So, What is SEO For Beginners?
Hello, and welcome to Smart SEO Beginner.
Smart SEO Beginner is a resource hub to learn what is SEO and how it works in the real world.
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the field of making sure that your content shows up in relevant searches on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo. These search engines use "crawl" the internet using website signals and return results back based on proprietary "algorithms".
Definition of SEO
In the words of Google developers - "SEO is about helping search engines understand and present content. "
Importance of SEO for Businesses and Individuals
Search engine optimization is focused on returning what is called "organic" results - meaning that it returns non-paid results. While investments may be placed into the development of SEO, the placement itself is not paid. You'll hear this repeatedly, but in SEO, content is king. That theory assumes that content that is high-quality, unique, and relevant to readers (that's you!) is rewarded with higher placement and increased visibility.
The brilliant team at Search Engine Land does a better job explaining this in depth. My goal here is to distill this information for practical purposes, but I'm happy to provide deeper resources as I do so.
Essential Concept: Keywords
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are the representative terms of what your page is mostly about. Most pages and blog posts have a primary keyword, which is the seed that creates the content tree. That may sound easy, but the research to find the right keyword, and to identify secondary keywords that support this concept can grow to be complex. For starters and small websites, it's best to focus on a unique keyword per page or post, and focus on creating great content.
Keywords can be a bit "flashy" and they used to be the backbone of SEO. As search engines get smarter and evolve, keywords are still important for an SEO Beginner, but they are just a piece of the puzzle, rather than the core - although they're a phenomenal starting point, since creating a focal point for your content is a great way to identify the purpose and end goal of your content.
Essential Keyword Tools - Free
Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz is a powerhouse in the field of SEO tools. While there are other tools and they each have their own benefits and drawbacks, for free keyword exploration, Moz does a great job, although it is limited to 10 searches per month on a free level. This is great if you're just getting started or know that the term you want to use is non-negotiable. Seeing that data if you're already committed to a term can help set expectations for performance.
Below, you can see the monthly search volume, how difficult it is to rank for, the click-through rate, and Priority, which is unique to Moz. The Priority rank is a good indication of volume vs difficulty - the higher it is, the better the volume and the lower the difficulty.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a great insight for an SEO beginner. While it's not the best way to see what specific keyword data is available, it's a great way to identify what is trending and see some exposure into the metrics that drive SEO if you're just getting started.
Below, in my search for "SEO" you can see the interest in the term for the past year, as well as interest by my local subregions (states since I'm in the US). I can also see related topics and queries that might help generate some content ideas if I'm looking to report on more time-sensitive topics.
Essential Concept: On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization is where I spend most of my time. That's because it's where the content and information that people are looking for lives. Technical SEO is great, but if your content isn't good or helpful...who cares?
Technical On-Page Components
Title Tags + Meta Details
Title Tags and Meta Details used to be a founding part of SEO ranking. However, these days, they don't really factor into what promotes a top result, although including your primary keyword in them is still a good idea. However, they're still essential for the user experience (UX) to build trust and credibility. So...what are they?
- Title Tag: The title of the page for Search Engines - this is what shows up when you see a search engine result page, or when you hover over the tab of a browser
- Meta description: This is what shows up underneath the title tag. This is more of a "pitch" for a page or a post now.
URL Structure
Image Optimization
On-Page Quality
Headers + Keywords
Semantic Language
Consider the User
Here is an outline for a blog about SEO for beginners with h2 and h3 headers:
I. Introduction to SEO
- Definition of SEO
- Importance of SEO for businesses and individuals
II. Keyword Research
- What are keywords and why are they important for SEO?
- How to do keyword research using tools like the Google Keyword Planner
III. On-page Optimization
- Title tags and meta descriptions
- Headings (h1, h2, h3 tags)
- URL structure and permalinks
- Image optimization (alt tags)
IV. Off-page Optimization
- Link building and backlinks
- Social media and SEO
V. Tips for Improving SEO
- Create high-quality, useful content
- Use internal linking
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly
- Use header tags effectively
VI. Conclusion
- Recap of the importance of SEO
- Encourage readers to start implementing SEO techniques on their own websites
What is SEO For Beginners - Essential SEO Tools
The tools you use in SEO can range from free to a full year's salary for some people, so there is hot debate on how to get started for SEO beginners. Below are some of the essential tools you'll need divided by categories.
Crawler
Crawlers do just that - they crawl websites to return status codes,
Questions?
You can always contact Smart SEO Beginner with your comments, questions, and concerns. Don't forget to see other blogs for other topics and tutorials!