The Beginner's Guide to SEO

SEO is not about a never-ending war with Google algorithms and competitors. It’s about delivering value to people interested in your content. Period.

In this blog post, we provide an actionable set of SEO tips for beginners about how to do exactly this.

Consistently practice them, you too can satisfyingly surpass competitors for the most competitive, traffic-laden search keywords.

It can (and is) be pretty intimidating to rank for all SEO factors. Nevertheless, you should still find opportunities to scale using advanced SEO.

However, as a beginner to SEO, it is surely easy to tick off the basics. Let us help you, do that right.

Let’s Dive In

Mobile First

Among the first SEO hints and tips we provide, we ask beginners to optimise for mobile.

With increased broadband adoption and high-speed internet, mobile adoption is surging like never before in history.

Almost 60% of all web traffic happens on mobile. If you own a local business, you are missing out by not optimizing your local landing pages.

To add to anguish take a look this; 76% of people who search for something nearby tend to visit a local business on the same day.

So, on hindsight, how much have you lost?

Optimizing your SEO for mobile is making sure that the content that appears on your website and your mobile are the same. It is making sure that there is no loss of content on the mobile version of your website.

User Experience

If you consider Google’s objective, using user experience as your key SEO guiding principle makes complete sense. That’s because Google wants to deliver the very best experience for its customers. In other words, this means providing its users with the most relevant search results that satisfy their search intent. Therefore, always think to yourself, “if I search for a particular term, what would be the ultimate result for me?”

For example, if I search for a phrase such as “Best Laptops under £1,000,” what kind of page am I hoping to find? Probably one that has the following:

A list of laptops from brands I know under £1,000
Reviews and explanations of each laptop
High-quality content and expert advice
Images of each laptop correctly labeled
A fast page-load speed
Text that is easy to read (ie, black text on a white background in a legible font)
Content written in my own language
A video review of the chosen laptops
An easy to navigate page broken down into appropriate headings

Funnily enough, these criteria, along with many others relating to user experience, are key factors in determining a page’s SEO score. After all, if a Google searcher consistently finds search results that don’t satisfy their search intent, then they will probably end up using another search engine like Bing or Yahoo. Google absolutely doesn’t want that.

So, what’s your reward for optimizing your webpage better than anybody else? Well, being top of the Search Engine Results Page of course!

Information Architecture

Information architecture (IA) refers to designing and structuring your content to make it useful and significant to readers and search spiders. Good IA is clear and easy to scan read for users and makes it easy for search engines to understand your content. Some recommendations for good architecture include:

Ensuring each page has a specific focus.
Using meta descriptions to explain what the content of page is about.
Having clear and descriptive page titles.
Breaking up text with subheadings for easy viewing and good structure.
Showing relationships between pages through inter-linking and with the help of breadcrumb navigation.

Pick Keywords For Every Page

Google predicts and satisfies search intent with content it indexes.

So how can you help Google do that?

You will have to create content that satisfies the user’s problem for which they started to search for a solution on Google. And if your content can help them solve their problem without going anywhere else on the web, then you are sure to rank number 1.

But is that enough?

So for every web page, you create, make sure you select one particular topic and then look for relevant keywords to fill the content.

Suppose, you are writing a blog post on ‘how to clean leather bags’, for a start, you could look up to Google’s SERP results. Analyze recurring words; here, tips for cleaning leather bag, simple steps to clean your leather bag are some inspirations.

Keyword Research and Targeting

A keyword refers to the term or phrase a person enters in the search box when looking for specific information. Keywords are essential to search engine optimization because they can be used to tell search engines that your content should be considered relevant for your target market’s queries, effectively saying:

“Hey Google, when someone searches for these terms, my content can provide relevant information!”

Keyword research then is the process of discovering the right keywords to target in your SEO marketing campaign. Keyword research can be done using a variety of methods:

Using Google keyword tools, such as Google Keyword Planner
Analyzing data from Google Trends
Researching the sites of your competition
Paying attention to feedback from your customers and prospects
Adding a search box to your site to discover what people want to know
Surveying customers to discover how they learned about your business and why they chose you

For example, if you run an electric scooter online shop, you want to make sure that your site shows up in the results when people search for an ‘electric scooter’ but even more importantly for related and long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are specific variations of your core keyword.

