SEO for Beginners
SEO tips for Beginners | SEO techniques that are relevant in 2020
Ever heard of SEO? Yes you’ve read about business success stories and how critical has SEO been at the heart of a company’s marketing strategy. But before you jump into this vast ocean, it is critical to understand and learn the basics of SEO to achieve your business goals.
What is SEO? Why SEO?
SEO is Search Engine Optimization that aims at increasing a company’s website traffic (quality & quantity), enhancing brand awareness via search engine results (also called organic research, non-paid).
Goal-setting and achievement: In 2020 it is important to understand your customer needs, their queries, the words that they are searching on the web and the type of content they would like to view, basically identifying your target audience and their expectations.
So if you’re able to put out the right content on your website with the right keywords in keeping with your target audience, the organic search will help you reap great dividends over a long period of time as against paid advertising which would demand regular ploughing of money.
Given the above, keep the website content original and unique. Use links and social shares. In case your business operates locally, you need to include the words “near”, “city name” etc.
SEO Working Mechanism
Now let us see how SEO works to improves your listing on SERPs
The Search Engines perform three primary tasks
Now let us see how SEO works to improves your listing on SERPs
The Search Engines perform three primary tasks
Crawl: This implies scanning of Internet content (Websites, various types of files and documents including videos and images). The ‘crawlers’ fetch few web pages and follows the links to discover new URLS that may be retrieved later. The crawlers need a path of links on your website that should guide it from page to page. So structure your navigation such that your website is accessible to search engines.
Index : This follows the crawling process where the content identified and chosen is stored and organized. It is a huge database. Use meta tags /instructions to direct search engines as to how to treat your webpage.
Rank: Displays the results that best answer the customer queries in the order of relevance (most to least). When a user performs a search, the search engines scan the index for the most relevant content. So your content must be visible to the crawlers and must be index able. The search engines use algorithms/process to determine the relevance of the content and the process keeps changing to improve search results quality.
Back-link/ Inbound : These are links from other websites that point to your website.
Internal Link: These are links on your own site that point to your other pages (on the same site).These links act like referrals for your business, the more the backlinks from trusted websites, the better the chances of your top rankings in search results.
Keyword Research
This entails assessment of what exactly your target audience want, in which format is the information required.
So you need to focus on the keyword data you’ve gathered and work on it. This includes the words used for the search, questions asked, customer location etc. You need to discover related keywords for prioritization and how often these keywords are searched. You may develop a FAQ page with a compilation of most asked questions and increase organic traffic on your website. Assess the keywords used by your competitors, the high-volume ones. However focus on keywords that are within your niche (better to have 10 conversions from 100 visitors than get 10 from 1000 visitors)
- Content Creation
From the chosen keywords list, group them as per the similarity, and create separate pages for your website. Keep the content original and compelling. Each page must have a Header Tag that describes the page. It must also have backlinks, anchor text (that helps you link pages). However create links only if required
- Your posts must be easy to read with shorter paragraphs, bullet points, images, copywriting technique: bucket brigade (using a trigger word or phrase to pique interest)
- Write content around long-tail keywords (‘tips to buy car’/’car buying guide’)
Optimize voice-search
Soon 50 % of all searches will be voice based, so you need to factor this into your SEO strategy. It has been observed that the longer the content, the higher the likelihood of its ranking at the top of the SERPs. Use videos with YouTube SEO, make SEO friendly videos; longer videos. Target local searchers with local landing pages and listings.
Website Optimization
Website development is a crucial factor to business success online.
The Title Tag : The title must contain the vital keywords of the web page.
Meta Tags : The meta description tag usually is a brief about the web page. Moreover every web page must contain one heading tag which is written in an H1 tag of HTML. Then the secondary keywords may be written in H2 and H3 tags in decreasing order of priority/importance. Page titles, descriptions, and keywords should all be different. Every page should have its own set of meta data.
Image Optimization, alt tags :
The alt tag is used to optimize images. The vital keywords/key-phrases are written inside the alt tag to describe the image. All your image alt attributes must be descriptive 100% W3C-compliant, Search engines will read alt attributes and may take them into consideration when determining the relevancy of the page to the keywords a searcher queries.
Responsiveness is another key factor for SEO during website development. It determines and enhances visibility of your website A responsive website– a website compatible with the various mobile devices (phone/tablets/laptop), flexible images and grills– can enhance the search engine visibility of any website.
Performance-Tracking for SEO
Now what should you be targeting to assess your ROI on SEO?
You need to gauge the Sales, Organic Leads, Downloads, E-mail sign-ups, Phone Calls, Contact form submissions as your primary KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and additionally for local business the Clicks-to-Call, Clicks-to-Website, Clicks-for driving-directions.
Performance indicators/ Engagement Metrics
- Clicks
- Amount of time spent on the page
- Bounce Rate: (%of all website sessions where users had viewed a single page
- Pogo-Sticking: When user clicks on an organic result and promptly returns to the SERP to pick another result.
In case of a local business, the following three factors are mainly assessed for search rankings:
- Relevance to user
- Proximity to user
- Prominence including reviews, citations
Having gone through the above, modify / create your SEO strategy and give your-self 6 months to an year’s time to be able to reap benefits from your SEO strategy.
