Imagine you have a big box of toys, but it’s messy, and you can’t easily find your favorite toy.
Now, if you had a magic helper who would help you sort and find the best toy possible within a short period of time.
This is effectively what SEO does for websites.
It helps websites get organized so that when people search for something on the internet, the website they want can be found easily.
SEO in a Nutshell
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the practice of improving a website’s visibility in organic search engine results.
Often this involves optimizing website content, technical aspects and building quality backlinks to attract more relevant traffic and increase online conversions.
This makes your website more visible to search engines like Google, Bing, so people can find your content when they search for things. Some of the practices that contribute to a successful SEO strategy include using the right keywords and making the website easy for search engines to understand and deliver to the right audience.
Types of SEO
Some major types of SEO affect different aspects of a website and make it suitable to rank on search engines: These are:
- On-Page SEO: Everything that happens on a website, such as optimizing content, titles, meta descriptions, and headers, to improve search engine rankings, falls under on-page SEO.
- Off-Page SEO: There are things that the publisher can do outside the website like building backlinks and promoting the website through external channels like social media and guest posting. This includes off-page SEO.
- Technical SEO: These include working with the code of the website to improve website technical aspects like site speed, mobile-friendliness, and indexing to make sure search engines can easily crawl and index the website.
Why SEO Matters for Websites
Let’s explore some of the reasons why SEO is important for websites and why you should have a strategy in place for your organization or personal use:
- Increased Visibility: Higher search engine rankings mean more people can find your website, leading to more traffic and brand awareness for the website. According to GrowthBadger.com, search contributes to 60.68% of website traffic across 12 niches.
- Improved Brand Authority: People discover your brand through your website, especially when it maintains consistently high rankings and features relevant, high-quality content. This helps establish your site as a trusted authority in your industry.
- Higher Conversion Rates: SEO can attract highly targeted traffic to your website, increasing the likelihood of conversions, such as sales, sign-ups, or lead generation.
- Cost-Effective Marketing: Unlike paid marketing channels, where you must continuously spend to reach an audience, SEO is a cost-effective, long-term strategy that drives continuous traffic and boosts brand awareness.
- Competitive Advantage: By optimizing your website for search engines, you can gain a competitive edge over your rivals and attract more customers.
Key SEO Terms to Know
As a beginner, there are some terms in the SEO world that you need to know to better navigate through the space.
Basic Terms
- SERP: Search Engine Results Page.
- Keyword: A word or phrase that people use to search for information online.
- Organic Search: Search engine results that are not paid advertisements.
On-Page SEO
- Title: The main title of a webpage.
- Meta Description: A summary of a webpage’s content. People can read them below the title in the SERPs.
- Header Tags: They are used to structure content on a page.
- Keyword Density: The frequency of keywords in a piece of content.
- Content Quality: The relevance and value of content to users
SEO vs PPC & SEM
It is important to distinguish between SEO and PPC/SEM.
Each of these channels is crucial for driving traffic to websites, yet they are entirely different from one another.
Difference between SEO and PPC
SEO and PPC (Pay-per-click) work differently even though they are used to bring in traffic to the website.
PPC is a paid method where advertisers bid on keywords to display their ads in search results. You pay every time someone clicks on your ad.
SEO, on the other hand, is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in organic search results. It involves improving content, technical aspects, and user experience. Unlike PPC, SEO doesn’t involve paying for each click.
Difference between SEO and SEM
On the other hand, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is an umbrella term that includes both SEO and PPC. SEM combines efforts to drive traffic through both organic and paid search results. It is a broader strategy aimed at improving visibility on search engines.
Save this infographic for you to save showing the difference between SEO vs SEM/PPC.
Recommended SEO Tools for Beginners
You need tools to search easier and faster. Here are some tools that will help find exactly what people around the world are searching for related to your industry.
Google Search Console
One of the most important tools for website owners to monitor, maintain and troubleshoot your website’s presence in Google Search results.
You may target relevant audiences and improve your content strategy by monitoring which keywords drive traffic to your website. Furthermore, the Search Console enables you to take prompt action by keeping you updated on possible issues, such as indexing difficulties or security concerns.
Google Analytics
A powerful web analytics tool that provides insights into user behavior and insights about website traffic.