Here we have an example of how you can analyse the search volume for ‘electric scooter’ in the past 12 months with Google Keyword Planner Tool.

Google Keyword Planner showing keyword ideas for electric scooter — If ‘electric scooter’ is your core key phrase, then ‘electric scooter for kids’ is a more specific search query that is often referred to as a long-tail keyword.

Once you have done the research and identified the keywords that your customers are searching for, you then use these throughout your content. This results in Keyword Targeted content, it makes it clear to search engines what your content is about and who it should be shown to.

How Can I Find Out What Keywords I’m Ranking For?

Three words. Google Search Console.

Google Search Console is a free tool provided by your favourite global mega-company. If you’re at all serious about performing good SEO, you need to set this up for your website. Google Search Console (GSC) allows you to see which pages are ranking for which search queries and in what position. This lets you tailor your page content to more effectively cater for a user’s search intent.

Say, for instance, you have a skincare website and a page that ranks for “face wash” at rank 16 in the UK. However, the page is titled “Skincare” and the phrase “face wash” only appears three of four times. What’s more, you have several products that are not face wash.

You head back to GSC and check what other terms this page ranks for. It looks like all the high ranking terms are related to face wash and not skincare. Now you know why you were only selling face wash via people who landed on this page. But what now?

What I would do is go back to the page in question and change it to better cater for the search term “face wash.” This would involve me changing the title, removing all the products that aren’t face wash, writing more content about face wash etc.

NB! In an instance like this, you should NOT change the URL! This will mean that the location of the page will have changed and Google will have to find it again, penalising your rankings. As a rule, it is wise to not change URLs if they are already ranking on Google.

Optimize SEO Titles And Meta Descriptions

SEO titles and meta descriptions are some quick actionable wins amongst the SEO tips for beginners.

Once your website is indexed on Google, SERPS display the title of your website and a short description on what the page is about?

SEO titles and meta descriptions serve two purposes:

For users: They make a promise that this page is about one particular topic which is given on the title.
For businesses: They act as conversion opportunities.

In the background it looks something like this (what search engines see):

What people see in search results:

As a beginner to SEO, titles and meta descriptions easily implementable tactics.

Two things you have to keep in mind are:

Insert keywords on your titles and meta descriptions
Write your meta descriptions in a persuasive manner to draw the reader into your article. Mention stats, warnings. Convey the benefits of reading your article.

Pro tip: Both SEO titles and meta descriptions have character limits. Venture beyond them and Google shall crop them.

Do NOT over-optimise titles and meta descriptions with keywords. Write naturally.

Use Keywords in Headings And Paragraphs

Another easily implementable SEO tip for beginners is using keywords in headings and paragraphs.

Similar to titles, headings also promise your reader that the following section shall be only about one topic. And similar to titles, write naturally and don’t force keywords.

Headings in a webpage are usually marked under <h1>, <h2>, <h3> etc, meanwhile paragraphs are marked as <p>.

Use SEO keywords in your subheadings and within paragraphs.

One advantage of using SEO keywords is that you build an image of speaking your customer’s language. Every search query is your customer’s mind voice. As troubles brew within, they are replicated as search queries on Google.

Using these very search queries will help you resonate with your reader and build empathy.

Another advantage is that you can appear on featured snippets by inserting keywords in subheadings and paragraphs.

Actionable SEO tips for beginners:

Insert questions in your subheadings and their answers in paragraphs. Dive in to answer the public’s suggestions
Look at the People Also Ask section and answer for the relevant ones.

Write Fresh Content For Humans, Not Search Engines

At a high level, SEO may mean that you optimise your website and content according to the rules vigilante crawl bots -that patrol the web- play by.

However, expert or beginner, friend or foe, here is my suggestion for you; optimise your website for humans.

What does writing for search engines mean?

It means that you are stuffing keywords and writing in an unnatural manner aiming to manipulate crawl bots.

Let me tell you this. Google takes into account more than keywords to rank content.

Metrics like bounce rates and average time spent also play judge and jury in deciding your ranking. Therefore, when you write for search engines you compromise on offering good user experience.

If users desert your website after finding content stuffed with keywords and with no solution to their problems, then Google will penalize you.

Secondly, write fresher content.

Fresh content or evergreen content is sometimes recognized as an advanced tactic. But it is not. It’s time we move it into the list of SEO tips for beginners.

