You probably hear the term SEO or Search Engine Optimization from modern marketers all the time; but how do you actually make your business website rank higher in search engine results than your competitors? Â Today is your lucky day, for we are here to discuss basic SEO strategies for beginners.
Perhaps, when you first heard the term “SEO”, it sounded like something very technical than just a select few will understand. While it’s true that it took years of study for some SEO experts to be able to devise, implement, and monitor effective SEO strategies, you can actually learn and apply the fundamentals within just a short span of time.
In this article, you will know how to get started in SEO through a simple walkthrough about the most basic SEO strategies for beginners.
For example, let’s say that you are in the fashion business and would like to focus on bridal gowns. Here’s a screenshot Keyword planner with a list of a few keywords that potential customers might key in:
We will use this example all throughout this post. So let’s begin!
Keyword Research
The main objective of SEO is not just merely gaining more traffic. The ultimate goal should be to help consumers who are looking for your type of business find you. In order to do accomplish this, you need to match the content found on your website to what your target market is trying to find.
It’s pretty simple—make sure that what your website has to offer matches the goals of your target. By optimizing the content of your website for keywords that will bring in relevant visitors who want the same things as those you offer, you will surely be able to gain a lot of traffic that actually converts into customers.
So the next question is: How would you know what those magic “keywords” are?
The simple answer to this is RESEARCH.
Surely, trying to find the perfect keywords is a bit tedious; but let me tell you that once you get the right keywords and successfully optimize your website, as well as other types of content for these, the returns will be just amazing and everything will be worth it!
While conducting the indispensable process of keyword research, you need to focus on:
- Keywords with high search volume– this means that a lot of users are typing in these keywords in search engines.
- Keywords with low competition– this means fewer advertisers are bidding on these keywords; hence, you have a better chance of ranking higher
- Keywords that are supported by your content- obviously, the keywords that you should use must be relevant to your website
You can use various tools to help you find the right keywords. One of the most widely used tools is Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool, which offers results based on actual searches from Google—the most popular search engine. Moreover, if you are signed in to your Google AdWords account, you can also obtain a list of ideas for keywords, which are customized to the website connected to the account.
So for this, we can use wedding dresses and wedding gowns as our keywords. You can choose keywords with low/medium competition for your title and eventually integrate keywords with high search volume in the body of your content.
Basic SEO strategies for beginners? Apply SEO in Content Creation
What’s next on the basic SEO strategies for beginners? Once you’ve chosen the right keywords through the previous step, you should now start developing content that utilizes these.
Before we lay out some guidelines on content creation from an SEO perspective, let’s first discuss how search engines work. Well, these search engines have bots which crawl websites and “read” them to gain an understanding of what these are about and then decide which keywords each of these web pages must rank for. Now, by crafting content that is optimized for the keywords you’ve chosen, you will be able to somehow influence the decisions of search engine bots.
However, while it is important to consider search engines, your number one priority when creating content should still be your target market. The only way you will be able to convert your traffic into sales is by providing value to your prospects—and the easy way to do this is by creating high-quality content. With this, your approach should involve focusing on your audience first, and then optimize these for search engines where you can without sacrificing the quality.
So, how do you create this kind of content?
- Headlines that pop- write attention-grabbing titles that will capture the interest of your target market.
- Include keywords- integrate some of your chosen keywords in the most natural way
- Link to quality websites- Linking to good websites will also encourage these relevant sites to link to yours as well.
- Keep your content fresh and unique- users would return to your site if the content you’re publishing is timely, engaging, and noteworthy. Also, you should never post the content of someone else on your website because you can be penalized for duplicate content.
Following our example, we can write an article about “Beautiful wedding gowns for the perfect garden wedding”.
Optimize the Code of Your Website
Apart from the content of your website, bots also read the code of your websites. Basically, when coding your title tags, headings, meta tags, and alt tags, you should include keywords in them.
When creating meta descriptions, make sure that you concisely tell visitors what your website is about using full sentences with keywords. It is also recommended for each web page to have a unique meta description.
As for headings, they should be structured as H1, H2, H3, and so on—with the H1 as the main heading, and higher heading numbers for more specific sections. In general, each page must have only one H1 tag, H2 for sub-topics and so on. Keep in my mind that the headings have numbers to be used in chronological order.
In order for bots to index images from websites, brief descriptions of them must be added in the form of alt tags. Aside from including keywords, make sure that the image name is relevant to what the image is showing.
Domain Name and URL Structure
Again, as much as possible, choose a domain name that contains keywords. Those with keywords rank much higher compared to those that don’t contain keywords within them.
Meanwhile, it is imperative to make sure that your URL structure is not messy. Otherwise, search engine bots will find it difficult to crawl them, and your website might not be indexed properly. If this happens, your website will not rank high in search engine results.
To create search-engine-friendly URLs, consider these tips:
- Use only letters and numbers; do not include extraneous characters ( ? ! @ % $ = ) in your URL
- Use hyphens instead of underscores
- Keep your URLs short to rank better
Here is a screenshot of Google’s first page when you type in wedding gowns Manila. Pay close attention to the highlighted words.
The sentences that you can see are the meta tags. That’s why it is important that you add the right keywords. And also to work on your content so as to appear on the first page in Google! It’s not that difficult considering that its basic SEO strategies for beginners.
Oh, and do have a lot of patience for this requires dedication and consistency for results will be evident after a few months.
Final Thoughts
The SEO tips presented in this article are just some of the most basic SEO strategies for beginners that you can implement. One thing to keep in mind though is that it takes time before you see the effects of your SEO efforts. The reason behind this is that search engine bots have to crawl billions and billions of websites, and it takes time for the records to be updated.
We won’t lie to you; SEO involves a lot of hard work and can be time-consuming. If you don’t have the patience or the free time to do it yourself, why not hire SEO rock stars to do it for you?
At Infinit3solutions, we offer world-class SEO services that deliver great results that exceed client expectations. Furthermore, what’s best about our service is that we do not implement a one-size-fits-all approach. We understand that each business is unique and what works for website A might not yield the same outcome for website B. Hence, we provide custom SEO strategies tailored specifically to your needs.
Contact us today and let us discuss how we can boost your online presence through SEO!
