The Ultimate SEO Guide for Beginners.

 

What makes you standout? What makes you buy from a specific brand/service provider? What makes you the best candidate of choice after a job interview? Our lives are made up of the different decisions we make, whether good or bad & that is how Search Engines work. In this article we discuss; what is SEO & tools used & why it is important.

What is SEO & tools used.

Search Engine Optimization is the ranking of a website by a search engine. The different web browsers have the Search engines Google or Bing. The search engine first performs a crawl of the different sources of information that make up the web. It is then followed up with indexing which is a record of the content that will be presented based on search made. Ranking- providing pieces of content that answer the query, this is the last step performed by the search engine. Different sites are shown as a result of your query & you get to choose which one answers your question best.

The results that appear on search, at the very top are sponsored then followed by organic. The sponsored results are of companies that use Google AdWords where they bid to pay a specific amount when the inquiry matches keywords. Multiple companies can bid for the same keywords, but the highest bidder gets to appear first on the results.

Other result formats used by Google; featured snippet, people also ask.

The factors that determine if your website gets to appear on the first page of search results;

1. Site speed
2. Website content
3. Link building

Loading time of any website determines if a visitor stays or leaves, use Google Page Speed Insight to check if you are on the right track. Ensure content is updated frequently & is precise; product description, location, about us page & contact information. Explore all content formats; text, video & image, carousels, with the goal to educate or entertain your audience. Link Building involves having quality backlinks. Link Building is a representation of authority & trust. Having backlinks from high authority websites in your website lets it rank higher on search results.

SEO is a component of Digital Marketing. Your company should have a team of people able to perform all the components of Digital Marketing for quality results or you can also outsource an SEO professional. Here are some tools you can use to learn more about SEO & what you can achieve;

Google Analytics

Serpstat

SEMRush

Moz

The tools mentioned are used to perform;

Website Audit- discover all the activities that happen on your site; traffic sources-web or mobile, audience- geography, gender & age, click through rate, bounce rate, time on page.

Rank tracking– what makes your website appear on Search Engine Result Page(SERP)? The search engines through use of algorithms determine the relevance of all stored information then displays results to a query made in order of most relevant to least relevant.

Keyword Research- what words would a customer use to search for your business? All those words constitute what makes up the content on your website & social media. Keyword Research is not only important for paid ads but also for organic content. Read more here.

Backlink analysis- One trick to link building is having quality content such that people link their website with yours. You can also collaborate with businesses & industry thought leaders by writing their thoughts on a subject or writing about the product.

Research for Paid Ads-Paid Ad campaigns serve different purposes; create brand awareness, increase sales, increase website traffic you can’t afford to get it wrong. Besides the tools mentioned above, when running a Google AdWords campaign check out Google keyword planner. Carrying out a competitor analysis to know what is working for your competitors can help inform your decisions. Read more here. 

Also, use Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster to learn; your site search traffic and performance & fix issues.

Try out the different features of Serpstat for their 7-day trial period, use the code THEE_HAVEN.

Importance of SEO

Increased organic traffic.

Better ranking position on SERP.

Quality content incorporating keywords.

 Conclusion

SEO is not a one off activity, it is continuous. Remember to add all those SEO plugins to your website, stay up-to-date with all the Google updates, keep updating your content.