Now there are two meanings to this.

One is that fresh content is always new. It is updated in accordance with the latest industry trends and technologies. This is why Wikipedia ranks number 1 for most terms.

It also means that the content shall never go obsolete. Content types like How-to posts, statistics, DIY posts, actionable tips, resource pages shall never go out of trend. As a beginner to SEO, you can rely on these dependable content types to keep your blog fresh.

Thirdly, you can improve on your older posts by updating them with newer content on the same page. Often this results in longer posts. Well, why not?

Write Longer Content

Writing longer content brings in several benefits such as:

Bringing in backlinks
Increases average time spent on page
Reduces bounce rate
Opportunities to rank for multiple keywords
Build brand authority

Long-form content has existed since ages. Speeches, interviews, radio talk shows, movie reviews are some examples.

One of the most suggested SEO tips for beginners is to encourage them writing long-form content.

Writing is tedious. Unless you find writing for SEO interesting like I do.

Nevertheless, writing longer content keeps your blog alive. Your page is believed to be more authoritative if your content is longer than 1000 words. A blog post at the top position Google’s SERP contains 1,447 words on an average. Source.

Actionable SEO tips for beginners:

Writing becomes easier if you find the right topics and headings and questions to answer. Do your keyword research first and then select what topics to write for.
You can also record yourself talking about a topic, transcribe it, proofread it to the format of the blog post.
You can hire a freelancer or a digital marketing agency to write the content for you, while you do the keyword research.

Pro tip: While long-form content is good, always try to fulfil their search intent for the keyword. If short text and more images shall do the trick, then that’s good enough.

Internally Linking- Be a Little Selfish

Internal linking is one of the most underappreciated and under-exploited strategies to raise rankings.

Internal linking does two things:

It provides a structure to your website.
For readers, it helps them move on to more relevant topics within your web. Resultantly, they spend more time within your website improving SEO.

Internal linking is without a doubt one of the top factors in securing your website among the top 10 on Google.

Actionable SEO tips for beginners:

Use relevant keywords as anchor texts when you do internal linking.
Link to relevant web pages.
Do not use click here as an anchor text.
Do not overdo. Maintain a good internal link: external link ratio on the web page.

External Linking- Be More Magnanimous

External links are also important for SEO. Many SEO amateurs fail at linking to other sites.

Google wants users to have a convenient user experience wherever they go on the web. Besides, Google wants you to help them do that. By providing external links you allow the user to stay longer on the web improving their overall search journey.

Hence, it is important to link to credible, trustworthy informational sources that better the user’s state.

It also builds your brand authority by creating an impression of you being the go-to source for all things credible.

Actionable SEO tips for beginners:

Always link to high authority sources. Check a website’s DA using Moz’s chrome extension before linking to other sites.
You can also use Google search tools to set recent periods to find newer sources to write content.
Use these Google search operators filetype:pdf, insite:.org, insite:edu to find credible informational sources.

Pro tip: Avoid linking to a spammy site. Both users and search engines will punish you.

Don’t overdo external linking. As an amateur SEO, you might find it interesting to link passionately. However, too many links may allow crawl bots to perceive you as a content farm.

Not All Links Are Created Equal

There are two items to touch on in this section – dofollow and nofollow links, and link authority. First up, what do we mean by link authority? Well, it’s self-explanatory really. If you receive a link from an established and trustworthy source, like say a national newspaper or the Harvard Business Review, it holds a lot more weight than a link from a spammy directory site.

You can easily find the authority score of a website by visiting Moz’s Domain Analysis tool. Here, you can enter the domain you want to analyse and the tool will provide you with an authority score from 0 to 100. It also provides you with a spam score, which is useful to know too. Low authority backlinks can still be useful to have, just bear in mind that they will not have the same effect as a high authority backlink.

So we’ve covered link authority, what about dofollow and nofollow links? Whenever a link is created, it will either be made a dofollow or a nofollow link. A dofollow link passes more of the authority from one website to another – this is known as link juice.

A nofollow link indicates to the GSB or whichever search bot is crawling the site not to transfer authority to that page. A nofollow link still benefits your SEO to a certain extent, just not as much as a dofollow. If you’re asking another website owner for a backlink, make sure you request it to be a dofollow link to get the most out of it. You can check if links are dofollow or nofollow with the handy NoFollow Chrome extension.

