Marketing

Beginners Guide to SEO

Beginners Guide to SEO

Search engine optimisation is a complex topic with many different aspects. Getting your head around it and implementing a good strategy for your business can seem daunting. One of the reasons SEO is difficult to understand and execute is because Google and other search engines continually update the algorithm they use to index your website. Google’s algorithm looks at wide range of factors like keyword distribution, meta descriptions, domain authority, backlinks, internal link structure and anchor text. With such an array of different elements, it can be hard to know where to start. To offer some clarity in this fast-moving digital space and to help you increase your lead generation, we’ve put together some tips and advice for beginners starting out in the world of SEO.

Check out the Competition 

The first port of call for most SEO campaigns is competitor analysis. Knowing what you are up against is vital in considering how you can do better. A good place to start is to imagine you are a customer within your industry. Consider how you would begin your search. Most people turn to Google to find products or services. Try searching for keywords which best describe your products or services and take note of which companies show up on the first page. Now that you’ve ascertained who the competition is, you can dive into what they are doing to well and where you could improve. By entering your competitors domain into a free tool available at Neil Patel’s website you can analyse what techniques they are implementing to appear on the first page of Google. Take note of what they are doing and try applying the same methods to your business.

Get to grips with Google’s Free Tools

Google provides many free tools for keeping on top of your online performance. Google Search Console is a free platform which allows you to view key data regarding your website’s metrics. Having this data is key before starting any SEO campaign so that you can measure the effectiveness of your output. Google Search Console shows things such as search terms which people use to find your site, most popular pages, most popular devices etc. It also allows you to request indexing of specific pages on your site – useful for when you’ve made changes and want Google to refresh its indexing. Another tool is an essential part of SEO in Google Analytics. This tool gives you a much deeper look into your website performance and allows you to track conversions and goals. For example, you can see what percentage of visitors convert into customers, fill out contact forms, download brochures, etc. This enables you to see what is and what isn’t working on your site.

Optimise your Website

Perhaps the most important factor is to optimise your website. Having great content isn’t enough, you need to make sure Google can understand what your website is about. To do this, you need to include things such as metadata to the images you use on your website. Metadata should reflect the topic of your page and include keywords you want to rank for which are relevant to your business. Furthermore, your page title tags should be optimised for conversions and reflect the content of the page. Title tags are what shows up in the search engine results page’s (SERP’s) and show users what the page is about before they click on it. Another ranking factor worth considering is having your website optimised for desktop and mobile devices. With over 50% off web traffic now coming from mobile devices, having your content display correctly on mobile phones is critical to ensure you don’t lose out on potential business. Our advice is to leave this to a professional web design company to ensure your content always displays properly across all devices.

The important thing is not to get discouraged. Gaining traction in the world of SEO takes time and effort and there are no quick fixes. By employing these strategies you’ll be on your way to SEO success.       

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