Did you know that search accounts for around 64% of all organic traffic? Only around 10% of the total comes through social media. You must grasp search engines in order to establish an effective digital marketing plan.
This SEO for beginners article will explain how to improve your website for increased traffic and introduce you to the basics of search engine optimization.
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
To comprehend what SEO entails, you must first comprehend how search engines like as Google, Bing, and others operate. What factors do they use when determining their search rankings? Imaginatively, there are a plethora of websites that explore comparable subjects.
If not otherwise specified, a search engine such as Google indexes web pages – Consider it a digital version of one of those old yellow phone books.
Search engine bots examine your website after you develop it to analyse the content it contains and index it appropriately so that it shows in relevant search results. Search engine bots can now comprehend contextualised information (text, structure, and non-text material) on your website and index it based on a variety of characteristics, including relevancy and authority.
This is when optimization for search engines comes into play. The process of optimising your website for search engines is known as SEO. It’s all about optimising websites so that search engines recognise their worth and rank them correctly.
Let’s get one thing straight regarding SEO:
Pages, not your whole website, are indexed by search engines. This implies that your SEO efforts should be carried out one page at a time.
What is the significance of SEO?
The preceding section has already given us a sense of how important SEO is. Consider your own search patterns to have a better understanding.
Let’s imagine you go to Google to look for information on a certain subject, such as “best tools for email marketing.” You may enter it in exactly like that, or you can simply type in ’email marketing tools.’ You’ll receive a list of results right now.
Which one are you going to choose?
Have you ever gone to the second or third page of results? Probably not, and if so, not very often.
This example exemplifies the significance of SEO. Your overall search ranking is aided by having your pages optimised for search engines.
Your goal is to appear on the first page (or even within the first few listings) of the search that your customers are conducting so that you can see an increase in traffic to your website.
How to optimise a website for search engines
Let’s take a look at 10 essential SEO for beginners tips you can use right now to improve your website.
1.Conduct keyword research and utilise phrases that are relevant.
In SEO, keywords are quite crucial. A keyword is a phrase that describes the main topic of your article and allows people to find it when they conduct an online search for a related topic.
A keyword is the term used to describe what people would put into a search engine while looking for anything. This is why you should make sure your keyword matches your target audience’s search intent. It might be a simple keyword like ‘digital marketing’ or a long-tail term like ‘how to develop a successful digital advertising campaign.’
Keywords with fewer letters have a greater search volume. As a result, ranking for them may be more challenging. Long-tail keywords have a smaller search volume, but they are more specialised in contrast. The benefit is that you can target the specific audience who is interested in it. It’s better to use a combination of long-tail and short-tail keywords.
It’s also a good idea to think about the keyword’s search volume and rank difficulty before using it. The search volume reveals how often people look at this particular term. People are more interested in this issue if there is a larger search volume. On the other side, the rank difficulty shows how tough it will be to rank in search engine results.
Keywords are important, but they aren’t the only factor to consider when optimising a website. To increase traffic, you must concentrate on other crucial factors.
Let’s take a closer look at some smart methods to improve your website.
2.Sprinkle keywords liberally across your page.
There are various relevant keywords on each page or blog article. The keyword for this post is ‘SEO for Beginners.’ That’s most likely the search phrase that brought you here!
Your selected keywords should ideally be in the:
The post’s title is
The web address is
The post’s first and final paragraphs
Throughout the post, naturally in the wording
Image tags that were utilised
Put them in as long as they don’t disturb the flow of the piece. Just watch out for ‘Keyword Stuffing,’ which we’ll go into later in this essay.
3.Use SEO in your permalinks
The URL you see when you view a website is known as a permalink. Permalinks reveal a lot about your website’s general structure; they shouldn’t be too lengthy and should properly indicate what the page is about. For the benefit of both the reader and the bot crawling your website.
As previously said, search engine bots scan all of the pages on your site in order to completely comprehend the subject of your site and properly index it. In your URL, choose terms that are easy to understand. If you own an online bookstore, for example, use permalinks to arrange your pages so that consumers know what they’re getting and to help contextualise the material. It aids SEO by making the hierarchy visible to search engines.
This may be something like this:
Is your website www.lovelybooks.com?
www.lovelybooks.com/selfhelp – this might be a website that lists all of the books in the selfhelp category.
www.lovelybooks.com/selfhelp/BOOKTITLE – here is the website where people may learn more about a particular book in this category.
Because permalinks are permanent, it’s critical to choose the appropriate ones for your sites. It’s not a good idea to utilise exact dates or facts that might change in the future.
Why? You should, in theory, maintain updating your page over time. Having a page that has been online for a long period is beneficial to SEO. You don’t want to develop pages that you’ll never use. Because older pages have been published for a longer period of time, they do not rank. They have a high ranking because they have been able to demonstrate authority over time via generating traffic, link-building, and other methods. It’s critical to be able to update your pages with new and relevant content, which necessitates the creation of a timeless URL structure.