How Links Help Google to Rank Relevant Pages

Consider the fact that Google has crawled through every website listed on its SERP. That’s a lot of pages. Certainly more than a human could manage to get through. That’s why Google and other search engines use bots to do this heavy lifting. But bots aren’t all that clever, they need help. Hyperlinks provide the Google Search Bot (GSB) with an indication as to what the page is they are linking to, – providing the right anchor text is used.

If I link to our amazing blog on the digital marketing mistakes, the GSB will now have an indication that the page is about the benefits of SEO. This should help us rank better for this term. If, however, I link to the page by saying “check out our awesome blog on digital marketing mistakes by clicking here” the poor GSB is going to think the page is about the keyword term “here.” Not what we want. The actual word or phrase we link, in this case, “digital marketing mistakes” or “here,” is known as anchor text.

Make sure your anchor text is the target keyword you want that page to rank for!

Local SEO

If you are going in the other direction and aiming for a more localised strategy, then you need to understand the concept of the local search and, by association, local SEO.

People with high purchase intent often search for service providers in their immediate vicinity. For example, ‘best (service / product) near me’. Google will provide search results specifically based on their location so if you want to become the go-to service provider in your local community then it is important that you rank high in these local searches.

Google local pack results showing pizza restaurants — It’s important to keep your Google My Business profile up to date as wrong information will affect your CTR (Click-Through-Rate).

Tracking and Measuring

Tracking and measuring your SEO efforts is a huge part of ensuring your success. By analysing what you are doing you can make sure that your efforts are driving results. Use Google Analytics to make sure that your strategy stays on track and generates business success and a healthy ROI.

If you are new to the world of analytics check out our Web Analytics for Beginners article.

The most important steps you can take to achieve this sort of ranking and maximise your visibility in Local searches:

Set up and properly optimize your Google My Business profile: This will help drive your search engine rankings as it gives customers an engaging and easy way to evaluate your business on Google Search and Maps, as in the screenshot above. Make sure you fill in as much details as possible and make sure they are up to date.
Citation building
Reviews: Manage and monitor your reviews to provide potential customers with a vote of confidence and to increase your word of mouth recommendations. Having good reviews on your website will help you to rank higher in local SERPs.
Link Building: Everything that promotes your website as a reliable and authoritative source is good for SEO, having a network of backlinks can increase your organic traffic and help your SEO.

You can discover more regarding how to optimize your website for local SEO and global (international) SEO in our in-depth guides on the subject.

Reputation and Brand Management

Building a strong brand and online presence can go a long way to helping your SERP rankings. When you Google running shoes, Nike is one of the first results, after the paid ads. This is because the biggest brands haven proven themselves to be experts on their subject matter. What brand do you think of when you think of running shoes? Most likely, Nike, or Adidas, or Asics etc. If you look at the search results for running shoes, you have paid search ads, local search results, and then the organic results, which include the biggest shoe brands and the most popular running shoe retailers.

Building a strong reputation among your target audience will elevate your brand, and as you become more popular, you SERP rankings will perform better.

However, this often makes it difficult for smaller businesses to compete. So how do you take on these big brands? The trick is… you don’t. A smarter strategy is to focus on ranking for more specific keywords.

For example, if you offer a customisation service for running shoe orthotics, then let Nike have “running shoes” and instead focus on ranking for your niche offering as a search term.

Conclusion

As a beginner, these SEO tips can help you take off and land on Google’s SERPs.

We would be glad to know if these tips and we would be willing to offer you more.

Feel free to check out our SEO Services or just drop a message!

The Beginner’s Guide to SEO

Let’s Dive In

Mobile First

User Experience

Information Architecture

Pick Keywords For Every Page

Keyword Research and Targeting

How Can I Find Out What Keywords I’m Ranking For?

Optimize SEO Titles And Meta Descriptions

Use Keywords in Headings And Paragraphs

Write Fresh Content For Humans, Not Search Engines

Write Longer Content

Internally Linking- Be a Little Selfish

External Linking- Be More Magnanimous

Not All Links Are Created Equal

How Links Help Google to Rank Relevant Pages

Local SEO

Tracking and Measuring

Reputation and Brand Management

Conclusion

About The Author

Branislav Nikolic