieces of content.
It
means that your top goal for excellent SEO optimization is to create excellent
content.
But
that's not enough. You need to make a lot of effort to pull it off. Excellent results come with hard work. As the
best marketing strategies won't help you to sell a poor-quality product, great
SEO efforts do not count without high-quality content.
Let’s
explore a few tips that can help you to catch the attention of Google and users
with your content.
·
Know what target users want
One
of the most significant tips that can aid your content journey is finding out
the intentions of your target users. Ask the following question. What do target
users intend to achieve when they click through your website?
·
Create a Client persona
Knowing
your users' intentions is not enough. It would help to know who they are. You
should know what they like, what they hate, and why they do what they do.
·
Split your text
Most
users pay little attention to what they read. So a long line of text doesn’t
cut it anymore. You need to divide your contents and place some headers above
them. It would help to spice them up with nice images and memes.
·
Make it actionable
Nothing
is frustrating than scanning through a piece of content and not solving a
problem. While you need to create incisive content, it needs to provide
solutions to the following problem. Will the reader find the solution he needs
when they finish reading the content?
Keywords
Over
the past few years, keywords were the only SEO tactic that counted. Numerous
techniques like content have invaded the space but that doesn’t mean that keywords
aren’t still significant. The thing is that these days, excellent usage of keywords
takes a forest. You need to choose them well, research them well and
judiciously use them to get the best out of them.
So
what are keywords? They are words that users use to search digital content. In
many cases, businesses can leverage them to connect with potential customers
who are exploring their products and services.
Let’s
look at two tips that can help you to choose the right keywords.
·
Leverage Keyword Research Tools
Do
you happen to know? You need to right tools to pull off relevant keywords.
Keyword tools like Google Keyword Planner and Long Tail Pro will offer insights
and depth into the current behavior of other industry players. That is to say,
you can find out trending keywords and the ones that suit your content. This
way, things become easier for you.
·
Research competitors
One
of the sure-fire ways to carry out keyword research is to find out the
activities of your competitors and imitate them. If a competitor ranks first in
your keyword research, utilize your keyword research tool. After that, enter
their URL and look out for the kind of keywords they leverage.
Domestic SEO
These
days, various brands leverage a domestic SEO. It is domestic because it has
local intent.
For
instance, say you own a bar, then domestic SEO would ensure that when people in
your place look for the best bars in your area, they will encounter your
website.
Domestic
SEO leverages SEO best practices such as carving out pages for your brand on
Google Maps.
Search Engine Marketing
Search
Engine Marketing (SEM) is a form of
online marketing that involves the promotion of web pages by boosting their
visibility in search engine ranking via paid advertising.
For
instance, some brands often pay for their campaigns to appear alongside search
results. Search engine marketing also involves things like social media
campaigns, Google shopping ads, and many others.
Although
SEM is not a popular tactic in SEO, it plays a significant role in helping
businesses to generate more leads.
Conclusion
I hope
that you have picked one or two things from this guide because it has a lot to
offer. It would help to make it a point of reference as you survey the SEO
marketing world. The most significant thing to note is that there are no escape
routes in these basics. You need to know them and improve with them.
Author Bio
Eun
Rockwell is a blogger and academic writer from the UK who works with pro essay writer. She likes trying new
subjects and is always focused on proving her worth as a writer in new and
challenging writing areas. Her hobbies are reading books and traveling. You can
reach her via Twitter @rockwell_eun_.
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