Essentials of SEO — A Beginner’s Guide
Whether you're a newbie in the online marketing space, an online business owner or in any way related to the digital space — I can’t emphasize enough how important it is for you to know the fundamentals of SEO.
I’m not going to make this super jargon-y, but just enough to get you started with SEO. Here we go:
What Is SEO / Search Engine Optimization?
The process involves improving your site or piece of content in order to make it rank higher on a search engine like Google. Basically, when people search for a product on Google or any such search engine, you can make your product rank in the top pages by optimizing your content.
Better visibility of your products and services in search results will draw the customers’ attention and help in the organic growth of the business.
Let’s see how it works- and more importantly how to make it work for YOU!
Let’s say someone searches for ‘indoor plants.’ They are probably looking to buy indoor plants, set up an indoor plant nursery or are simply curious about indoor plants. If you have written an article that educates the reader on different types of indoor plants, you would want them to find it first. For them to find it, your content needs to rank above all other pages related to indoor plants. This is what SEO marketing is all about.
How does SEO work for ranking? A cute example.
Imagine a giant library of books, where all books are arranged in a systematic index. Similarly, the ranking on the search engine is done as per an index. Information is collected about each page using a bot which crawls on the web from site to site. It is then placed into an index and arranged like the books of a library. The pages are thus laid out in decreasing order of relevancy to help you find what you are looking for.
User experience (UX) is the most important when it comes to measuring SEO success.
Unlike paid search ads where you can get improved ranking by paying, you can’t pay search engines to get better organic ranking. Here is where SEO experts come into the picture. Or maybe this is the reason why you are here reading this article!
Core Elements of SEO
On-page SEO is the process of creating content so as to increase your search engine rankings. This involves inserting keyword, generating high-quality content on a regular basis and updating it from time to time, and ensuring that your metatags and titles are keyword-rich and relevant, amongst other things.
Any activity that drives awareness to your site from another webpage/website is called off-page SEO. Creating backlinks, posting blogs, directory submissions, reviews, press releases and forum posting are a few of the off-page SEO activities that could help drive traffic to your content from another website.
The method of optimising your website for a specific local location is known as Local SEO. You want your web pages to rank for certain search queries done by a local audience if you have a local business, such as a shop, restaurant, or agency.
Next up, we need a strategy in place to make it work for our business. Let’s learn how.
Creating an SEO strategy for your Business/Website
Every year, trillions of searches take place across the web. Some are just to seek information while some are commercial in nature.
It’s a no-brainer by now that — Ranking higher in search results gives you an edge over your competitors and have a significant influence on your top line.
Step 1: Create Fresh, Unique and Relevant Content with a Plan
Back in 1996, the co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, made a revolutionary statement, “Content is king.” This statement stands true even today. Content is where you can make ‘real money’.
Why?
Google strives to provide the most useful content forward which is why we need to work on giving value to the end-user. This is a cornerstone of what is known as ‘Inbound marketing” methodology: provide high-quality content, and buyers will find you!
Content that is quotable and shareable increases the chances of receiving backlinks from other websites. Search engines will recognize a backlink from another website as a mark of trust in your content.
This boils down to the same thing. To improve your SEO, you create amazing content.
Well, it does sound like a Herculean task indeed. But then, SEO is a skill like any other skill and takes a lot of work to get desired results. Super advanced SEO is meaningless if you don’t have great content, just as the best marketing in the world won’t help you sell a lousy product/service.
Wondering where to start? How do you build a content strategy from scratch?
Take a breather. I’ve decoded it for you here.
Oh, and before you exit this page, do let me know what you think — did the article help?
