If you’re into digital marketing, you will be aware of search engine optimization. But many people attached to this field or involved with blogging and websites are unaware of the meaning. This guide is for them. Here, we will attempt to educate everyone about the benefits of SEO and its best practices.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of aligning your website with search engine algorithms so they can easily find, understand, and rank your content. The better your search engine optimization, the higher will be your SERP rank. The outcome–more traffic and visibility for your site.

In this seo guide for beginners, we’ll walk you through the essentials of SEO with just simple steps to get your SEO journey started.

What are the Benefits of SEO?

Before we enumerate the benefits, let’s quickly understand what SEO means. To explain simply, it is the art of ranking your website on search engines. The entire exercise is a collection of techniques and best practices as undertaken by a professional digital marketing agency to ensure search engines crawl your website and index it. To explain it better:

• Crawl = scanning and understanding your webpage contents
• Index = making them available so they show up in search results

It’s like giving your website a roadmap so Google can find it quickly and show it in the right places and the right people. And the higher up you are, the more likely people are to click on your link and check out your content. SEO adds credibility and authority to your website.

Benefits of SEO:

• Allows people to discover your website
• Helps improve your website’s organic traffic
• Exercise is free but delivers long-term results
• Adds credibility, making people trust your website
• Helps impart authority to your brand

Integrating SEO within your website is a cost-effective marketing strategy. It allows you to promote your content, services, and products without investing a penny on advertisements. Also once you’ve put in the initial effort to optimize your site, it continues to work for you over time. So your website keeps attracting traffic and leads.

Now, let’s now breakdown the basic elements of SEO that must work with you to get your content ranking higher and bring in more traffic.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to everything you can control directly on your website or blog like:

• Title Tags & Meta Descriptions
• Header Tags
• URL Structure
• Content
• Image Optimization

Off-Page SEO

You take these actions outside of your website to improve your credibility and rankings. Getting backlinks is one of the more significant off-page SEO best practices. These refer to other website links that point to your pages. Backlinks indicate the trustworthiness and value of your content.

Other off-page best practices include:

• Engaging with people on social media
• Getting mentioned in other blogs or websites

These act as “social signals” that Google leverages to find valuable content.

A Simplified Look into the Workings of Search Engines

Imagine giant libraries filled up with books. Here search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc., are synonymous to giant libraries, while your web pages are the books stored in them. Just as the books in the library are indexed, each webpage gets a rank based on its content relevancy and usefulness for specific searches. Google doesn’t just guess what’s most relevant; it follows a process. Let’s explore the different steps of this process in this search engine optimization for beginners.

Crawling and Indexing

When you create a website or add new content, Google’s little bots or spiders “crawl” through your web pages. They follow links to go from one page to the next, collecting data as they move to and fro.

Google bots don’t just stop at crawling. They also index your pages, adding them to their huge database. When someone types in a related query, Google shows your pages if it is relevant to the query. Needless to say, if your website page is not indexed, it stays hidden from Google.

Algorithms and Ranking

How does Google determine content relevancy? By using an algorithm that takes into account multiple factors to understand how well your content answers the query. Accordingly, it assigns a rank. The higher your page ranks, the higher will be your likelihood to appear in related searches.

Think of it this way: Google algorithms have one goal–to give people the best possible answers to their questions. So, if your write high-quality, relevant, content that matches what users are looking for, Google will reward your page with a higher rank.

Keywords

Keywords are queries that people type into Google when searching for information. So integrating the right keywords allows your content to be found. It increases visibility. But there is a catch. If you cram too many keywords Google will label your content as spam. So, include contextual keywords, relevant to your topic, naturally into your content. Remember, quality over quantity.

Types of keywords you will deal with include:

• Long tailed keywords, usually consisting of longer more specific phrases
• Short tailed keywords, usually made up of two to three words and are very broad
• LSI keywords, usually refers to related keywords

Keyword Research

To increase the relevance of your keywords, you need to research for the same using popular tools like Google keyword planner, Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, SEMrush etc. To maximize the impact of the keywords use them within your content in the:
Title Tags, place your main keyword here

• Meta Descriptions
• Headers, atleast one of your headers must contain keywords
• Content, sprinkle them throughout your content
• URL

By targeting the right keywords and using them strategically, you’ll increase content relevancy and improve your search rankings, driving more organic traffic to your site.

The Importance of Quality Content

Google always serves the best, most useful content to its users. To gain a higher SERP rank, you need to create content that stands out, answers questions, and provides real value. Remember, quality content goes beyond just filling up a page with words. It’s more about offering insights, solving problems, and addressing your audience’s needs.

Beginner SEO tips to create great content:

• Provide value
• Engage your audience
• Use multimedia
• Write for humans, not just robots
• Align it with user experience
• Make your content scannable
• Enable internal linking

Technical Search Engine Optimization for Beginners

Technical SEO deals with making sure your website is built in a way that Google and other search engines can easily crawl, index, and rank it. Key search engine visibility enablers include:

Site Speed

• You can improve this by:
• Compressing images without compromising quality
• Using browser caching
• Leveraging a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Mobile-Friendliness

Google prefers mobile-first indexing and you must make your website mobile-friendly by:

• Using a responsive design
• Testing your site’s mobile usability
• Simpilifying navigation
• Ensuring text readability
• SSL/HTTPS: Security Matters

Google cares about security. Secure your website by using an SSL certificate which will shift your website URL from HTTP to HTTPS.

XML Sitemap

Help search engines understand your website by setting up an XML sitemap to lead them to all the important pages on your site. It will help them crawl and index your site efficiently.

Fixing Broken Links and 404 Errors

This is bad SEO. So ask your digital marketing agency to regularly check your site for broken links and fix them immediately.

Local SEO Stap-by-Step Guide

If you own a local business or offer services in a specific location, you want to be found by people local to that area. This is where local SEO helps. Boost your local SEO by:

• Claiming your Google My Business (GMB) profile
• Optimizing it to sync with your business offerings
• Obtaining local citations by getting listed on local directories
• Getting reviews
• Building local backlinks

Conclusion

Now you have a solid understanding of what SEO is, why it matters, and the basic steps you can take to improve your site’s visibility in search results. So start with the basics, keep learning, and don’t be afraid to experiment.

Remember, SEO is all about helping people find the information they need. It is also an ongoing process. You have to keep working on your SEO to improve your results. So get started today, and watch your website rise to the top of those search results!