This helps the website owners understand how people interact with the website, which pages they visit, how long they stay, and where they come from.
With event-based tracking, Google Analytics or GA4 allows us to measure a wider range of actions, such as button clicks, form submissions, and video plays.
The new GA4 also has machine learning algorithms that would help content publishers find opportunities to make data-driven decisions.
Google Keyword Planner
With GKP, businesses and marketers can identify relevant keywords for their search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns.
Since Google generates the keyword, and most bloggers and website owners aim to rank on its first page, the keywords suggested by Google Keyword Planner (GKP) are valuable for discovering new keywords and analyzing the competition.
People looking to advertise can also get an estimate of the cost to bid on specific keywords using Google Keyword Planner.
There are alternatives that beginners can use such as Ubersuggest (freemium) and Ahrefs (paid).
AnswerthePublic
This is a powerful search listening tool that helps website owners find keyword-related questions and valuable insights that people are searching for online.
Use AnswerthePublic if you want to brainstorm content ideas and bring in relevant questions that your target audience might be looking for in the content. Make the content that is tuned to your audience and boost your website’s visibility in search engine results.
SERP Snippet Optimization Tool by HigherVisibility
This online tool is not for optimizing keywords or finding new content ideas, but to optimize your meta title and meta description.
This tool helps content publishers and webmasters carefully make meta descriptions and meta titles that will provide visually appealing or attention-grabbing listings in Google’s natural search results. Maximizing Google’s click-through rate (CTR) is the aim.
There are many more tools that bloggers and marketers can use to bring more traffic to their website. It is important to pick and choose the important ones before going all in to track every metric, especially for beginners.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Some mistakes might be costly in SEO. Here are some of the mistakes that might be costly for the website as it may lose ranking on the results page:
Keyword Stuffing: It is the practice of overusing keywords in the content in trying to manipulate the search engine. This tactic can harm your website’s visibility and user experience. Instead, focus on creating high-quality, informative content that naturally incorporates relevant keywords.
Neglecting Mobile Optimization: It’s important to have a mobile-friendly website. According to Mobiloud, mobile searches make up 58.21% of global internet traffic. Search engines prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their rankings. Ensure your website is responsive, loads quickly, and is easy to navigate on all devices.
Ignoring Meta Description and Title Tags: It is essential for attracting clicks from search engine results pages (SERPs). These give me a brief summary of the page’s content as it appears in the search results. By optimizing and making click-worthy(not clickbaity) headlines and meta descriptions, you can increase your website’s click-through rate and drive more organic traffic.
AI-Generated Content: Overreliance on AI-generated content can negatively impact your SEO efforts. Search engines prioritize high-quality, original content that provides value to users. The AI-generated content often lacks human experience and tiny tidbits that make the content worthy of reading and enjoying.
Best SEO Practices For Newbies
Apart from the mistakes, there are some steps that beginners can take to make sure that they can easily rank well on the search engine results page.
- High-Quality Content: It is important to create valuable, informative, and engaging content that meets the needs of your target audience. The longer they are on your site, the more search engines are going to notice that and push you up the rankings of search results.
- Image Optimization: Everyone wants a fast and responsive website. Compress images(without losing much quality), use descriptive file names, and add alt text to improve page load speed and SEO.
- Backlink Building: Search engines tend to trust individuals who are recognized within their industry. By contributing to other industry websites and participating in events and conferences, you can earn high-quality backlinks from reputable sources, helping to enhance your website’s authority.
- Social Media: Promote your content on social media platforms to increase visibility and drive traffic.
- Track and Analyse: Use popular and trusted online tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to monitor your website’s performance and make data-driven decisions. Understanding the data and making improvements is crucial to staying ahead of algorithm changes and evolving in the SEO landscape.
Next Steps After Learning SEO Basics
You are on your first step into the exciting and ever-changing world of SEO! Now it’s time to put your knowledge into action.
Start by optimizing your website with catchy titles, informative descriptions, and relevant keywords. Don’t forget about the technical side of your website. Make sure that it loads fast and is mobile-friendly.
Next, build valuable backlinks from other websites to boost your site’s authority. Keep learning and adapting to the latest SEO trends. Use tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to track your progress.
