What is SEO Optimization? Here’s a Basic Guide to Get You Started!

Are you new to digital marketing? Or still trying to learn the different parts of it?

If so, then you should familiarize yourself with “search engine optimization” (which is known as SEO).

It’s a key element to help you get more visits to your website or blog,  wider audience, and eventually more sales!

This article breaks down what SEO is, how it works – along with some basic practices that will help you get started today!

SO, WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION?

In simple words, SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

Search engine optimization implies your ranking in Google’s search.

With SEO, your goal is to be on Google’s first pages. And you want to rank as high as possible in page results.

That is, you want to be in the top FIVE page search results – which alone get up to 67% of clicks (source, 5th stat)!

WHAT ABOUT OTHER SEARCH ENGINES?

Did you know that almost 70 percent of the Search Engine market has been acquired by Google?

If you’re ranking on Google, then you’ll definitely be successful on other search engines.

Going back to the previous point, Google is responsible for 75% of desktop searches.

And that’s where you’ve got to focus your marketing efforts!

SECOND – HOW DOES SEO WORK?

To understand how SEO works, you need to understand search engines first. Search engines have three primary functions:

1. Crawl: Scour the Internet for content, looking over the code/content for each URL they find.
2. Index: Store and organize the content found during the crawling process. Once a page is in the index, it’s in the running to be displayed as a result to relevant queries.
3. Rank: Provide the pieces of content that will best answer a searcher’s query, which means that results are ordered by most relevant to least relevant.

Generally, when you’re trying to rank on Google – you’re trying to rank for search queries that your clients use.

For example, if you’re running a shoe store, you might be trying to target people who search for “blue shoes” or “nearby shoe stores.”

Those are often search queries that your clients will use.

Those queries are called keywords. They represent the searched phrases by customers trying to look for your service or similar products.

WHAT ARE THE BEST KEYWORDS?

Obviously, you can’t use any keyword. You have to pick the ones relevant to your service or to what you offer.

There are certain requirements that you need to take into consideration while looking up these keywords, like:

• Relevance
• Popularity (how often a keyword is used).
• Competitiveness (how many pages are trying to compete to rank for a keyword).

You need to balance the previous components, while keeping in mind that these keywords will help you find and attract potential customers!

WHY NOT FOCUS ON POPULARITY ONLY?

Think of it this way.

A popular keyword is sought after by every business in your industry (your competitors).

So you’re not the only person competing for that keyword. Others want to rank for it too, making it harder for you to rank.

If you try to use a very competitive and popular keyword – you risk not reaching Google’s first pages.

Even worse, you risk not being seen at all!

HOW DO I FIND KEYWORDS?

You do so through tools that collect analytical information on the most popular search queries.

Examples of those include…

• Semrush (link – you can sign up for a free trial or pay to get more features)
• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer (link – requires a paid subscription).
• Google Keyword Planner (link – requires a subscription).

THIRD: HOW CAN YOU USE KEYWORDS?

Keywords are meant to be used in your website’s content.

Creating compelling content is about providing real value for real people, not just stuffing pages with keywords.

There are some basic keyword usage rules you should follow to get started.

• Unique keywords should be employed on each page of your website: This includes both the title tag and the body of your content.
• You can add your primary keyword into your URL, an H1 tag on the page, the meta description, and alt attributes of images on the page.

Using your keywords in these areas is the most basic way to target your content to searches. It’s not going to immediately shoot you to the top of the results, but it is essential SEO.

Keywords need to be used in certain densities (as a % of your content word count).

Positioning also matters. Google is more likely to rank you for a word if it’s in a title, subheading, or in the first 100 words.

DOES IT SEEM LIKE A LOT TO CONSIDER?

That’s just scratching the surface of SEO.

It’s a specialization. And if you want to master it, then we recommend the assistance of a professional. You can contact us to help you.