SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a process that is used for optimizing a website’s visibility, content relevance along with link popularity for the web pages to become relevant to user search queries. In this SEO tutorial for beginners, we will discuss the step-by-step guide to Search Engine Optimization. Let’s learn in-depth about SEO – a set of methods that can notch up your ranking on popular search engines such as Google, Bing and more.
Importance of SEO 2022
SEO is the fundamental part of digital marketing as people tend to conduct trillions of searcheseach year, often with the intention of finding relevant information about product and services. Search is often the fundamental source of traffic for brands and having greater visibility through SEO can help you rank higher in the search results than your competitors.
It is SEO that helps customers get what they are looking for easily. Increased conversion rates & traffic generation are two most important aspects of SEO. In addition to visibility and traffic increase, SEO contributes to your authoritative voice in your niche field. This eventually leads to brand awareness, brand building, and brand loyalty for a business.
SEO Working Process
In this section of the SEO tutorial for beginners, we will learn how search engine optimization works.
1. Research
It includes in-depth business research, competitor analysis, current site assessment, and keyword searching.
2. Planning and strategy
This includes making decisions on how to manage content, building links to the website, managing social media presence, and more.
3. Implementation
This is where optimization decisions on a sites web pages along with the website are executed entirely.
4. Monitoring
Here is where the activity of web spiders, traffic, search engine rankings, and other metrics are analyzed for producing reports based on which assessment will be performed.
5. Assessment
This involves checking the summarized effects of the strategy (and its implementation) against the specified SEO targets.
6. Maintenance
Here both minor, as well as major problems with the websites operation, are handled. ( For example- new content that needs optimization according to the strategy).
Types of Search Engine Optimization
There are three types of SEO in total, they are as follows:
1. On-Page SEO
On-Page SEO, popularly known as On-Site SEO refers to the process of optimizing web pages on the website for improving rankings and user experience in SERPs. Elements of on-page SEO include Title tags, Internal links, HTML code, URL optimization, On-page content, Image Optimization, User experience (UX), meta descriptions, structured data, content optimization, and more.
2. Off-Page SEO
Off-Page SEO is all about dealing with the actions that are primarily performed outside the website for improving the ranking on the SERPs. Some of the popular off-page SEO elements include Link Building, Content Marketing, Social Media, Podcasts, Reviews, Forums, Events, Guest Posting, Content Syndication, Brand Building and more.
3. Technical SEO
Technical search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the SEO tactics that involve creating and optimizing a website so that popular search engines can readily crawl, index, and render it. Some of the popular elements of Technical SEO include site speed, structured data, canonicalization, XML Sitemaps, Hreflang tags, and more.
Now, let’s have a look at the several steps in this SEO tutorial for beginners. All of these steps help beginners enhance their SEO ranking.
Step 1) Opt for Keywords Popular to Users
SEO means getting the right people to your site. You have to achieve the target of directing users who need your service/product. These users could easily become the website’s leads. Keywords help a website get qualified leads.
You need to conduct keyword research. Search for terms used by your target audience while searching for what you sell. Use the terms and conduct thorough research to discover keywords for your business/service. A few online tools such as Google Keyword Planner can help with popular keyword research. A complete list of well-researched keywords can help you optimize your content in a better and user-centric way.
Step 2) Design Content Relevant to User Queries
The second step after keyword research is to post content around those key terms. Search the questions that maximum readers want an answer to. Include those questions in your content. Remember, creating content that answers users’ questions is the best way to offer real value to the website. This step is crucial as it still offers optimization for SEO.
Your blog/content must include a title with a question. Include the target keyword to your blog’s title and then answer it inside out. Beginners usually find it difficult to identify search intent. In such a scenario,you can make use of Google Keyword Planner where you can easily find keywords with their related search volume and competition.
Step 3) Add an Interesting Title
As a beginner in SEO, you should pay attention to the title. Analyze every post and try to answer whether or not the title encourages a thorough read. Publish the article only when you find the post with a captivating title. Titles attract readers, and hence you need to learn to write a catchy headline.
Many SEO certification programs help you with headlines. Pursue any of the certifications available online. Learn to invest time in the title. And if you find a blog, already published, going unnoticed, go back and change its title.
Step 4) Add Images
Content that contains images helps in better traffic generation. Hence, web owners must consider adding images to any content that is shared online. With twisted and huge headlines, readers find images alluring. They try to read and focus more on posts that include images. Hence, you must add images to get that wanted web share or page click.
Surveys suggestthat content with images received 2.3 times more engagement than those with plain text. To make your service/brand unique, consider featuring an image that’s contextually relevant to your post. Avoid using general images, rather use an image that goes well with the content. Images must be unique, attractive & relevant to your particular content out of thousands of related topics.
Step 5) Cross Check & then Publish
Just remember, a final check is more important than just publishing your content. Recheck the entire copy for perfect fineness. You need to analyze spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes. Avoid any silly mistakes within a sentence.
Step 6) Observe Your Page
After the blog gets published on your web page, don’t think that your work is done. Now, you have to monitor your ongoing results. You should track and modify your site regularly. Observing your page continuously will help you locate any developing problem within the website. This step is crucial for Search Engine Optimization because, here, you can develop a solution that enhances user experience & website engagement.
How to Master SEO Optimization Techniques?
To learn the above-mentioned SEO techniques, you need to gain hands-on experience with certain techniques. They include
Keyword Research related to your business
Identifying your competitors
Including descriptive title tags for each page
Appropriate keywords and internal hyperlinks
Adding text links in the content
De-emphasizing Loading Time
Continues content monitoring
Including Quality content
All of these could be easily achieved via the best SEO course syllabus. This syllabus is a crucial aspect of the course. It is needed for the students to acquire an initial knowledge of the search engine optimization course.
We hope this blog has helped you have a basic understanding of what is SEO, types of SEO and what are the different processes involved in it.