11 Essential SEO Tips for Beginners

Over 50% of all website traffic begins with an organic search using a search engine like Google. With search engine optimization (SEO), your website can appear as consumers look for your products and services.

You can even appear for local searches. Since as many as 46% of all Google searches are location-based, you can start attracting nearby customers to your store.

Not sure how to use SEO? Here are the 11 SEO tips for beginners you need to succeed online. With these tips, you can boost your rankings to ensure potential customers find your business first.

Start applying these SEO tips and tricks today!

SEO Tips for Beginners

1. Establish Goals

Before you begin creating content or applying these SEO ideas, take a moment to outline your goals. For example, you might want to:

• Rank for specific keywords
• Generate brand awareness
• Attract website traffic
• Increase leads and sales
• Generate foot traffic to your store
• Improve your ROI
• Generate customer reviews
• Establish yourself as a thought leader

Outlining your goals can help you determine which SEO ideas and tactics to use. For example, let’s say you want to boost your brand’s credibility. Gaining credibility can encourage customers to trust your business.

If consumers trust your brand, they might decide to buy your products or services, leading to more sales. You can accomplish this goal by creating thought leadership content. As people become aware of your experience and expertise, you’ll have an easier time standing apart from competitors, too.

Let’s say you want to generate more website traffic. Consider your content promotion strategy as part of your SEO strategy. Sharing your content on the right platforms can help you generate more traffic from various sources.

Once you establish your goals, you can develop a more effective SEO marketing strategy.

2. Research Your Audience

Google prioritizes website content that best aligns with the user’s search intent. Search intent indicates what a consumer expects to find during an online search. Usually, search intent is:

• Commercial
• Navigational
• Transactional
• Informational

People have an informational search intent if they want to learn more about a specific topic or have a question. Navigational intent means someone wants to visit a specific website. Transactional intent means consumers want to make a purchase and are looking for a specific product.

Commercial search intent, on the other hand, means the consumer wants to make a purchase in the future. These consumers are usually using the internet to gather research before making a buying decision.

Learning more about your customers can help you predetermine their search intent. Then, you can create content based on the consumer’s needs.

3. Organize Topics and Keyword Research

Consider what topics you want to cover within your content. For example, a digital marketing agency might create posts about:

• Brand development
• Website design and development
• Content creation
• SEO
• Pay-per-click advertising
• Social media marketing

Once you have a list of topics you want to cover, gather a list of keywords for each topic. Choose long-tail keywords to better understand the user’s search intent.

4. Update Your Website

Before applying the rest of these SEO tips and tricks, update your website.

Google looks for websites that are fast, mobile-optimized, secure, and user-friendly. Run your site through Google’s PageSpeed Insights, Mobile-Friendly Test, and Core Web Vitals.

If your site is old or slow, people might leave, causing your bounce rate to increase. A high bounce rate indicates you’re providing a bad user experience. Google might decide to drop your organic rankings, making it more difficult for people to find you online.

5. Create Compelling Content

Use your keyword research to create helpful, compelling content for your blog. Then, add the keyword to the post:

• URL and page title
• Opening and closing paragraphs
• An H1 header
• Body text
• Image file name and alt text
• SEO meta description and title

The SEO meta description and title will appear on Google’s search engine result pages (SERPs). Make sure they’re compelling and relevant to the user’s search intent to generate more clicks.

Need help creating your content? Consider visiting www.iWriter.com for help.

6. Add EAT

EAT stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Adding EAT to your content can help you establish your credibility. It can also ensure you’re prioritizing quality over quantity.

7. Build Links

Enhance your blog content by adding internal and external links to each post.

Internal links will send readers to other pages on your site. For example, you can direct readers to a contact form or product page.

External links send readers to other websites. Reference studies, data, or other blogs to support any claims you make within your content.

You’ll also need to generate backlinks. Backlinks appear on other websites. Readers can discover your website by finding a backlink to your content on another site.

Generating backlinks can boost your domain authority, leading to higher rankings.

8. Share Your Posts

Don’t forget to share your content online. First, add a newsletter subscription form to your website. Email your subscribers as you create new posts to attract them back to your site.

Share your content on social media, too. Though social media sharing isn’t a direct ranking factor, it can help you generate traffic. Attracting more readers to your content can help boost your rankings.

9. Get Local

Don’t forget to update your Google Business profile. This profile displays your website, phone number, street address, and customer reviews. Local consumers can find your business from SERP pages before visiting your store or website.

Ask your customers to post reviews on your profile to boost your credibility, too.

10. Apply the Latest Trends

Keep track of any changes to Google’s search engine algorithm before they affect your rankings. For example:

• Featured snippets
• Voice searches
• Video content
• EAT
• Core Web Vitals
• Long-form content
• Schema markup

Keeping track of these trends can help you rank ahead of competing websites.

11. Track Your Analytics

Once you start applying these SEO tips, make sure to track your website analytics. Determine which posts are generating the most traffic. Consider where you’re generating traffic from, too.

Tracking your data can help you make changes to your SEO strategy over time.

Rank Up: Apply These 11 SEO Tips for Beginners Today

Don’t let your search engine rankings drop. Instead, consider applying these SEO tips for beginners. Using these SEO tips and tricks can help you rank ahead of the competition without hassle.

Then, you can generate more website traffic, leads, and sales for lasting success and growth!

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