14 basic SEO tips for beginners
What is SEO? Basic Information
Search Engine Optimization (or simply SEO) – a set of specific techniques and strategies to help increase a website's ranking in search results. Think of yourself when you google something. You probably look at the first 2-3 pages of the results, if not less. If you want your website to show up high in search results (ideally on the first page) when people search for the information you provide on your platform, you need to know all the details and secrets of SEO.
How can SEO benefit my website?
It's clear that a high ranking in Google or Yandex can be very beneficial for your business. If your site shows up on the first few pages, the chances of people seeing and visiting it go up significantly. As a result, you get more traffic, more conversions, more sales and become more popular!
12 basic SEO tips for beginners!
1. Choose the right keywords
The right keywords are the most important element of basic SEO because they drive the most traffic from organic search.
Determine the keywords that are most relevant to your business or website. Think about what people are writing looking for services or products like yours. You can also do a little research and see what keywords your competitors are using. There are a lot of services for this now.
Create a list of keywords based on this research.
Services for keyword research:
- Keywordtool.io - an excellent multi-language service
- SimilarWeb - tool for analize Google SERP keywords and sites
- Google Keyword Planner - a tool from Google
- LSI Graph - a foreign search service for direct and related keys
- KW Finder - a great service in English
- Wordtracker
- Search Volume
2. Optimize your meta tags
Meta tags describe the content of the page and also help search engines identify the relevance of a search query to the page's content.
The meta tags include:
- Title
In source code, this is the content between the HTML tags <title> and </title>.
The content of this tag is your page title in the search engine. - Meta Description
In about 80% of cases search engines show this text right below the title of your site in their results.
Extremely useful tag to describe your page content in a concise way. - Meta Keywords
Where you should simply list your keywords. Don't hold back. - Meta Robots
This is if you want to control the indexing of the page in any way. For example, prohibit search engines from indexing this URL.
Make sure each page of your site has a unique title and meta tag description.
Include keywords that are most relevant to each page in the titles and meta tag description.
Make your meta tag titles and descriptions compelling so that users want to click on your site in search engine listings.
3. TITLE really counts!
A few tips for filling your Title tag:
- Limit your title to 60 characters or less so that it shows up fully in search results.
- Use keywords that succinctly summarize the content of the page.
- Make Title unique and compelling to engage users and increase clickability in search results.
- Try to use the most important keywords near the beginning.
- Do not repeat the same Title for multiple pages!
- Use a brand name in Title to increase your brand awareness.
- Avoid writing Title in the TOP TITLE, as this can come across as poor quality and annoying.
- Example of a properly filled in tag: "How to properly fill in the Title tag: tips for optimizing | my site".
4. Create accurate headings and subheadings
The headings and subheadings on your page are also important for SEO. There are six types of tags for markup, from H1 to H6.
The use of H3-H6 tags is optional unless you have a very large article. Be sure to structure your text appropriately. Add internal links
Internal links – are hyperlinks that take visitors to the landing page of your site.
Internal links can benefit website SEO for two reasons:
- They help keep visitors longer on your pages, which means search engines may find your site more useful.
- Links help mutually promote internal pages of your site. In the end, especially if real visitors actually click on those links, both referring and linked pages will have a positive effect.
6. Add External Links to Other Sites
External Links – these are hyperlinks leading to other authoritative sources on other websites. If you use external links to popular websites, then Google may rank your site as more valuable. Remember that you should only add links to popular and relevant websites if you want this SEO tip to help you.
7. Get links from other sites to yours
Yondex has paid much less attention in recent years to what external links your site has, but Google still rates this ranking factor heavily. Search engine algorithms are always changing, but you can always be confident that your links will have some sort of impact on your ranking and traffic.
There are several ways to build external link mass:
- Hosting: posting content on other sites that links to you. This helps build relationships with other bloggers and gain new audiences.
- Social media links: Using social media to promote your content and get links.
- Directories: Placing your site in online directories and lists like DMOZ and Yahoo Directory.
- Press releases: Posting news and announcements about your business to press release sites with your link.
- Forums: Participate in online forums where you can link to your site in your signature or reply to questions
- Blog comments: Comment on blogs and link to your site.
- Graphic links: Use graphics such as banners and buttons to get links.
- Advertising: Use ad networks to show ads on other sites.
It's important to remember that the quality of external links is more important than their quantity. Links must be natural and from reputable and relevant sources.
8. Create searchable URLs
URLs must be searchable and easy for people to read. Using the main keyword in the URL is recommended.
9. Add Image Descriptions
Image descriptions are not only good for SEO, they will also make your site more accessible to people with disabilities. If an image won't load or if a user can't see it because of a visual impairment, descriptions help determine what's depicted. Search engines value your markup for pictures.
In addition to pictures:
- Compress images to reduce page load time.
- Give clear, descriptive filenames to images using keywords.
10. Increase page load speed
Page load speed has a direct impact on SEO rankings because Google rates pages that load quickly.
The faster a site loads, the higher it will appear on the search engine results page because load speed affects traffic, conversions, etc.
You can check the loading speed of a website with tools like WebPageTest.
11: Adapting for Mobile
More and more people are using the web through mobile devices, and for many sites this has been a big part of their audience.
In some countries, mobile users even outnumber PC users. But not all sites are optimized for mobile.
This has a dramatic impact on Google's rankings because the search engine uses mobile download speed as one of the metrics for ranking search results.
Google has a free mobile optimization test to help you determine if your site is optimized for mobile.
12. Create an XML Sitemap
XML Sitemap – this is a list of links to all the main pages on your website. This list leads search engines to the most important pages on your platform, and tells Google about any updates to those pages and, as a result, improves your rankings. You can do this either manually or by using a special service to create a Sitemap.
13. Update your content regularly
Add new content and update existing content regularly! Content should be relevant to what your visitors want to see. Don't forget to add keywords so that users can find your site through organic search. If you write blogs, write posts at least 1,000 words long and add internal and external links.
Remember that Google rates these articles better.
It is recommended that you create a special content plan and write your website texts in advance.
Be sure to research your competitors in search engine rankings before you write. The best option is to research your competitors and do better.
14. Track key metrics and improve
It's important to regularly monitor the results of your hard work and see if there are any improvements. You can do this by installing Google Analytics or Yandex.Metrics. This tool provides valuable data about user behavior. Be sure to keep track of which pages are getting popular and what the bounce rate is for any given content.
These basic SEO tips will not only help you get your site up in the search results but will also drive business and increase conversions. Follow them and you'll see the popularity of your site grow.
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