Assume you’re writing an essay titled “Top 5 Marketing Tips for 2020.” This is a fantastic subject! However, in your permalink, remove the year 2020. As a result, you’ll be able to amend the post and write about the ‘Top 5 Marketing Tips for 2021’ later.
The same principle applies to sites dedicated to certain holidays, such as Black Friday. It occurs once a year, and you’ll want to bookmark this page for future reference.
4.Make use of existing material by linking to it.
Link to another post you’ve written if the one you’re writing now is linked to one you’ve previously published. Linking your content to other articles and pages on your website is a fantastic idea. This will improve the user experience by assisting readers in finding similar information and navigating to other pages on your site, as well as assisting bots in indexing and contextualising your websites.
5.Create material that is of excellent quality. There will be no keyword stuffing!
Of course, you should provide material that will keep readers interested. Make sure you cover all there is to know about your subject and don’t leave anything out. It’s critical that you provide your audience with an overview of the desired subject as well as responses that are tailored to their specific requirements.
More words may not always imply greater quality, but they might suggest that the issue has been well explored. According to backlinko.com, there is a relationship between the number of words in an article and its ranking, as well as the depth of the piece.
Aside from presenting your subject in detail, writing in a clear, beautiful, and conversational style might help you stand out. Don’t cram your term into every sentence in the hopes of achieving a high keyword density. Trying to beat the system by stuffing as many keywords as possible into every available space will not succeed, and many people will be punished as a result.
Search engines are quite smart and can detect term stuffing.
6.Improve the quality of your photographs
Images are quite significant in terms of readability. They aid in the visualisation of your material and its comprehension by readers. They are, nonetheless, vital for SEO since they aid in the crawling of your website. An picture cannot be crawled or indexed, however the image ALT-text, or image description, may be crawled and indexed.
Using your keyword as the Image ALT-Text ensures that it will be indexed by Google for that precise term.
Have you ever paid attention to the graphics that display above your search results? They’re also a terrific technique to drive traffic to your site and, as a result, signal that your site and photos are relevant to the search subject. Compression of your photos is also essential. Image size and style may have a huge impact on website speed, which is important for SEO. As a result, ensure sure your photos are properly optimised. Using picture compression software is a simple way to do it.
7.Page loading time
Your page speed is critical for website ranking, and Google has been using it as a ranking factor since 2018. People spend just a few seconds on your homepage before deciding whether or not to investigate it further.
A website that loads quickly provides an excellent user experience. Because of the limited amount of time people are willing to wait these days, if your website takes too long to load, it will result in a greater bounce rate. Although bounce rate is not a criteria that has a direct impact on your ranking, it is linked to page speed.
8.Don’t forget to provide a mobile version of your site!
Because people are increasingly using their mobile phones to access the internet, optimising your website for smart devices is a must. If you don’t, you’ll have a high bounce rate since, let’s face it, no one wants to remain on a website that isn’t mobile-friendly. Incorrect formatting may cause annoyances such as broken buttons or the need to scroll to the side to view the complete page.
People are more likely to remain on your website and investigate it if they have a good user experience, which suggests that your page is relevant for the keyword you choose. In fact, mobile layout is so critical that Google has declared that mobile-first indexing of webpages will begin shortly.
9.Search engine optimization that is technical
In section 3, we discussed how to build a strong website structure, which is already a component of technical SEO.
However, technical SEO encompasses more than simply permalinks and keyword selection. It’s all about making your website mobile-friendly. This is an extremely sophisticated and technical issue that goes beyond the scope of an SEO for beginners article. Nonetheless, it is necessary to mention it here.
Work with a technical SEO specialist and your team to figure out what the perfect website structure and design for your target audience should be.
10.Keep your sites and information up to date.
You’ll want to run an SEO audit on a frequent basis to keep your material up to date. Especially because information and trends change so quickly, and you don’t want to be punished for having outdated information in your search results.
Examine older pages and websites, evaluating the content and ensuring that everything is properly optimised. If your material no longer serves a purpose and is not properly optimised, it will most likely affect your ranking.
Remember to publicise your articles and material.
SEO is a never-ending process, but with practise and patience, you’ll graduate from an SEO for beginners guide to a more advanced position. One of the most effective techniques to increase your search engine ranking is to create relevant pieces on your blog on a regular basis (new material). Once you’ve created fantastic content, advertise it to attract a larger audience.
You may do it naturally by posting them on social media and sending them out in a newsletter. Alternatively, you might use sponsored advertising. Both are critical to your marketing plan and must be completed at some time.
You may establish a long-term communication flow with your consumers using an organic strategy. Paid advertising helps you reach the correct audience with your content and drive more visitors to your website, which improves your SEO performance.
You can generate advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and Google in seconds using Nanos, and you can target your specific demographic. It just takes one click to create an excellent ad! SEO is essential for increasing traffic to your website and allowing new visitors to learn about your company. This SEO for beginners tutorial will help you increase your consumer base.
Source: SEO Agency Malaysia, SEO Malaysia
