7 Basic SEO Tips For Beginners This 2022
What is SEO? Why do I need it?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the procedure you need to undergo if you want to optimize your webpage to appear on the first page of a search engine’s organic results. SEO is structured for your webpage to increase its visibility among millions of other sites and attract more traffic. The main objectives of SEO are to understand consumer behavior, so you can adapt your content to their interests and serve as a guide on how you will navigate search engines better. Ultimately, adhering to basic SEO tips for beginners will be an advantage for you as it helps in improving your website to rank on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
As mentioned, the end goal of SEO is to enhance your website and make consumers satisfied with your content. So, what are the other compelling reasons why SEO is just exactly what you need for your website?
Are you aware that more than 70% of people who visit search engines usually click the top 5 suggestions found in the SERPs? You should take advantage of this data and apply SEO strategies for you to appear on the top results of the SERP.
SEO makes running effortless and well-ordered — you simply follow its strategies then you’re set to move forward with your search engine rankings. An increase in your website’s organic traffic is what you can expect when you subscribe to SEO strategies. Being able to create a common framework that can be used for publishing content is its indirect benefit. To put it simply, SEO is what keeps you ahead of your competitors because an optimized website most likely attracts visitors and potentially translates to sales.
Why is SEO important?
With over a billion websites available across the internet, competition among these sites is inevitable, which makes SEO more important and relevant than ever. More so, in the over eight billion searches that happen on search engines per day, there has got to be an inquiry that would connect to your website. However, for users to be able to visit your site, it has to appear at the top of SERPs. Thus, the role of SEO comes into play.
Visibility and Rankings
Users usually gravitate to clicking sites that are situated on the top five suggestions of the search engine results page when they are in search of a product or service online, or even just when they are simply inquiring about something. For these searches to reach your website and translate into conversions or leads, you first have to be part of the top recommended.
Increases Web Traffic
Generally, the main idea of SEO is if users can’t discover your website, then opportunities for potential sales are missed. In effect, organic traffic derived from SEO is directly correlated to an increase in sales.
Establishes Trust
The more you appear atop the various search engine results pages because of your optimized content, the more you’ll deem appealing and trustworthy by consumers. Your increased visibility and high rank signify that a lot of other users have visited your website and thus affirm your credibility among users.
Improves User Experience
User experience is a critical factor in retention. When you optimize your website accordingly, it translates to clear communication between you and your visitors. By building user experience in your website, search engines can quickly extract data from you which they can transmit to users.
Basic SEO Tips For Beginners
Prioritize Long-Tail Keywords over Short-Tail Keywords First.
Targeting keywords are essentially a vital part when doing search engine optimization. In order for your website to be sighted amongst billions of others, your content must contain relevant keywords that are mostly utilized by users. You also have to determine the difference between long-tail and short-tail keywords because only then can you incorporate the appropriate keywords in your content and meta descriptions. Long-tail keywords are basically composed of three to four words, while short-tail keywords are only made up of a word or two. It would be best if you prioritize long-tail keywords over the other as it gathers less competition because of its length. Thus, your content has a higher possibility of ranking in SERPs.
2. LSI Keywords.
Incorporating LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords in your content will allow search engines to grasp the relevance of your topic better. Simply put, LSI keywords are words that can be associated with the subject of your content.
Most often than not, search engines seek topic matches first before heading to keyword matching — and to arrive at that, they start by looking into LSI keywords. Basically, the main objective of LSI is to ensure that search engines actually understand the content and topic that you want to be ranked.
3. Optimize Title Tags.
Your title tag is a very crucial factor in SEO — it is what can either make or break your content. It is important that your title contains information that summarizes your topic. In addition, make sure that it is optimized. A good title tag should already contain your main keyword and should not exceed 55 characters. Ultimately, do not forget to make your title tag interesting — enough to pique the curiosity of your potential visitors. Also, remember that your title tag is what appears on the SERPs and not necessarily the title of your content that is on your website. However, it is vital that your title tag and your on-page title are coordinated because if not, users will bounce back to the SERPs, which can potentially lead to a lower ranking.
4. Optimize Meta Descriptions and Make it Informative.
Meta descriptions are what essentially appears below the title tags in a SERP. If you have immersed yourself in basic SEO tips for beginners, then you might already be familiar with them. They don’t usually be factored out when search engines rank websites. However, it is still important to insert your keywords because Google normally bolds those words for users to easily identify whether your site is relevant or not. If users deem your website to be helpful from seeing your meta descriptions, then it would likely result in a visit to your page.
5. Use Keywords in Headings and Paragraphs.
Another basic SEO tip for beginners is to also integrate the keywords into your headings and within your content. Keywords are a critical component for Google’s algorithm to rank websites. They help search engines like Google to determine whether your content can answer questions, which is why you have to make sure that your target keywords and other related words can be found in your headings and paragraphs.
6. Optimize Images.
Images should also be a part of your optimization efforts as they are quicker and simpler to process. On top of that, images are more appealing in comparison to the long and boring blocks of words. However, although it is much more convenient for the readers of your content to understand images, search engines do not. The thing you have to do to make search engines understand your images easily is to utilize alt text.
Alt text can be used within your HTML code, and it should be as descriptive as possible for search engines to comprehend it more. In addition, an optimized image increases your rank on Google images which in return increases traffic for your website.
7. Outbound, Internal, and Backlinks.
Attaching outbound links to your content can help search engines determine the kind of services your website puts out. Outbound links essentially connect your site to the others. Incorporating reliable outbound links can also make search engines view your website to be trustworthy and of high quality, hence, helping in increasing your rank.
Meanwhile, as much as it is important to provide outbound links and receive backlinks, linking content to your other produced content holds the same ground. Internal links connecting your content to other links within your website can be useful for users to navigate through your domain. It can also be a way to promote your other content as well. It’s like hitting two birds with one stone!
Last but definitely not least, my one final basic SEO tip for beginners is to not forget to give backlinks. A backlink is when your mention other sites by providing their links. However, your backlink should be of a reputable website that is related to the content that you provide — the rationale of this is that search engines will deem your website to be more useful for users. Having a strong backlink is an easy SEO tip for beginners because it is proven to increase ranking quickly.
Conclusion
Above are just a few basic SEO tips for beginners that you may consider when optimizing your search engine. Figure out which tips work best for you in order to get yourself ahead of your competitors. Moreover, practice adapting yourself to the current SEO strategies. Remember that only relevant and credible pages appear on the search engine results page, so strive to apply those basic SEO tips for beginners. Ultimately, if you need assistance with your SEO needs, you may book a discovery call with SmartVAs!